A lot of people kiss their pets or non-human animals in general. I find that very weird. I understand that it is a sign of affection but it seems so off. One reason is that I doubt whether animals really understand this. Also it seems to be on a level of intimacy to me that I find weird sharing with a pet. Not necessarily romantically or sexually (that would be even more weird and wrong and probably illegal). But it is still “more”. I am not sure whether I can really explain why exactly I find that weird.
Anyway, what is something that is weird to you but not to most other people?
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My personal goal is to give my dog 1 million kisses in his lifetime because I know he’ll only be around for 10-15 years. It sounds like you’ve never had a pet or an animal rely on you and I’m sorry for that/I find that weird 🤷🏽♀️
I lost my girl at 8. Didn’t quite get there. :-(
- sports
- religion
sports
And when you tell them how watching (typically) men get sweaty, musky, dirty and aggressive, chasing a ball (or rubbing their half-naked bodies together with one another), how that has some ‘similarities’ to gay porn, how they get really defensive and insecure.
‘N-no, you got it all wrong, I’m not gay! I just like watching athletic men get rough with one another, all pent up, sweaty, needy… I mean uh… Oh yeah, sports! It’s so un-gay, it’s like, looping around itself, with ungayness!’
‘So it’s like canceling the un part out?’
‘Exactly! Wait a minute…’
Don’t like sports but have never been a fan of this take. It feels indirectly homophobic (in that you’re saying something that you know is not sexual in nature is gay because you know the other person will view it as a negative or bad thing) and would probably not be taken as much of a joke if it were, say, a gay man watching women’s volleyball and their straight friends harassing him about actually being straight.
Just my two cents, I’m sure it’s fine in the right circles.
I mean, I guess I can see that, but uh… leans over, whispering being forced on a field during phys ed with a bunch of other teenage guys who’s hormones are also raging can, shall we say, awaken things.
So it’s not a ‘haha, gay’ but a ‘😏 gay’ nudge at others, who are themselves usually - in my experience - either at the end of the spectrum: neutral to the thought, or deeply in denial.
The games make no sense to me - what’s the point, ya know? But if I know that I feel a certain way about a guy’s bulge or body, I know I’m 110% not the only one. Voicing the truth can be amusing :3
Team sports is an expression of latent tribalism in many of us. Might be why you don’t see it.
And most fans of a sport have played it in their youth, so there’s unexpressed longing for lost youth.
It starts as something socialized with your male role models, spreads to your peers at school — and eventually is just another ritual that you can find comfort in via its seasonal predictability — there’s always another game to be played.
Grid iron football is indeed rather homoerotic, but … let’s say ice hockey?
Those ice hockey girlies in the pwhl be kissing on each other and getting married there’s no way you can convince me it isn’t homoerotic.
But that’s all off ice gaysex
For me it’s the utter pointless of it. Can this collection of humans push the ball past the other collection of humans? About as relevant as which mouse gets a bit of cheese. Why would I watch or care about the outcome, much less less the second-by-second details of how it came to be?
Wow, that guy throws a ball really really well. Huh, whaddyaknow.
But my collection of humans hails from a point geographically closer to me than the other collection of humans!
Bro doesn’t know what fun is
I think that’s one of my favorite aspects. As I’ve gotten older, it’s hard to find low-stakes social encounters to hang out with my friends. The local women’s soccer team is doing well in the champions league is a good excuse to head out to sit in the summer sun on a wednesday night by the sound.
To be fair, the same could be said of all games.
- Which human happens to receive the best collection of dice rolls?
- Which human happens to benefit the most from the shuffled arrangement of cards?
- Which human can move their pieces better than their opponent(s)?
- Which human(s) can push buttons better than the competing human(s)?
I hope you’ve had fun playing a game before, and if so, can at least imagine that it would be interesting to watch top level players of that game accomplish what you couldn’t.
The biggest difference I see with sports is the level of obsession over the game and the assumption that every masculine presenting person shares that obsession.
I really enjoy watching men’s sports with straight men for exactly this reason. We’ll sit around and they’ll talk about how such and such a man spent so much time in the weight room, and he’s been putting on muscle, and he’s low to the ground and explosive, and it’s like, dude you are clearly talking about how bro is caked up from doing squats all offseason, how do you not realize how extremely homoerotic this whole discussion is? I find it cute how flummoxed they get about it when you say something about how the player’s looking cute in those shorts or whatever, but it’s also fun to head down to the women’s sports bars and see the lesbians get all flustered about the women’s sports teams. It’s very different because the women’s sports fans are generally much more willing to be open and honest about how such and such player is so cute or hot or however, and it’s less… lecherous? objectifying? than the men’s fans. It’s a pretty stark cultural difference that enjoy seeing in different fandoms.
- sports
Partly agreed. I find competitive sports and its fanbase very strange. However, doing sports for the sake of doing sports or for the sake of keeping some physical or mental health feels more natural to me.
