Labels suck. They can go and suck my dick to be honest. If I were to address myself by my properly assigned labels I would be a Privileged working-class cisgender white man with anarcho-socialist principles that suffers from mental health problems. Quite a mouthful there, right? That's a lot to take in, and those are just general labels. I hadn't told you which football team or Political party I supported. I spoke to an Autistic chappy the other week and he told me that he was proud of his label, it also helps him identify. Some people, like my autistic friend need to make people aware of their condition, and in the same breath help him understand the way he is on a basic level.

Uh oh, controversy

I have a somewhat controversial view towards labelling. I think labels are good in the sense that they help us understand things with more clarity. For instance, back when I was told I was a Paranoid Schizophrenic you could find me laying flour across my bedroom floor to catch any footsteps during the night. It also drove my Mum bonkers, but that's another story. Yet I feel some of us are becoming trapped in our labels. Take me for instance, after a heavy night out in the bar drinking shots and beer; when I was dancing on the bar naked, people would give me grace, because I was a schizophrenic, "Ah, it's only Raymond, he's mental. Take him home". I'm big on accountability and I feel now, that I should have been treated like if it was the barman doing so. If I hadn't eventually taken accountability for myself I'd probably still be dancing on that bar today and flouring my bedroom.

I also feel that by taking a Political stance or certain view, society has pigeonholed me into a Political category. I have seen YouTube video comments and Facebook groups that talk about entire swathes of people by their designated 'left' ideology. The loony left that I hear flung around like a cheap hooker in a brothel. Yet I've met people from both sides that are the nicest people you can ever meet. I just know they would get along swimmingly with each other but can't see past their own ideologies. This is enslavement, is it not? It has to be. If you categorise people by one opinion then you are a slave to your own opinions; you limit yourself by not going out and meeting some really great and awesome people. I promise you, no matter how much you tell me in the comments section that the left is this, or the right is that, you are chaining yourself to the gates of a wondrous new world that lays before you. This is certainly how governments do it. 'People' are not one. We are many.

Gender and race

Then there's gender and race, and I sort of feel can't we all just get along? I've never seen a group of people live in the past as much as this one. We talk about a time when white men ruled the world and the privilege we held over so many; the havoc we caused, the women we raped and killed and the slaves we made out of ethnics. I sort of feel we're living in a time long gone when we speak about this. My last boss was African, and I've been a victim of 'womansplaining' many, many times. My white brothers and sisters that haven't come to terms with the fact that only last year America had a coloured President are living in a time long forgotten. Women that live in perpetual victimhood and think men were born lucky need to experience working in a professional kitchen full of women and being the only male. I prefer the term intersectionality, but even then, it's a label. I like to just be me, and you be you. It's better is it not? We are all human.

Co-operation, not competition

I see Irish people fighting over the Internet about a potato drought that happened over 300 years ago, Scottish people, bitter about the English colonization hundreds of years before my great, great, great, great grandad was born, and English people fretting over the bastardization of the English language by Americans. Who gives a fuck, right? These people are all dead and our world is modern, people are different and diverse, and 'mostly' we all want to do well for ourselves. I'm a staunch believer in betterment by co-operation rather than competition. I'd rather scratch my competitors back so that they can scratch mine. We both move forward then. To eliminate competition, we need to be co-operative, and to engage in that we need to work together, instead of all these shitty labels.

Why should it matter if you're homosexual and I like having sex with goats on fire as they jump through acid hoops? Why should it matter if you are female and I am male? Why? Why do you care so much? Wouldn't it be easier to just get to know people? I love asking men their favourite beer. Most of us like beer. Even me, a non-alcoholic, still enjoys a good range of alcohol free beers. I keep saying we aren't that much different at base. Get to know the person behind the label. You'll be pleasantly surprised. My Grandad, who called every ethnic a Paki always had friends from different countries. "Those are the good one's, son" he told me, not knowing that he was essentially doing what I'm saying to you.

Stop. Smell the fresh air and get to know your local people. You'll be surprised, I promise.

Thanks for reading.