Encountered one of those polls offering choices that are not necessarily opposed:

[james_davis_nicoll]

"Keep things in their original state.

Make changes, even if only for the sake of change."

Depends if the current state suits my goals.

"I am very excited when I meet new people; I can talk to anyone about various topics.

If I am around people who I am not familiar with, I will feel a bit uncomfortable; some people consider me to be restrained and reserved."

Yes.

"My social circle is very wide. I have a lot of friends and acquaintances.

I have very close relationships with a small amount of people. I am very cautious and serious when I choose my friends."

Yes: Social circle is not the same as close relationship.

"I focus on the outer world.

I focus my attention internally. I spend lots of time on introspection."

Pardon me while I throat-punch the author of this quiz.

Comments

"Throat-punch?!!"

[gohover.livejournal.com]

I suppose I don't read widely enough, but I've only seen the expression "throat punch" used here, on this blog, by people I always supposed were quite nice.

I don't understand it. This blog is so full of sensitivity! I personally don't need any of the "Memetic Prophylactic" warnings, trigger warnings, NSFW warnings, and other warnings that you provide James (I treat some of them as political commentary and as indicators of something potentially interesting), but I understand that some readers here really truly benefit from at least some of them. So why are you (and other regular commenters here) so casual about imagining punching someone in the throat? Humor? No one here makes jokes about other very similar kinds of assault.

(Just to be clear: I imagine that punching someone in the throat might put them in the hospital or kill them, and would definitely be very painful and extremely distressing. Are you imagining the same thing?)

Re: "Throat-punch?!!"

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

The expression has become quite common the the last few years. See: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/11/why-is-everyone-throat-punching-everyone-else/281068/

Re: "Throat-punch?!!"

[gohover.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link. I was hoping that people were imagining that getting punched in the throat wouldn't cause more than momentary discomfort, but the article leads me to believe that people do think it could be quite serious or fatal. The last comment in the comments section summed it up for me: "It's about as funny as rape to me."

If someone said "I'd like to throw him in a meat grinder", I don't think I'd have a similarly negative reaction, because, I guess, I wouldn't expect that the speaker would have access to a person-size meat grinder (unless they worked at a meat processing plant, in which case I would find it it pretty disturbing.) I wonder if part of my problem with this talk of throat punching is that anyone really could impulsively do such a thing.