You Are What You Eat?

The Problem with Identifying With Other People

Identifying With Others

People identify with things too much today. A couple of days ago Louis Rossman was complaining about this shift in his video about Lenevo. In the past people would say what they liked about a brand and what they didn’t, but they wouldn’t identify with a brand. So if someone talked smack about the brand, they would say if they agreed with the criticisms. Nowadays, people identify as the brand, and when they hear something critical, they get defensive as if they were being attacked personally.

The same shift happened in politics. You used to be able to say you liked some of what a politician did or said and still not like them personally. But, now people identify with the politician, and if you say something bad about that official, the people get defensive (viewing the politician as a victim of your criticism) and/or see you as a persecutor attacking them for their beliefs.

You Are What You Eat?

Well, the same thing happens with food preferences today. You’ve got the fasters and the vegetarians, and the vegans, and the ketos, and the carnivores, and the fruitarians. They’re all doing what they feel is right for them and they’re convinced it’s right for everyone else too. Now, the question is, are they attempting to force it onto others?

They all see improvements in their body. They want to share that with the world because they view the people of the world as “victims” who need to hear this special knowledge of theirs. They view the government as “persecutors” who have given us all horrible guidelines to follow that ruin our lives.

Who’s Responsible?

Whose responsibility is it to make sure you’re eating healthy? Whose responsibility is it to check if the government is lying to you or not? Is the government some persecutor?

I have mixed feelings on this. I think so long as the government is not keeping us from what we need to be healthy, it’s off the hook. If we can choose to eat (or not eat) whatever we want to stay healthy, then that’s fine.

However, I disagree with the government stepping in and saying certain foods are illegal, like outlawing raw milk, or radiating nuts so they’re no longer raw. And, so long as their guidelines are just on their website, that’s fine. But I don’t particularly appreciate seeing it being taught as fact to children when the guidelines are debatable. Although we can still homeschool for now.

You Believe Your Beliefs Are Facts

Running Into Issues With Identification

The reason I started writing this is because I ran into an issue when I said something on Notes about Slaughterhouses. But to understand my Note and the responses, you have to see what I was quoting.

“Rachel Mcnaire studied Vietnam Vets and coined the term PITS - Perpetration-Induced Traumatic Stress, which according to Mcnair as ‘involving any portion of the symptomology of PTSD at clinical or subclinical levels that would be traumatic if someone where the victim but situations for which the person in question was a causal participant.’” @alicia

I simply wrote on Notes, “I wonder about the people who work in slaughter houses…” which was quite tame compared to what I wrote a few days earlier.

I would call what I wrote today a side comment, “food for thought,” and leave it at that. But someone decided to write a large comment and go on and on about how I was incorrect. And, she informed me that, yes, she was an expert.

Well, I don’t put much stock in experts these days, so the appeal to authority fallacy doesn’t work with me. I definitely don’t put much stock in ones who are triggered by my tame comment on a quote or try to conflate slaughterhouses with butchers. But the time and energy she put into her comments made me think about it because her feelings were very strong. (You can often tell how strongly someone feels by the length of their comment alone).

So I wrote the following note about how people who feel the need to school you in a topic often see themselves as a “Savior.” They can view you as being a victim of misinformation so they want to swoop in and save the day by explaining to you how you’re wrong.

They’re getting some sort of emotional need met by looking like they’ve helped to save someone. And in part that someone could be me, but I realized something later on. I think that sometimes people identify as meat-eaters (or carnivores) and feel the need to protect the slaughterhouse workers’ reputations.

Please note that I don’t care if you eat meat. I’m not trying to prove it’s incorrect (morally or physically). I do NOT care. But people think I do when I say things like this. They project onto me this vision of someone trying to stop them from eating meat. Now maybe they were hurt by some vegan in the past, have a guilty conscience, or something. I don’t know. But that is not how I am. It’s not like I didn’t spend most of my life eating meat and most of my family still does.

If I imply perhaps a slaughterhouse worker could become desensitized to pain and hurt people more readily than someone who doesn’t work in that industry, and then someone identifies with the slaughterhouse worker, then they could take what I wrote as an attack on them personally.

Because of the identification they try to “save” the person (or product or politician) from perceived attacks. Identifiers get into comment wars to try to protect the honor of whoever or whatever they’re identified with.

Look Into Your Own Life With Others

I hope you can extrapolate this onto everything that people in your life identify with. You can see that they get emotionally triggered. Can you tell when they’re getting defensive? Can you see what they’re trying to defend?

If you can see what they’re trying to defend, you may have found a topic they identify as. I hope showing this with an example can help you to see where it happens in your own life. I wrote this because in the past I have spent way too much time and energy debating with people when there was no need to. Your time and energy can be spent outside of the drama triangle doing things that are far more important for your life and enjoyment.

If they’re getting emotionally triggered and writing large comments because they care so very much, it’s a sign that there is something inside of them that needs healing. You don’t have to be the one to listen to it. You’re always free to block, mute, or ignore.