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You're helping to create a very cold world. I've heard the term neopuritan thrown around in this context, and the more I think about it the more it fits. The modern obsession with harshly judging the body language, physical touch, and emotion of individuals today feels like a technology-enabled Scarlet Letter.

People's preferences aren't immediately self-evident to all observers, and intent does matter.

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Absolutely agree with this. I find it quite sad when I see young non religious people at work behaving like monks and nuns in fear of human latent intentions and interpretations of their behaviour. Sometimes reading too much theory and having too many specific words that define phenomenons which you have not yet experienced and elaborated can lead to a very frustrating life to say the least..

"Coldness", formality and due process are actually the best defense when dealing with someone who is in an obvious position of power. I'm not sure why people are pretending that Joe Biden is just an average guy who has gotten a little too comfy with some social acquaintance of his (the scenario that one might have a "cold" overreaction to). I do wonder what would happen if we were talking about Mike Pence doing the same things. Would the Washington Post be saying the same things about the inherent necessity of touch?

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