"I was referring to the excess labeling that is not helpful and makes things confusing or has negative connotations."

Because we can.

And the more convoluted the label, the more intelligent the labeller thinks s/he is......

I was referring to the excess labeling that is not helpful and makes things confusing or has negative connotations. I really appreciate everyone's feedback. Thank you.

It is our need to understand things, to enforce order in our world.

Part of this might relate back to the "us" and "them" discussion that was raised yesterday... [agnostic.com] and I think it's still valid when referring to labels. Labels, by design, define & identify. If we are defining people (or aspects/characteristic of people), then there isn't much of a leap to link it to the "us" and "them" theory.

I think it may serve some good as well as bad. Allowing people to connect on some shared aspect of themselves, allows them to potentially grow and share experiences, to feel less alone. If it's used to discriminate, then obviously that's an issue. But I suspect it's not the label's fault, more the one using for malice.

As far as labeling things, I would think that's just practical; hand me the "thing without a name" next to the other "thing without a name"... not super helpful.

It would be hard to communicate without labels. Some labels are ridiculous and are used to vilify people or certain groups of people though. Our language seems to constantly be changing with new words all the time.

It helps with our identity of ourselves?

So its easy to explain to everyone else. can you imagine having 10 children without a name?

I agree. Having a general idea of concepts is good but sometimes things get too detailed

I'm fine with labels as long as they aren't seen as immutable or to disallow nuance. Labels are a good way to say this is who I am, what I believe, how I live, etc., without it turning into an hour-long conversation explaining what it means to be gay/straight/bi/pan/etc, to have a particular racial heritage, to express national origin, to explain the basics of religious beliefs and moral codes and value systems, etc. As long as we use labels as a shortcut and don't apply them too rigidly, I see no harm in using labels.

Labeeling is a lazy device so that we do not have to deal with the specific instance.

It's how our mind works. it's not necessarily a conscious decision.

We label everything so that we can easily refer to them later.

That's why we have names, dates, addresses, numbers, etc.

I eschew most labels. However, some are beneficial to help with understanding certain things. A lot of people don't know how to understand something without a label.
Unfortunately, labels are frequently used to marginalize others.
I'd rather we all "just be".

Because it's what we've been programmed to do by those who profit by keeping us divided.