10.21.05
Jumping … to conclusions.
Yeah, it is amazing how often people take some tiny little piece of chance observation and blow it up to a complete “understanding” of a complex situation.
This amazing feat is even more astonishing when the people have no involvement in the situation, and are just putting their opinion in with little to no regard for fact (or truth or honesty).
We’ve all seen this throughout our lives. People jumping to conclusions based on misperceptions or only tiny bits of information.
It is common in politics – some politician makes a casual comment about, say, his taxes just seeming to be too high, someone overhears, and the next day the NY Times has headlines that he’s planning on introducing a major tax reform package – complete with a quote “Senator Thrushbottom yesterday said in relation to his new tax proposal that ‘taxes just seem too high.'”
In the entertainment rags, two performers can be getting their mochas at the same Starbucks, at the same time, quite by accident, and the next you know their pic is on the cover and they are having an affair.
Pitiful, right?
Thing is, the same happens to each one of us every day, but we just usually ignore it.
A few posts ago in this very blog there was an example of folks at ScionJunky jumping to conclusions with too little data – and about a subject they were not even involved with.
Police officers sometimes see a vehicle that looks similar to others driven by troublemakers, and will assume whoever is driving THIS one is a troublemaker. I seem to own one of those vehicles…
Another example I run into quite often, and just ignore because not only is it too difficult to explain, the explanation is NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS.
Allow me explain.
Many people assume Tomas hates cats.
They jump to this (incorrect) conclusion by hearing me say that I won’t go to someone’s house because they have cats, or because I might shoo a cat away or ask someone not to stuff their cat in my face. I even react strongly if they keep trying to get me to love their cat.
What they are seeing is not Tomas hating cats, but Tomas protecting himself. I’m allergic to the damned things.
It’s not their fur or their dander, but apparently a component of their saliva – and since they lick themselves incessantly, it is on all the hair and dander they leave lying around (and in what they leave in their litter boxes, too).
This ‘toxin’ is on essentially everything the cat touches, and it makes no difference if someone locks the cat in another room while the “cat hater” is there, it still has an effect. Please, people, if you have a cat let the anti-cat person know – don’t try to hide the fact (or the cat) from them.
Big deal, many will say. So Tom has a cat allergy. A lot of people do. They sneeze, or get the sniffles or something. So what? Live with it!
Well, some people have more extreme allergic reactions than that. Some get all itchy, some even get hives. That’s a bit more than a sneeze or a few Kleenex.
What about Tom?
Let me tell all you cat owners a very short story, and you will maybe see why I don’t want ANYTHING to do with your house or your cat. OK?
When I was a little tyke, six years old, my parents got me two of the absolutely cutest little kittens. I wanted a pet and these were perfect. Cute, cuddly, lovable, and good training in responsibility for little Tommy. I was supposed to choose only one of them to keep, the other would be passed on to my cousin Becky.
That afternoon I played with my little kittens, and even napped with them close by.
By that evening I was in the hospital, floating in and out of consciousness.
Seems little Tommy and the kittens didn’t get along. While my parents got rid of the kittens and everything they had touched, I spent a considerable time in that hospital.
So, while Tomas doesn’t hate cats, I figure it’s them or me. If they stay away and if people don’t try to trick me into being exposed to their toxic emanations, I really don’t have that much of an opinion. Some cats are beautiful, all kittens are cute.
However, if it comes down to survival of either the cat or myself, the cat will be viewed no differently than any deadly virus is viewed.
If you are a cat lover, sorry. I don’t hate your cat but I will not let you or it negatively affect my health.
I may not hate cats (and I really don’t), but I will protect myself from them.
(By the way, I have NO problems with dogs, birds, or mice…)