>>...you're smart enough to realize when something is harmful to you and avoid it. Apparently this skill is dwindling.<<
Possibly a trauma response. I've been in situations where I recognize that A Thing is bad for me, but when I try to object or meet my needs or point out the problem I get told no, or outright prevented from meeting my needs. The end result is that sometimes I have a very passive response to unhealthy or upsetting situations, and that is assuming that I even recognize the situation as 'bad.'
Some of this was childhood stuff, some of it was me being a low(er) ranking adult. So take that, magnify it across society, and it's not surprising that the skills to identify and protect ourselves from harm are eroding.
Then you get to the other part of the problem, where a person who is socialized that 'having boundaries/meeting your needs is Bad' project that attitude onto other people. This can be done unconsciously, and even when people are aware, it can be very hard to override.
>>But lack of anonymity doesn't seem to reduce abuse.<<
but it can dramatically increase unpleasant behavior. There are studies correlating facepaint/masks/etc with increased aggression. It is also a common strategy to defuse an attacker by humanizing yourself/the victim. What's that saying, "It's real hard to hate up close," I think?
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dancing_serpent
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2024-03-27 10:01 pm (UTC)Possibly a trauma response. I've been in situations where I recognize that A Thing is bad for me, but when I try to object or meet my needs or point out the problem I get told no, or outright prevented from meeting my needs. The end result is that sometimes I have a very passive response to unhealthy or upsetting situations, and that is assuming that I even recognize the situation as 'bad.'
Some of this was childhood stuff, some of it was me being a low(er) ranking adult. So take that, magnify it across society, and it's not surprising that the skills to identify and protect ourselves from harm are eroding.
Then you get to the other part of the problem, where a person who is socialized that 'having boundaries/meeting your needs is Bad' project that attitude onto other people. This can be done unconsciously, and even when people are aware, it can be very hard to override.
>>But lack of anonymity doesn't seem to reduce abuse.<<
but it can dramatically increase unpleasant behavior. There are studies correlating facepaint/masks/etc with increased aggression. It is also a common strategy to defuse an attacker by humanizing yourself/the victim. What's that saying, "It's real hard to hate up close," I think?