It’s very hard to make someone relate to something that is foreign to them. People who don’t see why, idk, Tech Decks are fun will probably never get it. You can explain and demonstrate but if someone doesn’t have the fidget impulse then it’s just another TikTok.

But harder still is to make some relate to not relating to something. This is my problem with food. People like food. They think about it, vlog about it, talk about it, argue about it. It’s a big part of their life.

Food is not a big part of my life.

For me, food is a bodily function. It’s like showering or exercise. I do it because I have to. There are foods I like more than others, foods I really enjoy … but I don’t go out of my way to find the best food.

Foodies look at me like I’m crazy when I say this. They assume it must be a symptom of some deeper issue, like depression or autism. I try to explain it like this:

You know those screen golf things? Where you go and hit a golf ball into a screen that’s directly in front of you? It’s no fun, right? It’s a simulation of golf, golf minus all the good parts, just moving the ball from here to there without actually going outdoors or watching it go zoom. That’s what food is like to me: just one of the steps of the digestive process.

And then they go: No, I actually love screen golf, and I love food, and I feel bad for you for not enjoying those things.

But I don’t feel bad. I just have other things I enjoy!

Another example: horror movies. I don’t get it. From where I stand, I feel like a movie is either scary or not scary. If it’s not scary then it can’t be horror. And if it’s scary then that is, by definition, an unpleasant feeling. I cannot compute the idea that a movie can be both actually scary (not just creepy aesthetics) and enjoyable. But people say they enjoy horror movies. Shrug.

Idk, something about asexuality, pithy conclusion.