Make America Go Apeshit

In The Netherlands, within my social circles, it’s mostly seen as overly informal and quite intimate to take off your shoes.

You can do it at friends, but certainly not by default at acquaintances (unless they ask), as it might even be a little disrespectful considering taking off your shoes could smell a bit after some hours. Like you force your bodily odours or sweaty feet on to someone’s house.

I totally get the opposite and am noticing a slow shift (also in my own house) to dropping the shoes. But it’s interesting to see that both stances are based on some form of respect, and perhaps also some pragmatism on our side.

I think it stems from the more difficult cases, and people failing to realize the actual suffering that comes with that.

As with all extremes, a lot of emotions are involved. People who see / experience the hardships don’t feel heard. As the general tendency is that one needs to be alive and that this is good, this hurts people who do not want to live (like this).

Going to a lot of trouble to conceive, and bringing triple the amount of possible suffering that people experience can be felt as worse than a death sentence. Therefore people feel the need to be vocal about this.

But in the end I agree, there is nuance. But there is the extreme as well, which weighs heavier here?