I feel like Americans handle heritage in a really weird way, as if it was the main (sometimes, sole) component of identity. In a way that I don't see people in other places doing - not even places with heavy immigration, such as here in the Southern Cone.
Often putting those people into boxes. And expecting them to behave as someone who belongs to that box.
For many, any thinking is overthinking; because they believe that acting and thinking are mutually exclusive. And this happens to be the sort of people who typically says stuff like I listed.
And they keep doing dumb shit over and over and over and over. Harming the ones around them - not due to malice, but due to mental laziness.
Most decisions might not be permanent, but you won't know which ones without thinking.
We're talking about children and teens. A 6yo eating bullshit is natural; a 13yo doing it should not. Please don't be disingenuous, stop oversimplifying = distorting things.
it’s basically adding up to an entire multi years school course what you’re proposing
Full stop here. That is not even remotely close to what I said, stop lying.
I don't think that kids should be banned from social media. Instead they should be taught how to handle it in an individually and socially healthy way. Namely:
how to spot misinformation
how to spot manipulation
how to protect yourself online
how to engage constructively with other people
etc.
This could be taught by parents, school, or even their own peers. But I think that all three should play a role.
Acting is essential. However, acting is not mutually exclusive with thinking; in fact if someone acts without thinking they're likely only causing themself and the others harm.
And this sort of advice is rarely about "think then act", it's always "don't think, only act".
Pets? One of my cats found a nice solution for that: recruit some dumb human as her heating pillow. (The "dumb human" is me, by the way.) And when I'm not on the bed she sleeps inside a blanket folded in the shape of a pocket.
...although winter here rarely goes below 0°C, subtropical region and all that shit. If I was a bit souther I'd probably have some heaters in the bedrooms, and that's it - there's no reason to heat the whole house.
Once in a dream I murdered an old man. He was trying to stop our tomato fight inside the library. Then my buddies and I buried him in the garden, to resurrect an ancient god. And in the place where we buried him, a huge palm was born - but instead of leaves, it had the old man's face sculpted in wood.
Reading it I was thinking, "bad people can exploit it". But then you addressed it near the end in a really great way, highlighting that compassion is not naivete.
It's interesting that if you apply this in general, not just to what people say online, you end with something really similar to presumption of innocence: "don't blame people unless proved that they should be blamed".
The association between meaning and word is arbitrary, but socially dictated. You'd need to have other people accepting that that word conveys that meaning in at least some context.
![Lvxferre [he/him]](https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/333d03a0-bcae-434b-a8d1-7dfd18962d20.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=128)
Who wants to live forever anyway? :-P
That's a fun game by the way!