Life & Wisdom Quote by Simon Travaglia

Travaglia’s line lands like a quiet accusation: language isn’t just descriptive, it’s tactical. “Names” here aren’t neutral labels but weapons people reach for when they want to stop thinking. Once someone is “a liar,” “a psycho,” “a loser,” “a genius,” the messy, human work of understanding gets replaced by a convenient shorthand. The name becomes an alibi.

The phrasing “sometimes use to excuse” is doing a lot. It implies premeditation without making it a conspiracy. People aren’t always plotting; they’re often just lazy, scared, or eager to protect their self-image. A name offers moral cover: if you can reduce someone to a category, you can justify avoiding them, dismissing them, mistreating them, or even “helping” them in patronizing ways. It’s not only slurs; compliments can function the same way. Calling someone “strong” can excuse neglecting their needs. Calling someone “gifted” can excuse exploiting their labor. Labels let the speaker keep their behavior while outsourcing responsibility to the word.

The second-person “towards you” makes it intimate and slightly paranoid in the best way: it invites the reader to scan their own life for the moment a relationship flipped from curious to categorical. This feels born from modern social friction where identities, diagnoses, and political tags circulate fast, often replacing firsthand knowledge. Travaglia isn’t arguing against names; he’s warning that the moment a label starts explaining away empathy, it’s no longer description. It’s permission.