[...]considering that the pattern seems to be that the me-tooers jump onto the bandwagon and turn the original idea into shit. Speaking in generalities.
Everything dies and decays after a time. Accept it and keep going. Life is nothing but death and pain in disguise: embrace it warmly or suffer.
I think you're blinded by optimism.
That's if you look at everything through a lens of optimism/pessimism. I look at things purely from a do-or-die perspective, and the "die" part is too obvious and useless to write about.
Anything governed by the masses is cancer. You try to control or manipulate them, and either they'll stupidly turn it around and bring any good idea into the shitter, or some smart-but-parasitic asshole will repackage "it" to the masses and have that become the de-facto standard.
Don't try to control or manipulate them directly because it's not exactly worth your time without some kind of organized basis, or ability to actually see who has worth.
If you haven't noticed the intelligent people around you in your life, it's because you've blinded and closed yourself to them. If everyone is your enemy, then nobody can be your ally. Not even of your own doing.
The cool thing about cancer is that it kills itself off. Healthy free agents do their best to avoid it so that it dies without much collateral damage.
It's much harder to find good people than what you say: every time I've given people quarter I've been bitten. I'm much more ruthless now.
There's acceptable people, then there's good people, then there's great people. Treat them with your time and resources accordingly.
People who can't trust others are just unable to read them -- distrust is the result of being exploited or harmed regularly. People who are more trusting of others tend to have a better ability to read the liars and deceivers. If you aren't an aspie, this can come easily with a little more social experience and observation.
Find others who already resonate with the ideas and values you uphold and make good friends with them. There is strength in numbers. Meet people in college classes, clubs, and so forth.
Much harder than what you realize, and the "college classes" advice was poor, at least, for me it was before I dropped out (lol). I think with college classes you'll find more dumbfucks who think they're smarter than they are and actively abuse their inflated sense of self upon others.
Those are the ones who open their mouths and call attention to themselves to appear important -- I won't disagree with you there. Look for the wallflowers. You're going to look for the people who seem like they're going somewhere or doing something.
It's probably a better idea for you to be alone though if you're willing to give up searching so easily.
Hell, when someone on a metal forum advises others not to hang around metalhead idiots, it says a lot about the current situation.
The general consensus around here is that most metal sucks, like most people suck. Avoid it: tolerate it like you would a fly, but swat it if it comes too close to you or your lunch.
We live in a time where everyone believes in the back of their head that they're equal to everyone else. Underground death and black metal weren't huge phenomena, but once someone lumped it all into a category called "extreme music", you have any number of pedestrians and proles blowing through to bolster their appearance with a "fearful" image.
HEY MOM I AM BLASTING ENSIFERUM, I BET YOU THINK IM GOING THROUGH A PHASE OR SOMETHING.
Anyway, most of the people in your local "metal scene" can consist of any of the following:
- ARE YOU TALKIN TO ME?/brocore faggots. May be fat due to alcoholism. May be BUFF due to low self esteem and low testosterone.
- Dumb nerds who like that "symphonic black metal" and "goth metal" bullshit. They're probably fat or weeaboo.
- Throwback thrasher faggots who listen to nothing but Exodus and Anthrax and nu-thrash like Toxic Holocaust all the fucking time. Also probably fat.
- "Crust punks" - Hipsters who wear black, patched up clothes and listen to Amebix and WITTR among various underground bands. Emaciated due to vegan diet.
The bottom line is that all of the above are retards and probably just barely got out of high school. The only difference between them is what they're wearing and listening to. They'll probably move out of the "metal phase" after a couple years or until their parents get tired of their shit.
Older metalheads (age 30+) who don't exactly look like metalheads and have a pretty established "normal" life are pretty interesting and fun to meet and talk to though. Go see one of the older underground bands (like MASTER) next time they tour near you and just open up a conversation with someone.