The only thing I know from looking at you is what you fucking look like.

August 16th, 2010

If you think you understand things just by looking at them, you’re not only wrong, but you’re also an asshole.

One of the stupidest things you can do is assume that I share your retarded fucking worldview. That we inhabit a reality that we both perceive in the same way. That my brain thinks like yours. That my body works like yours. That I want the things you want, enjoy the things you enjoy. That you know anything, even just a tiny thing, about my experience in the world. Because very often you will be dead wrong.

We are mostly lazy, intellectual short-cut takers, I believe. It’s easy to assume and presume and guess things. It’s comforting to believe in the version of reality that most conforms to our instincts. It’s simple to believe that we can know and understand things by looking at them. That common knowledge is real knowledge. But that’s horse shit.

Here is the one thing I know: I have no idea what the world looks like or feels like to you. We inhabit neither the same brain nor the same body. And that changes everything. I would like to believe that I have some fucking humility as regards that fact. That most of my conversations with you will start out – “Have you found that…?” or “Do you think that…?” or “Have you ever…?” That I will take the time to establish a baseline for our communication, and that I will respect your differences once we’ve done that.

I would hope that I do not make very many definitive statements regarding you, and how your world works, and how your mind perceives things and the way your body functions. I hope that I ask more questions and listen to your answers.

What I am really working for, what I want for myself is to more often say “I don’t know. It’s not my body, it’s not my life, it’s not my choice, I don’t know. Explain it to me, and help me understand.” I want to know how your world works, and I want to know how it feels, but I want you to tell me. Teach me something, show me something, let me understand. But don’t ever fucking presume you know jack shit about MY world, unless I’ve taken the time to share it with you. Because I am going to end up thinking you’re a limp-brained, bigoted, mouthy jackass and I will have the empirical evidence to back that assumption the fuck up.