Conversational and social skill development & practice focus on the most problematic and wasteful areas of discourse. And like scratching a bug bite, it flares up, gets infected. The only way to win is not to play, but if this is the only game people play any more — small talk and discussing people (or associating ideas with ego) — who in the world would see the value in abandoning a zero-sum game for collaborative, self-trascendent discourse that sets aside all evaluations of self, other, status, comparisons, and whether we fancy a shag or how well-to-do the other party is? What is the fucking point, dudes? Why don’t we check our identities and physical desires and nosiness about other people at the door, slough off fears of being weird or not being liked, and play with all the possibilities we gave up when adults told us to grow up? I wish I was a fraggle, basically. I don’t see the point in things that steer me away from that. Humanity is not as awesome as advertised. I want to fly in a yellow Cessna.