Sports are fine for like kids’ recreation, but the trillions that are spent on the pro sports industry could go to something better.
MMA/ufc the SHOWS fans, turns out the audience can be as conservatives as the fighters, owners themselves, not surprising its all about psychopaths trying to hurt each other.
Convince me those aren’t the same thing.
How often I tell people I’m not religious I’m a sports fan. They fill the same niche. People like tradition. People like ceremony. People like community. Some people like being able to you know sit in front of a pedophile and have him preach them for a while. I prefer to sit in front of a person hardlining multiple drugs and watch him put a ball through a hoop. Different Strokes for different folks.
I prefer to sit in front of a person hardlining multiple drugs and watch him put a ball through a hoop.
Ooh, kinky!
I have relatives who unironically refer to the Dallas Cowboys as “God’s Football Team”
:vomit:
Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Dunkin, etc.
Like, why? Life is too short.
See also: Anheuser-Busch products
Sometimes a bad coffee is still coffee enough.
Cause I can’t make myself a cup of coffee when I’m away from home. Sometimes I just need to stop somewhere and buy a cup. Although there are better choices than those places.
Enjoying work.
Me and a few my co-workers have discovered the secret to this it’s called drink not a lot sometimes even just like the neck of a beer while on break is amazing
😂 Drugs are often a solution. yes. I should start smoking weed again.
This has always been me. People keep telling me I like my job no matter how many times I tell them I can’t stand the job, I just like the paycheck. If I could do less work for the same or better pay I’d take it, but I didn’t win the birth lottery.
Other than making some sort of vegan statement, what I find really weird is when people start talking to you in the grocery line.
Like, how are you happy to be there? I just want to get in, get my stuff, and get out. Socializing is super awkward at the best of times, so inviting it in that setting just feels weird to me. I have a buddy who always strikes up conversation with strangers, it’s awkward shopping with him.
“Other than making some sort of vegan statement” is such an oddball exception.
I don’t mind the casual conversation. But do mind proselytizing.
I wear big, obvious headphones most of the time I’m anywhere in public. This usually helps to prevent people talking to me. Less of a problem here in Japan in general, though, which I like.
I keep meaning to ask you when I see you on here: do you have a go to vegan pancake recipe?
It’s honestly been a while since I’ve made pancakes, truth be told, but I recall this recipe being good:
Looks fun! I’ll have to give them a shot!
Thanks for clearing the LZ, friend. Vegan statement incoming.
I do legitimately feel that eating the products of what is often by definition sexual abuse to be really fuckin weird, especially when one could just eat something that isn’t.
I find really weird is when people start talking to you
This. Why the fuck are you (random stranger in line/mall/gas pump/whatever) making small talk with me? What do you want? Oh I get it you’re one of those people for whom constant meaningless chatter is soothing. It turns your brain off.
It is the opposite to me. Please. Shut up.
Making a small talk is the only thing that changes someone from a complete stranger to a someone you know. Then they can tbecome a friend or even a best friend.
Most of us got our friends mostly at random. In middle school it was the one guy who randomly sit with me, same in college.
I think we are fine with total strangers becomming our friends, because most of the people are kind of really cool.
I understand that is not relaxing for you, but maybe to you understand a bit better: this kind of micro relationship is the basis for establishing the empathy needed for helping strangers in need.
Maybe no one needs anything anymore, but rewind to a less reliable world, and after a friendly chat on the road, then you see their wagon broken down on the road, you’re more likely to take a risk to help them out — you’ve established a base line of communication and empathy.
I don’t think they find it soothing, i think they’ve practiced it enough is not taxing, and they’re just keeping alive an old habit — even if true they’re not fully aware why.
By practice I got to the point small talk with strangers does not feel strange. And by doing this I noticed that I help strangers way more often.
Last time I noticed a man carrying his heavy kiting equipment. He was really struggling. I had some time so I helped hin carrying to the other end of the city.
Old me would never do that. I noticed I am also way better wigh kids. They like me and I am the best uncle.
Originally my personality is being a introverted geek whose enegry is drained by the people. But I wanted to change that. It worked wonderfully. It shows how much in a control of your life you can be.
Maybe no one needs anything anymore,
I’m guilty of dreading small talk myself, but no, this isn’t the case. Damn near everyone would be better off with more micro-relationships, more empathy, and more community support these days.
Problem is you never know if you’re going to have a nice chat about the weather, or get to listen to gramp’s reinterpretation of a talk radio political screed aimed at yourself or someone you love. And since so many things try to divert a large fraction of our attention to rage baiting political blurbs with no actual content, celebrity gossip, and outright propaganda, it’s not unreasonable to be wary of the possibility of getting from a source you can’t easily filter, turn off, or click away from.
