Smallsteps is home with me as she still has a slight fever, but she is more interested in spending time alone drawing, instead of hanging out. That is fine, as it is good that she learns how to manage herself too, but it is a little bit sad also. Still though, we had an interesting conversation over lunch, where we were talking about the rotation of the moon and why we only see one side of it, the amount of salt in Finnish food and the impacts of not enough vitamins, the changes in our genetics based on environmental factors, and bullying in the school place.
Lately, Smallsteps has been interested in genetics and the effects it can have and was asking about if fat is a genetic thing, or lifestyle where there is not enough exercise and too much bad food. We talked about how it is both, but having genetic markers for it doesn't mean nothing can be done about it, as it is possible to control for many of the factors that would cause obesity. We also discussed how the condition of the parents at time of conception also affects the genetic makeup of the child, and how this might influence our evolution faster than we have evolved in the past.
Probably not for the better.
On the bullying subject, it was quite interesting because we were talking generally about teasing based on looks, but I had been reading an article in the morning about the "increase" in teasing for the LGBTQ+... community in the schools, with a protection group saying it has increased. But what they didn't mention is that bullying has increased similarly in schools across the board, so it doesn't really tell the story of what is happening. However, all kinds of identity-based discrimination is increasing, because (surprise surprise), when all the focus is put on identity comparison and polarisation, people discriminate more.
For a little while the trend was to "not see colour" and accept everyone, but that has been replaced by the elevation of race and gender identity as the highest of values. And now, because everyone is able to ascribe themselves a label belonging to any group, we are all in a minority, no matter what colour we are, where we are from, or who we are attracted to. If there are too many people in our identification group, all we need do is add a few more conditions.
We can add conditions until we are the only one left in the filter.
As you can probably tell by my tone, I am someone who is not a fan of people creating identity labels for themselves and then trying to force others to recognise them, because it just doesn't make sense. While so many think that they are the ones "who know themselves best" the fact is that we are more often than not, blind to ourselves, which means when we are labelling, we are not doing a very good job. Often, people are ascribing labels to themselves that are in direct opposition to their own behaviours.
How can you "be" something, and "do" something else?
I wonder if it would be useful for everyone to get perspective from friends and family at times, like in the interview question "What do you think your friends would say about you?". I think there should also be another one;
"What do you think your enemies would say about you?"
Can you imagine responses in regard to yourself? Do you think they are accurate and are you willing to ask your friends and family to verify? What about your enemies?
Do normal people have enemies?
Probably not. But everyone has people they don't like, and that means, everyone probably has people who don't like them too. My heuristic is the rule of thirds, where one third likes, one third dislikes, and one third doesn't care either way. Maybe we should spend some more time in areas where we are disliked on the internet, just to get a dose of reality.
Speaking of reality.
It is thankfully getting a little warmer outside, because the basement is now sitting at exactly the freezing point, which means that if it drops a bit lower, we might tip into the territory of pipe issues. I am in two minds about what to do if it does drop down there though, because I have a gas heater that I could use to keep the temperature up, but it also means having a gas heater burning in the basement, which I am not too keen on doing.
Come on spring.
Taraz
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