The people who insist that we are all living through a simulation, even though at some level there is truth to that, bother me greatly as it's dismissive of people's very real feelings. One person who does not get my goat in this regard, is John Ege. In a comment thread on one of his pieces, https://solarchariot.medium.com/can-you-test-simulation-theory-58e508a687dc, he said to me:

"Did you ever play a video game, and get so mad you tossed the controller…The video game is a simulation. Your reaction to the video is solid real! The emotions are real."

You can see my https://medium.com/know-thyself-heal-thyself/lets-talk-about-villains-and-victims-c7795f2fa91e for more discussion of the topic, which includes this poem I wrote:

"villains and victims

roles we play on stage called life

yet do not dismiss

very real we all witness

screw those insist otherwise"