Yikes

[cjsmith]

I have recently faced the idea that there may be people I have met and liked who honestly believe that attacking the innocent and the powerless, especially girls or young women, is a good way to get things done.

I do not know if I am misunderstanding the person in question. It seems likely. I could be taking things too literally, a common failing of mine.* I could be misunderstanding in some other way. But even supposing this one is a misunderstanding, I've now faced the idea, and it's not at all pleasant.

Maybe I was in the Army too long. (I honestly believe the vast majority of US soldiers hold this value as strongly as I do.) You don't DO shit like that. You don't even THINK about THREATENING to do shit like that.

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* If I'm starting to get ticked off, it could be nothing more serious than my belief that what you say is what you mean. A useful tactic might be to remind both of us of this pattern. Humans are neither robots nor computers, and I forget that too often.

Comments

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

I take most things literally, too, unless it's obviously not ("I died laughing" being a good example of that ;-)

Is this something you can ask the other person for clarification about, saying that you think you misunderstood something? If it's someone who I otherwise think highly of that's the approach I'd take. If it's a casual acquaintance who you know but don't interact a lot with, I usually let it go and take a wait and see attitude.

Either way, yeah, disturbing.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Casual acquaintance. I, um, disagreed strongly, but without insulting the person (only the idea). We'll see. I hope I haven't just made an enemy of a person I honestly thought I liked.