To Be and To Seem

Last night, there was a rather strange, unplanned walk during which I was approached.

It was claimed that I was a pretentious intellectual jerk who talks about this on every corner. It was surprising to hear that, because I simply do what interests me, interact with people rarely but meaningfully, and don’t bother anyone. But, overall, what does it matter what someone thinks when you didn’t ask for their opinion? Especially from women. ¹

In any case, I’m willing to play along to keep the conversation going. Out of respect for acquaintances, friends, and the person (whom I’m meeting for the first time and don’t really know yet), I refrain from any offensive, sexist, or misogynistic responses, which feel more like attacks than questions.

On the other hand, if I come across that way to someone, I don’t see anything wrong with it either. Thanks for the compliment or whatever it may be.

In a relatively exhausted state, I wasn’t exactly talkative, but I also couldn’t formulate meaningful, coherent responses. It all seemed and sounded less like an attempt to understand, and more like a desire to tear someone down due to my biased attitude, or something like that. But I want to believe that it’s simply because my battery ran out, and I didn’t put enough effort into understanding the person and their character. First impressions are often deceptive.

And I can only add at the end that it’s worth checking out pages like /disclaimer/.

Anyway, when writing a text, there’s time to think things through a bit, and it’s generally easier to structure thoughts than in an attempt to not forget something and recall it on the spot. The answers to the questions (2-in-1) are already ready, a third of which were written even before they were asked, but that will be in the next post.