One of the reasons the world is in its current state is that the leader of the USA wanted - and openly said so - revenge against those who had given him a hard time in any way, shape, or form.
I am of the view that that is reasonably well understood.
What is possibly not as well understood is that voters who had similar senses of grievance and desire to get even with those they (wrongly) thought had harmed them voted that vengeful vendetta back in to power.
The desire to get even - often over a perceived slight to social status, which is why that concept is one of evil - is a powerful motivator. This is not rational - it is highly emotional, and that is why trying to address this only through the head (presenting evidence, logical arguments, etc) will be of limited (but not no) use. That evidence and arguments MUST be presented in a way that is aware of and addresses the grievances involved.
I have come across two particularly elitist problems that I consider need to be addressed.
The first is that of social privilege, which I consider would have to be close to being the most incompetently explained concept in all of history. The amathiacs who spout this always start with the definition used in academia, which ALWAYS get a response about the allegedly privileged not having an easy life, and that leads to an addition - which looks suspect because it was added on, and could be seen as trying to weasel out of addressing the issue.
For Goddess’ sake, LEARN and START with the disclaimer - always, without waiting for the inevitable counterargument!!!
Until those incompetent amathiac academics have the attitude that their aim is to create a situation where, even in pubs with people currently unlikely to support the concept of social privilege, if someone criticises the concept, many people around will explain why the critic is wrong, they will keep losing the battle to change society - BECAUSE those incompetent amathiac academics are ACTIVELY CREATING THE NEXT BACKLASH.
There are also needs for better teaching of critical thinking - which will help reduce the number of people falling victim to scams (and that should be one of the measures of the effectiveness of such teaching).
As an example of the scope and type of problems, consider this: “America’s Struggle with Anti-Reason Under Trump II” https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2025/05/living-against-reason-american-survival-in-trump-ii/
The other issue is expecting others to change their careers (and a blue collar job CAN be a career) in response to changed economic circumstance. Those flippant change-your-job advocates (they’re not all flippant - some get it) I have spoken to on that often seem to be reacting out of anger at the abuse they have received from blue collar workers - and that abuse is wrong, and the anger is understandable, but reacting out of it goes beyond counterproductive to actively destructive
I am aware civil wars etc are started by rich white men angry at losing social status, but they rely on the disaffected to be willing foot soldiers, and thus they and their issues cannot be ignored
Do NOT underestimate or ignore or downplay the desire to “get even”.
And NEVER forget: vengeance leads to vengeance ...
The USA has one example of this, although that lasted only thirty years or so.
Where invasions of land or religion are involved, such cycles of vengeance can last for centuries - as was the case in Ireland and Northern Ireland (the Troubles in Northern Ireland came in the context of centuries of conflict, but were noticed by the world more as the other conflicts had been ended, if not resolved), for instance.
In those circumstances, I have heard some amathiac outsiders say “oh just be adults” - which is so dismissive of the very real and valid pain that it almost should be criminal. Consider this: if you lost loved ones to sadistic violence, is you pain or anger childish? If their prolonged torture and slow killing happened in another city/state/nation and you were ordered to not feel upset about it because it wasn’t here, could you?
Those offensive amathiacs need to be told - forcefully - to be silent and move on.
A little more realistically, perhaps after a few years or generations, another outsider will come in and diss everyone involved by saying the issues don’t mean much (or anything - especially if they're also going in to the “be adults” judgemental rubbish discussed above), or, more credibly, saying that the issues don't validly stack up against pain and harm being caused.
The second approach is valid, the first is patronising, paternalistic, condescending, and centering the outsider.
The first approach is illustrated by the too many episodes where outsiders have come in to a situation, failed to listen and/or tried to enforce their outsider values, and everything has got worse - which ranges from family disagreements (and no-one has to put up with an abusive family or family member), through workplace disputes (and see my recent post here) to national or international disputes or conflicts.
The second approach, which sometimes is only possible when emotional distance to the first pain has resulted in a combination of accumulated new pain and weakened old pain which can be overcome with a broader perspective (which may not be new - it may have been suggested when the energies were too intense for it to work) is illustrated by “Maybe We All Got This Wrong, And That’s Okay ... ” https://youtube.com/shorts/YtSeHKv_vdE , which, although framed in the context of one particular religion, discusses transcending those aspects of being human that can lead to ongoing conflict.
However, as I have written about elsewhere, forgiveness, even though it may give very significant relief to some people, is not the answer.
The behaviour that led to the need for forgiveness must be eradicated.
If that aspect is included, then we are talking about the far healthier concept of letting go, not the manipulable and manipulative forgiveness.
A lot of this comes down to: don’t hate ... or at least don’t impose vengeance - justice, yes, but not vengeance, as vengeance only creates a new cycle.
However, not imposing vengeance (whether the healthier second approach {or even the fatally flawed forced forgiveness approach]), makes healing harder - especially if some of those outsiders (or insiders) are actually acting because they want it all “out of sight, out of mind”, which shows their lack of genuineness and forcibly buries pain in those harmed, which is both actively harmful, and a block to actually being healed.
If you are in such a situation, do not stint on your efforts to resolve it constructively, and do not underestimate the self healing you will need - possibly including lots of shadow work, and likely also including - if you can - lots of recuperation and some convalescence.
Possible flaws
Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:
- there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;
- I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also other options.
Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here.
(Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear)
Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).#PsychicABetterWorld and may all that I do be of value and actively BPM used for and by the nonphysical BPM
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