I’m Not A Cat

This pandemic changed our world in ways we would have never imagined before. One of the things that changed dramatically is how we work. Before the pandemic, working remote was some sort of weird thing to do (when it wasn’t “sold” as being a perk, that is) whereas now, it’s pretty much the norm.

But not everyone was prepared for this. For some of us, this change came with real challenges, especially if we didn’t necessarily have to use tech in our daily lives before. A hilarious thing happened because of this a week ago. Look at the video below to understand what I’m talking about.

Let me summarize this if you didn’t watch the video: during an official hearing in a trial, one of the lawyers accidentally pressed a filter button in his Zoom app and turned himself into a cat. You know, the kind of filter that you use for kids, or for fun, where your face is replaced by a very realistic cat. Needless to say, this thing became viral almost instantly and turned into an internet meme.

But the funniest thing of all was that the lawyer felt compelled to say to the judge: “I’m not a cat”.

Am I Really, Really Not A Cat?

Let’s stop for a while, please. It’s ok to have a laugh, I had a few, actually, while watching the video, but after that, I still had something on my mind. Something so strange, and so hard to understand, that my first reaction was laughing, although, underneath it, there’s a very scary territory.

It’s about the “I’m not a cat” thing. How can a human being feel compelled to actually say that to another human being? I don’t necessarily think that lawyer was a stupid person, on the contrary, I think he’s a very clever and intelligent man. So, what are the processes that are going inside that mind? How did we get here?

I mean, it’s ok to laugh, but then you gotta make a few steps back and start asking some questions…

Truth is, we live in a world where we have to disambiguate everything, because we believe anything.