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?
Religion just in general.
Not being an edgelord or hating, I really just don’t get it, it makes no sense to me at all and never has. When I was a kid I thought it was just like a thing people did for whatever reason, I was a kid and I didn’t know fucking anything and my family didn’t do religion, once I realized people take it super seriously and think it’s all real it really weirded me out, I thought it was just some kind of fandom thing like how I was into Power Rangers.
Being interested in sports. Not weird in itself but weird that they find it interesting. I just dont get it.
Killing each other because their imaginary friends are not friends with each other. Looking at you, religion wars.
Religious wars are usually about power, not actually because they believe in different imaginary beings. Religion gets control of our population or the people in power youth religion to control the population and then they bump heads with another group doing the same thing… and you get war.
The power games are for the people at the top, the ones with money. For the rest of the sheep its [religion, racism, nationalism, patriotism, whatever bogeymen that can be made up]. Just like in the US today. There’s no shortage of complete fundy nutcases wishfully cheering trump’s war in the Middle East as a path to Armageddon when in reality it’s nothing more than trump desperately trying to control the petro energy market as a power and money grab. Except he’s an idiot.
Which is indeed true, however, the people who buy into it often do it for religious reasons. You can’t start religious wars when the people aren’t religious or have a religion that doesn’t motivate them to crush others who think differently.
Caring about sports. Like they devote what amounts to a part time job watching grown men compete in children’s games. Watching Competitive exercise while they melt into a couch pounding junk food. Watching other people talk about how well they exercised. Discussing daily with their friends and family and coworkers… All about one group of people in a colored shirt moving a ball slightly better than people with a different colored shirt.
When I realized that guys typically need an activity to bond together, sports start to make a lot more sense. Sports are just a catalyst to male friendship. Yeah guys take the sports way too far, but it makes it more fun if there’s an emotional high or low when they watch it.
cats dont need nail clipping or washing, yea they do especially the long haired cats, even licking wont get all the dirt and grit from thier skin or fur. i see them all up and arms over videos over it. some cats are high energy, maintenance for this very reason thats why you get expensive breeds abandonded. maine coones/persians for maitenance and bengals for high energy. yea kissing them is wierd, if you want allergies or a ringworm.
sphynx are not low-maitanence just because they are hairless, they are exact opposite, and not low allergen.
Celebrity gossip and worship
When you say something simple and someone else attacks you over some imaginary meaning or intent. Neurotypical people are unwell.
When you say something simple and someone else attacks you over some imaginary meaning or intent.
Totally agree.
Neurotypical people are unwell.
Wayyy too broad of a statement to agree with. I’ve seen this behavior from both neurotypical and neurodivergent people.
I know. I just avoid talking when not asked, because people always find a reason to be offended.
A co-worker got mad over that too. Not talking is also very offensive to these people.
Not really a neurotypical problem, nice insult though very cool
Typical to everyone = unwell to me
Pretty strong evidence you aren’t well and should be discounted.
Happens a lot on Lemmy
Enjoying work.
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.
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.
Partying
Never understood the appeal
Have you tried drugs
I think that’s the ticket for a lot of things like a rave, a party, or even a concert. I’ve been to 5 or 10 concerts in my life, and every single one. I’m bored silly after 30 minutes. I don’t drink or do drugs and I figure that’s the missing ingredient.
Oh yeah me neither. That must be it then, but I will not drink or do drugs just because of social pressure.
Have you ever looked at the back of a dollar bill
There’s some spooky shit going on back there. And it’s green, too!
Here’s something that will probably mark me as weird: I find it strange, even creepy, when people talk, sing, hum, or make any noises to themselves. Some people tell me it helps their concentration, but I can’t even envision making any kind of sound when I concentrate.
Talking to yourself is one of life’s great joys. Isn’t that right, me?
Well I for one definitely know right? correct me
I don’t usually talk, sing, or hum alone, but I’m always either tapping my foot, tapping my desk, or clicking a pen.
