Talk:Salem/@comment-31140854-20190118214017/@comment-35434444-20190618072009

@Glichee123z

Of corse I'm overthinking things. How else can we get past our preconceptions.

I'm not saying hatred towards strangers is unreasonable. Like I mentioned, it's perfectly natural. All I'm trying to is get you to see hatred from another point of view; as more reflective of your psychology than outward circumstances.

We like to imagine that our emotions are caused by external events, as though our brains are like balls in a Newton's cradle that get wacked around by prior causes and there's nothing we can do to help any of it. But thoughts actually occur prior to labeling. All of your emotions are preferences.

To "narrow one's eyes" is taken as a sign of suspicion over here, giving it a negative connotation, but in Japan it's associated with the way the cheek muscles deform the apparent shape of the eyes when someone is smiling and thus has a positive connotation.

The emotional response is a preference that can be learned or dropped.

@Megadracosaurus

Now wait just a minute there -- you can't make intuitive observations about my personal history. Apparently that's overthinking things. And we wouldn't want to commit an atrocity like that, now would we?

I think most people have been wronged big time at some point in thier lives, so I'd be interested to know what you mean by that.

If a man murders your family, you can't bring them back, but you can choose how you respond to the situation. I never said anything about you not hating them in the colloquial sense. I'm just trying to point out something you may not have considered.

Your hatred is directed at the perception you have of the person which is not identical with the real thing. And if you see that, you can choose how to handle your emotions.

Suppose I perceive you to be a man called Malik Reeves. Are you that person now? Or are my perceptions misaligned with reality?