I’m not sure this is universal, but I see this as probably one of stupidest flaws I have.
I can be antaganous in conversation with people I love.
An example of what I mean — My family and I got into a conversation regarding the merits of Europe and America. They noted off handedly that people in Europe were more refined (this is paraphrased, we were speaking in Georgian, and the meaning of refined is slightly different). I deliberately underminded what they said, and made a very strong statement — like I hate beauracratic, class based systems.
Now, that was not what they meant. Thankfully, they’re my parents, and they love me, and they don’t seem to share this temperament, so they calmly moved the conversation elsewhere.
But why did I say that? I would usually defend this in the name of wanting to convey something that will be better for the other, but today I realized that’s not the case.
It could better be described as me trying to get a rise out of them.
But why?
Well, I guess the way to narrow the search is to look for things that were outside of normal that day.
First, I had a sore throat.
Second, other things were on my mind.
Both chipped away at my frontal lobe, is the best way I can put it.
Presence and cognicance. Maybe it’s not even worth having a conversation without them