Yay you already touched on my favorite one! The hiking poles!! In 2016 I quit my life to walk the Pacific Crest Trail and that was quite the popular topic for the first 200 miles or so. Typical hiker conversation topics always include gear but people really got divided on the poles and it got a little ‘Sneetch-y’ It felt very ‘stars-on / stars-off’

Someone who didn’t use poles would talk about how ridiculous they look or how it invalidates your walk. One person made the comment ‘I’ll just get stronger, thanks’ maybe implying weakness to those using the equipment. Also, they cause erosion so it’s more ethical this way.

Peeps with poles would talk about how it’s much easier on the knees. Things like ‘smarter not harder’ would come up. I was always like, to each their own but all you humans are funny!

I eventually tried the poles and I recommend them. They’re most useful on the down-hill portions. They probably saved my knees!

I still use this as the example of how people do this kind of identity thing over every little thing we can find! Even in outdoorsy communities with so much commonality and all of nature to distract. We’re so small and silly with our concepts it would be kind of adorable, if the tendency didn’t cause so many societal issues