Labeling People
Lily2005 (2026-01-27 17:38:27) 评论 (0)
Imagine that you encounter a person holding a spear in the hunter-gatherer era. You need to quickly label this person as either us or them; otherwise, you may not survive. So labeling people is part of human nature. It is a vital survival skill, and we are quite good at it. It is fast — we can label a person within a few seconds. Once we label someone, we can work efficiently using our memory and existing knowledge. It feels like we understand what’s happening. Labeling helps us navigate this complex world.
But human beings are complex — much richer and more complicated than one or a few labels.
I had a personal experience that made me think more about this. You may have heard of Nick Fuentes. He is labeled as a white supremacist, racist, antisemitic, and misogynistic. With those labels, I imagined him as a monster. But after I listened to an interview with him on PBD, I began to understand — at least a little — how and why he became who he is today. More importantly, I started to understand why millions of young people, especially young men, are drawn to him.
I still disagree with most of his viewpoints, but I no longer see him as a monster — just another very biased human being. We are all biased, to different degrees.
This experience made me realize that labels should be a starting point for understanding, not an endpoint for judgment. We shouldn’t let labels stop us from listening, observing, asking questions, and thinking. Understanding a human being is a slow process.
At the societal level, especially in politics, labels are often used as weapons to divide us. Politicians label their opponents as communists, socialists, racists, or fascists. Even our president, when he doesn’t want to answer a question, has used a label — calling a reporter “piggy.” The label disqualifies both the question and the person asking it.
And when labeling becomes our main political language, real issues fade into the background. We stop debating ideas and policies, and we start sorting people into camps. Left. Right. Middle. Us. Them. And when that happens, division becomes more useful for re-election than problem-solving
But human beings are complex — much richer and more complicated than one or a few labels.
I had a personal experience that made me think more about this. You may have heard of Nick Fuentes. He is labeled as a white supremacist, racist, antisemitic, and misogynistic. With those labels, I imagined him as a monster. But after I listened to an interview with him on PBD, I began to understand — at least a little — how and why he became who he is today. More importantly, I started to understand why millions of young people, especially young men, are drawn to him.
I still disagree with most of his viewpoints, but I no longer see him as a monster — just another very biased human being. We are all biased, to different degrees.
This experience made me realize that labels should be a starting point for understanding, not an endpoint for judgment. We shouldn’t let labels stop us from listening, observing, asking questions, and thinking. Understanding a human being is a slow process.
At the societal level, especially in politics, labels are often used as weapons to divide us. Politicians label their opponents as communists, socialists, racists, or fascists. Even our president, when he doesn’t want to answer a question, has used a label — calling a reporter “piggy.” The label disqualifies both the question and the person asking it.
And when labeling becomes our main political language, real issues fade into the background. We stop debating ideas and policies, and we start sorting people into camps. Left. Right. Middle. Us. Them. And when that happens, division becomes more useful for re-election than problem-solving
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Lily2005