As with anything in life -- context matters.
@radiatawellness Life is bigger than you, and you are not me.
Labels are fine, but the people those labels are attached to… ugh.
Food labels are pretty important . I was pretty darn close to eating some expired turkey last night
Confused..every one has a unique set of core values and beliefs identified from indepth self examination and life experience. I may have misunderstood your point UT if you are saying individualism is dead a d we can neatly under labels...I strongly disagree and would love to hear argumen....repectfully
That probably makes you an “alethist” (someone who rejects categorization). 🙂
I love irony.
Food labels are pretty important
👍👍👍👍
@pmvines Yes they are! 😁
I mean for a coffee drinker like yourself, wouldn't it bother you if you mistakenly poured SALT 🧂 in your coffee ☕ instead of SUGAR...???😲
Unless you prefer drinking it black or something? 😜🤷
Lol! I prefer never drinking coffee. 😆
@IronLemon I read too many books about quantum physics in 2023 and now I can't believe in the self anymore
But to me, saying you don't like labels is rejecting language itself. That's what language is, defining people and concepts and "wording the world" which is an awesome concept from "Hospicing Modernity" my favorite end of the world as we know it book
Quantum physics - the dreams that stuff is made of.
I dont reject labels.what I do is the beleif that people can be assigned a label and automatically the negative attributes associated with the label........you don.t truly know a person until you really take the time to get to know them .lately in society it seems we skip that step because it's hard and takes too much time...its much easier just to dump people under labrls........that too me is going to create a very shallow and hateful society if it continues
Label does not equal judgment. In fact a label can be very empowering, and provide a sense of safety and identity and community and belonging.
@radiatawellness You nailed it. Labels are language incarnate. I find it very tough to be a human without accepting the label human.
While some labels are obviously designed and created to diminish or hate a group of people, assigned labels are usually neither good nor bad. I could call someone a beautiful person and I am thinking of them in terms of how they treat others; the person next to me could be thinking in terms of looks—yeah she is hot, while the third person thinks in terms of looks and says she may be hot but she is probably stuck up. The label itself is not the issue, it is the people ascribing their perceptions to it. No one can control what someone else thinks of the label.
We already have a shallow society and have had for ages. And it certainly won't change online, because you never really know anyone here. You see only what they choose to show you.
@dennis22554
Can you give an example of a label that you feel opens one up to wrongful judgment or stereotype? There have been thoughtful posts in this thread about why sometimes labels are not a bad thing. I hear you when you say that to you, label equals negative. You are just being a bit vague and generalized. It seems a little like you take requests for clarity, or rebuttals as criticism or negativity. It would be helpful to those reading and participating in your threads if you would provide some explanation or respectful discourse. When you start a thread you can't expect there to not be intentional interactions regarding the topic. Just reasserting your initial post doesn't really add anything to it. I do realize that, as you have stated in your previous threads so this isn't me telling your unwanted business, that your medical condition does limit some forms of communication, but your intelligence and your t is in tact.
I switched all the labels on my wife's spices. I am not in trouble but the thymes a cumin.
I like it when people festoon themselves with labels, like strange little socio-economic walking billboards.
I also believe people when they show me what they are.
Some labels are simple (wearing a Beatles shirt tends to mean that you like their music), some are much more complex (a veteran sailor wearing the hat with their old ship on it) and some are more slogans than labels, though they function much the same.
But I believe them.
If you are wearing a tan button down, brown pants, black boots, and wearing or carrying the “Crossed Hammers” of Pink’s Worms, I believe you, and I will immediately Run (well, Limp) Like Hell.
Labels can be extremely useful, but generally it's important to remember that labels generally only tell you a single thing about a person (and people aren't nearly boring enough to be described by one thing). Now, that single thing can be either pretty general or pretty specific.
For example, take the labels "liberal" and "conservative". Those tend to be too broad to actually tell you much about the person. You don't know who they voted for (although if you had to place a bet, you'd go with the statistics), and you don't really know anything about how the person feels about any given topic. (Obviously, you can get way more specific with political labels, and those can tell you a lot more about a person, but I don't think the broad ones tell you much)
Also, consider the labels "christian" and "atheist". As very broad labels, they also don't tell you much about the person. And I'm sure that there are actually many people (although perhaps a low percentage) who actually choose to wear both of those labels simultaneously (Cultural christian but doesn't actually believe in a god). Surveys show that somewhere between 5-20% of atheists pray regularly, and a large number of "christians" do not participate in any religious activities.
Then, of course, there are the labels that people get just from the person they are and didn't really choose those labels (race, cultural heritage, sex, tall/short, hearing/deaf, blind/sighted, ADHD, Autistic, etc.). Those labels can be interesting but don't really tell you much about who a person is. They can give some hints about the things that shaped a person and their worldview, but don't actually define it. For example, as someone with ADHD, it can help describe some of the strengths/challenges I have, but it doesn't say much about how kind of a person I am or how good of an employee I'll be.
Finally, there are the specific labels we choose to wear (or festoon as @CharlesGrove put it). These can be very informative about a person, and are great ways to actually get to know someone (or determine that it isn't someone you want to know). As an example, some of my labels include: cook/baker, traveler, roller-coaster enthusiast, spa/sauna/massage lover, gamer, coder, theater goer, etc. These types of labels are where people start getting interesting (in both the good and bad sense of the word "interesting").
This makes me think of people on the discord server who search for the labels that exactly fit their gender and/or sexuality. Sometimes they end up with something like "genderfluid neptunic demiromantic asexual". Which not only helps other people understand them, it helps them understand themselves.
@IronLemon
Gonna be all the way real with you and say that I have no idea what that label means lol but as long as the shoe fits
I am being vauge for a reason.....no one has to agree with me......that goes toa mpoint...eveyone is unique........so I will risk using one silly example.......let's say I owned a cat......some people may label me label me as a cat person automatically assuming I'm an introvert when in fact I'm the opposite..my real life examples are much deeper
🙀
I'm 99% certain I know which self-selected label you're trying to say isn't as bad as it seems, and yes, it's against the rules to talk about that here. And I stand by everything I said before.
I am a total cat and dog dad
@pmvines You sound handy to have around when it's raining.
It's a silly example but it applies to real life......even In this thread assumptions are falsely being made...false assumptions cause nothing but trouble... once again...you dont have to agree..my comment post stated I was happy that false assumptions are left at the door during a cuddle session
By the way ..im a dedicated coon hound dad...I tolerate cats
Kind of feels like this topic is going nowhere fast.
Labels Matter
I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding of what @dennis22554 means in this thread. Giving yourself a label that you’re comfortable with is one thing. My interpretation is that he means labels applied to someone else who you really don’t know that well, inaccurate or different than what they feel about themselves. It’s pretty simple, happens all the time, sometimes unintentionally. Also, as we age we change, often dramatically. I definitely have. Labels someone might have applied to me when I was 20, 40 or even 65 wouldn’t apply now at all. Especially if the one labeling me didn’t know me that well to begin with. But the key for me is i don’t think it matters much, people only know what I choose to reveal - just as someone pointed out above. And also, if someone I know personally gives themselves a label, I think it’s awesome and I respect it as valuable information about them.