It sounds however your own biases make it sound. This is a dumb game.

Ok, not what I meant at all. Especially the part about making things up (why insert this?). I just meant that there’s no rule that small talk has to stay as such. You’re making it seem like I meant one should be an unhinged narcissist bragging about their life while ignoring everyone around them.

If you have an interesting life then you can commandeer small talk and make it interesting. It’s an opportunity to introduce other material.

Here is a perspective from someone who has owned an inside/outside cat for the last 12 years. My cat is independent and resourceful and yes, contributes to ecodestruction by killing birds and mice occasionally. To me this is negligible compared to the ecodestruction of simply existing in a city. If I lived in nature I would not have a cat. I don’t think you can conflate my cat killing a pigeon twice a year in an urban environment with destroying the ecosystem.

It’s also disengenuous to ignore the quality of life improvements of having a cat who is free to explore vs. one locked in an apartment all day. I recently moved and am now experiencing this and it sucks. I feel terrible for restricting her freedom and she is visibly less happy. If you think animals are sentient and have emotions, and you care about the environment, then none of what we are currently doing makes any sense.