People, especially those who are more introverted, seem exhausted by it all even while still responding to it. The psychological hooks are set pretty deep.
I’m enough of a conspiratorial thinker to believe this is by design. An attempt to move us away from empathy and community and teach us to rely on corporations and products for the kind of support you’re describing. Don’t wait for a kind stranger to help you change that wagon wheel, get a trail-side assistance package at the trading post before you set out…
You’re right. Someone’s benefiting from pissing in the common well. And it’s easier to put the piss in than take it out.
I’m just explaining the origins of this behavior — and why it might be worth it — even in the age of outrage.
I think we’d all benefit from the practice needed to make it easy to say “i appreciate your point of view, but i don’t talk politics with strangers. Hope you have a great day.”
Exactly, and i didn’t mean to hijack your comment. It’s just that it’s something that bugs the hell out of me, but that I completely understand at the same time.
I’ve started heading it off with stuff like, “I don’t watch the news, that’s how they send out the subliminal messages.” You have to be careful with those though, you could start a micro-relationship that goes on far longer than you want it to.
I’m not quite sure what else to say here, except regarding your question about animal kisses.
Our dog Brownie likes to try to get close and lick you in the face, but I always hold back just a few inches from his attempted licks. Yet at the same time, I’ll ‘air lick’ him back, as an appreciation of his loving gesture.
He neither licks me, nor do I lick him, but he gets lots of love and pets!
So you and your dog are just…wagging your tongues at each other???
OP, you care to chime in on this?
LOL, yeah I do show Brownie a bit of loving appreciation for his attempt at showing us love. But we don’t allow him to lick our face, but it’s okay if he briefly licks our hand, that’s his signal that he needs to go for a walk and take a piss or shit.
He’s a really good dog though, he’s almost like a non-verbal autistic child. He knows how to communicate, and we understand him.
I’m truly sorry for this opinion, but that is more psychotic than actually licking your dog all over their face. I’m calling the authorities. All of them…
Regarding my cat: ahem
If not for kisses, why made of soft??
For cuddles of course.
I would also not do this for a human, I think. Humans are too corrupt at heart, they have to make every sign of affection mean something other than it is.
While animals don’t have jobs, or dumb fears. They just want a cuddle.
What the fuck
I too used to think that kissing a cat on it’s head was weird. Then I got a cat.
I will smother my cat in kisses specifically to get the “GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME” reaction.
Gossiping, and the inevitable culture of “what will people say?” that comes along with it. I don’t really talk about other people when they’re not there. And it’s really weird when someone introduces you to a new person and they’re like “I’ve head so much about you”. It almost sounds threatening.
Dancing. Especially freestyle solo dancing like at a club or whatever.
From an objective perspective, it’s very odd.
I get that a lot of people enjoy it, and there are some very skilled couples dances which I get more, but the sort of thing you get at a club or concert is just - strange to me.
I agree that dogs and cats likely can’t understatd what a kiss is; however, there is still affection being communicated just by the closeness. I think they see it as clumsy nuzzling.
I can’t think of anything I find weird. People do things that people do.
Many animals groom each other with their mouths for social reasons. I guarantee dogs and cats know exactly what they’re doing when they lick you. And they understand exactly what you’re doing in return.
I don’t kiss my dog, but I definitely put my face close to theirs. I don’t recommend putting mammal fur in your actual mouth, but they know that that means.
Dogs kiss other dogs and people as a sign of affection. They know exactly what it is.
I think they assume we humans are just really shit at grooming. Like they are thinking “this giant hairless ape is terrible at grooming! Stop pecking like a damn bird and give a big ol’ lick! No wonder they frequently have to stand under water to clean themselves. Poor dumb weirdo species”.
But yes, they are still affectionate towards us. Pets licking is a sign of affection and bonding. I’m pretty sure I’m many cases there’s a good degree of ‘pity affection’ though.
cuddling with my dog right now as I read this. I just gave him a bunch of kisses on his face, and now he’s cuddled up to me even more. He knows what’s up. The oxytocin flows.
I always find it weird when people treat their pets like babies…for their whole lives. I’m like “this is an adult animal…why are you treating it like a baby?”
I totally get this… but at the same time, even a dog with whiskers gone all white is a baby to me and always will be
To the extent that a pet is dependent on their human, it makes sense. Domesticated animals need someone to look out for them, much as a baby does. In this light, seeing a pet as one’s “baby” doesn’t seem too bizarre.
Good point! Domesticated animals also tend towards neotany - we literally genetically select for them to be baby.
It’s just a circuit in our brain that is rewarding to exercise. Same reason non human mammals have been known to “adopt” animals outside their species.
As an introvert, most things that extroverts do are strange. I want nothing more than to go home during the course of a normal work day. Extroverts love to go back out and socialize more. No thanks.
I used to do that on a daily basis. I can’t even imagine anymore.