It’s not really deliberate, it just sort of happens.Though to be fair I do deliberately buy retractable pens so I can click them…
LOL. I do all of those things.
Me, too, and I find it offputting when someone else does it. 😄
One reason is that I doubt whether animals really understand this
You would be objectively wrong on that. It’s been shown that affection to animals fires off the same parts of the brain in them as it does in humans, and delivers the same chemicals.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6826447/
Just because animals can’t communicate like you or me (though I firmly believe pets have a language that you can understand if you own one long enough), it doesn’t mean they don’t have the same feelings of bonding and closeness. Biologically we’re all very similar, so the Oxytocin that we get from being loved is identical to the oxytocin that THEY get when being loved.
Every cat I’ve ever met has a nice little language. It was always possible to tell when they were happy or annoyed at the very least. I love them. I always hope they know I love them.
Thank you for the link. Does the paper reveal anything about kissing specifically? Haven’t had the time to read it yet.
I know that humans and other animals can feel affection for each other and that physical contact, e.g., by stroking, induces a sensation of ‘affective touch’ facilitated by C-tactile fibers. So while kissing itself might induce similar effects by similar pressure force and temperature, I wonder whether it really makes a difference to ‘poking’ your pet with your finger in a similar way. In other words: if the physical sensation is similar, does another animal understand a kiss versus another form of affective touch?Dogs have the ability to read body language. So a gentle behaviour like kissing or cuddling would definitely be perceived differently than an abrupt gesture like poking them.
You’ve obviously never kissed a naked mole rat
Found Ron Stoppable!
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.
I kiss my parrot because it is a cultural ritual we have built together. I make smoochy noises at him and he mimics them back to me because he wants to communicate. I kiss his little beak and he supposes this is a thing I must like doing so he starts doing it back. It makes me smile and make happy noises, which he recognizes. Now we have a fun thing we do that means we’re buddies. He trains me to offer up my nose for him to smooch if he makes a specific little whispery sound. His only reward is the opportunity to boop me on the nose with his beak but he evidently finds this incredibly amusing and will occasionally whisper at me relentlessly until I give in. He will let me smooch the back of his head at nighttime because it means he gets to stay up later. His feathers are soft and he smells nice so I like it too.
Beautiful. I hope you post a video of your parrot doing the smoochie nosies because that’s just perfect…
I want to echo what Velma said…I recently received an incredibly painful text from my older brother, but your example of how animals love other animals, really grounds me. Im tearing up, but in relief, in awe, and in utter joy. This little anecdote is a great gift. Thanks for sharing!
Animals are easy to love, sometimes easier than loving other humans. Ultimately we all just want to connect, I’m glad I did with you today!
Don’t Artisans “stop hiring humans” sign make more sense now?
There is just something evil and repulsive about humans.
Oo what kind of parrot? And what country do you guys love birds that much? I want to visit 😁 we have 2, ourselves.
He’s a green cheeked conure. I also have an African Grey who doesn’t like to be smooched. What kind do you have?
Aww I love Greys!! They’re so smart and have such a wide vocabulary.
We sort of happened upon them from a couple who needed to surrender, but a Blue Fronted Amazon and more recently, a Goffin’s Cockatoo.
My Grey is kind of a dummy (or maybe just too smart to perform for my approval) but I love her anyway. She’s the sweetest and loves just hanging out on my shoulder.
I had a Blue Fronted years ago, he was the best boy ever. He was an amazing singer and mimic and loved to cuddle. Thanks for taking in birds that need homes!!
Having kids. I just don’t get it.
I’ve never really gotten it either. Might be because I’ve never really liked kids even when I was one. Loud human noises tend to drive me up a damn wall and if there’s one thing kids and alcoholics have in common it’s their love for being as loud as possible. Also every time I hear people talk about their kids, there’s always so much negativity even when they’re trying to make it sound positive. What’s there to gain from having them other than the supposed animalistic instinct to reproduce parents love to bring up?
