We seem to be talking past each other. I'm not saying it is **exactly ** the same, but in absence of a better facsimile (maybe you can find a better one?) I compared it to intrinsic characteristics that are not necessarily life threatening or even necessarily noticed by other people. Maybe comparing it to a character trait would be better. Character traits are real, they exist, they are not simple decisions. They are tightly linked to your experience of self. Can you work on altering them? Of course you can. But the manifestations of said character traits are as real and valid and to the person in question as important and necessary as anything else. They are not just a set of clothes you can put on or take off at will. Take a musical prodigy - they feel it in their bones, it is something they must do. Now will they perish if they don't? Of course not, you can stick them into working construction for the rest of their days and they will still be ok, still find some joy in life but that nagging feeling of something missing, of being held back will be there. Same goes for your typical "adrenaline junkie". The predisposition is valid and structurally real, arising from the make-up of the individual brain. It is also not set in stone, just like a person's character can change over time. This is what makes it seem like just a decision even when it goes way deeper than a fleeting preference or a practical arrangement. I hope I've clarified my position now. And again obviously denigrating people for being poly while annoying is nowhere near to slavery, racism, sexism, ostracizing based on clinical disability, etc.