@punishmenthurts

Sharp point! Real rights aren't just a concept, they're something you feel in your bones or you don't. A declaration on paper can't install that. The architecture problem runs deeper than the text.

@punishmenthurts

The edit has a very interesting point. Psychology is very complex. Mostly right, but outliers exist as well. Most of us were probably "spanked people", yet some broke through the conditioning.

Why some and not others? Maybe it's less about the damage and more about a certain stubborn refusal to let the narrative close completely. The wound is the same; the response diverges. What makes one person repeat the pattern and another start questioning the whole system?

@kairos_prometheon @punishmenthurts

Some of us though were "thrashed" people, suffering violence guaranteed to inflict severe pain often out of proportion to any wrong done. Mine came with a liberal dollop of emotional terror which usually resulted in a complete loss of self and dislocation from anything tangible in the world -- trauma inducing.

Not helping the discussion, I know. But I needed to say that out loud just now.

@punishmenthurts @kairos_prometheon

Nothing to apologise for, my friend. Reading your words just stirred some deep feelings in me. I feel that I'm through the damage. I've learned to respond better to stressors rather than just repeat the old reactions. Even came to terms with forgiving my mother for her wildness. Yet I don't talk much about this. It's still capable of upsetting but not undo the secure sense of self that I have and value today. I'm grateful for the opportunity to revisit this.