Huh. That’s an odd one. We are all here because someone had kids, you grew up with people who had kids, it’s a funny thing to not understand. I always wanted kids but can wrap my mind around people not wanting them, feel everyone should live their lives the way they want & most of my kids don’t themselves want kids (though they all like kids, they just each want one of their siblings to give them nieces).
Raising kids is by far the best work I ever did, and babies are cute, little children are delightful, teenagers are cool, and now as adults they are awesome.
I don’t get having kids before making the world at least a decent place. And the main thing that is wrong with the world is not climate change, some resource constraint, or even the psycho dictators ruling over us all.
It is the human flaws that make this all possible. There is just something fundamentaly very wrong with humans. We won’t make it unless we engineer this out on a fundamental level.
We need to treat Psychopathy genes as a lethal disease, as if it were SARS, and everyone needs to be “vaccinated”.
Just giving humans a predisposition towards empathy would be step 1.
Step 2 is creating an anti-trust structure where no one can really have power, that keeps itself strictly in-check. Constutionaly allow citizens to dislodge or if necessary kill leaders who violate the law, and don’t get arrested.
And those citizens should be let off free, if certain conditions are meet (illegality of the leader obvious enough, he was asked to step down, law-enforcement did nothing, certain amount of time passed).
Everyone needs to have their own independent resources. No one should be in the position to be exploited. This must be ensured by LAW.
I don’t get having kids before making the world at least a decent place.
That seems like a very tall order for a single generation, and for such a large area (worldwide).
If everyone thought this way, we’d probably be extinct by now — or at least massively declining in places where birth control and abortions are widely accessible, since every birth would be an accident.
(To be clear, I can understand why one might not want to bring kids into the world in its current state. It doesn’t seem unreasonable)
I see it from the complete opposite direction. What is wrong with the world and humans is all the generational trauma and how we used to raise and treat children.
So in my view the only way to heal the world is through children which are raised from parents who ideally have already worked on their trauma to be strong and caring individuals and learned to handle their emotions without supressing them.
Of course the political system is important too, but the thing is you need strong individuals first. If you have a population of people which have had their individuality “beaten out” and are slaves to their emotions they will inevitable seek comfort in groups and leaders leading to authorian regimes and fascism.
You can’t change adults much. Every change has to come through our children.
I’m guessing us misfires need to get out of the way, probably die too in order to make way for this healthy generation.
Out of curiosity, what’s not to get? It’s a biological imperative for the human race to continue. I can absolutely get not wanting kids and choosing to be ‘child free’, but it’s personally not that difficult to understand why people chose to have them.
It might be an imperative for the human race, but not on an individual level. There is no must … there is no law in the universe that says that we must continue.
In line with the other commenter, I can only speak for myself. Nothing about parenting is appealing to me, and I can’t even think of one aspect of my life that would improve. A long list of cons with no pros. I’ve accepted that people are just wired differently. For me it makes no sense, but others go through great effort and expense to become parents (e.g. those with fertility issues going through various treatments).
Absolutely get that opinion. Nobody should ever feel pressured by society or individuals to have children
I had my kids later in life, having travelled the world and had a few long-term relationships. The version of me that was diving in Thailand, working in bars in New Zealand and exploring catacombs in Paris in his 20s found the concept of having kids almost absurd.
I was 36 when my first son was born, 38 when we had our 2nd. It’s an absolutely profound experience and everything else I’ve experienced pales in comparison to fatherhood. My younger self would never have believed it, and I don’t expect anyone who’s not got kids to fathom what it’s like.
In fact, I fully expect people who read this who don’t have kids to find the sentiment condescending and even a little patronising. I know I would have.
Sorry, but to me this sounds the same like a suicidal person saying, they don’t get why people want to live.
Of course everyone can do what they want. But I can totally understand someone who doesn’t want kids or who wants to off themself. The not being able to understand people wanting to have children part seems a bit pathological to me.
