LoL, you're half right. I was unclear about what part of your post I was responding too. I got lazy and just quoted the whole fuckin thing .aamesxdavid wrote: Sometimes I feel like only two sentences of my posts are read. So here are the cliff notes:
This is what I was responding to:
And in any case, It's clear to me now that I misread it the first time. I thought you were making a very different point, but this is why I was talking about lables (which can really be any attribute you self-apply, not necessarily general labels like the ones in Falco's temporary class system.)aamesxdavid wrote: Reason and justification are irrelevant; everyone is simply "rehearsing their own prejudices" (even the logical or scientific person) and defending it by any means necessary. Belief precedes justification, so the means of reasoning you choose to defend it are simply dependent on your already set in place prejudices. Evidence can only "change" your mind about something that you have not yet made your mind up about.
This is absolutely true so long as the person has an understanding of this philosophy (or just innately sensitive to the concept), and I wasn't litterally suggesting someone change the way they speak to maintain congruity between their speech and their philosophy, merely that few understand that there's an impact one has on their own behavior, thought-process, and self-identity based on what attributes they self apply.aamesxdavid wrote: Moreover, saying that you are something doesn't change the way you act unless you consciously censor your behaviour to adhere to this label, which to put it bluntly is fucking stupid, as I'm sure few would argue. A label one gives to oneself is more likely to change based on their behaviour than the other way around.
Since adolescents are particularly bad about this, I'll use falco's classes as an example again:
Whether a kid gets caught up in the identity of a punker, mod, thug, rudeboy, metal-head, emo, indie-kid, goth, vamp, gangster, or whatever the fuck else, once they have it in their head that that's who they are, they're more likely to conform their behavior to the lable than visa versa.