Just Pretzels?

I have a friend that doesn’t like pretzels. Just writing that causes some discomfort for me. It doesn’t make any sense. They are not a favorite food of mine or anything, they are really just pretzels. That’s the thing, they are just pretzels. Who cares about forming an opinion on pretzels. But wait, what about hot pretzels? I def have an opinion on them. I actually love fresh hot pretzels. He must like hot pretzels… nope. He hates them even more. So now I figure he is just fucking with me. It’s just impossible to hate hot pretzels.

I’ve known this for months now, and he is sticking to his story. Turns out, he’s not fucking with me. He legitimately doesn’t like pretzels. I have watched as he has defended his position repeatedly when I bring it up in front of other people. I have eaten giant hot fresh pretzels in front of him without him caving in to temptation. It’s either true, or he is a psychopath. How did he get this way?

We all have different likes, opinions, morals, and personalities. We are defined by our environment, created by circumstance. We are not the same. Even if we can be categorized together base on race, age, religious beliefs, sexual preference, gender identity, and political beliefs. We are all different. We are all individuals. It’s funny how we don’t perceive the “individual” as a minority, but it is technically the largest minority group. The individual has no voice in a world where minorities need a label for media coverage. No one cares about the opinion of one person, even though we are all just “one person”.

I’m not sure why we need to categorize everything. Maybe it’s a brain thing? It could be a way to minimize processing used when thinking about stuff. A type of mental organization like a relational database. We build mental constructs to describe the world around us to remove the complexity. We can’t see each other as individuals unless we try.

Like pretzels or don’t like pretzels. Pick a side, choose a label. Are they just pretzels?