You don’t need one. You want one.

 I don’t need a lot of things, but I want them

Luckily I’m a white male living in North America, and I can want a lot of things

But

I could legitimately rationalize a need for something like that

 You could legitimately rationalize a use for something like that.

:d

I lecture you because i see so many parallels between us

but I’m more guilty of that shit than you and shouldn’t be nagging you about it

INSTEAD i lecture you and piss you off

I do it out of love

and old man crotchetiness

 How many cameras do you own?

If I thought you were legitimately getting on my case for wanting cool stuff I don’t need all the time we probably wouldn’t hang out as much as we do

 I own 1 if you count my phone

 I mean, something like that is the sort of item I would want to make excuses to go out and use

What about your dslr and film body?

 True. My mom gave me the film body Liz technically owns the dslr

But my ski gear and climbing gear

None of them “needs”

 You don’t need that stuff, but they enable your hobbies which contribute to your petal physical and mental health.

 Yes and those are valid uses.

But I define needs as literally as possible

Or try to

 Well, you need good mental health. How do you sustain good mental health? By engaging in hobbies and activities that stimulate you. What are some of those hobbies? And you can just keep going from there.

 Yeah but if you simplify that it’s really just justifying retail therapy

 I mean, you could turn it into a total numbers game, make se spread sheets that break down cost-to-enjoyment, and min max everything. But that’s not as fun

 Depends if it’s your hobby or not

 I would argue against that. Retail therapy implies that it’s the retail experience of acquiring goods that makes you feel satisfied.

But purchasing goods that would contribute to a hobby that beings me satisfaction is different than retail therapy.

 But they are related

 One could argue that certain items are not necessary to the hobby, but I’m arguing that they enhance the hobby

There’s no denying that new and shiny things are awesome, but I’m much more excited about the idea of camping and exploring more than I am about the tablet. The tablet is just a spark, the forest is where the fire is.

Heh, forest fire.

 Yeah. My hobbies are really gear intensive though and you see a similar thought process justify ridiculous unwarranted purchases

Forrest fired