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passive aggressiveness is used by the powerless and the cowards. if you weren't powerless you wouldn't need to be passive aggressive and if you weren't a cowar
by PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago
passive aggressiveness is used by the powerless and the cowards.
if you weren't powerless you wouldn't need to be passive aggressive and if you weren't a coward you'd take the risk associated with being truthful.
- passion__desire 3y agoThere are multiple kinds of powers. Power of money e.g. JK Rowling. Or power of social wind blowing your way as some groups tried to silence her.
- simmer 3y agoCriticism =/= silencing.
- whythre 3y agoDeath threats = silencing.
- amanaplanacanal 3y agoDeath threats should be investigated and prosecuted. People are still allowed to criticize illiberal opinions.
- passion__desire 3y agoThe problem isn't opinions but inconsistent ones which the Left is imposing on others. Here's Richard Dawkins tearing apart the Left's logic. A white woman identifying as black women is bad while a man identifying as a woman is ok.
- Wistar 3y agoA recent Ken White (Popehat) essay: “My Free Speech Means You Have To Shut Up” https://popehat.substack.com/p/my-free-speech-means-you-have-to https://popehat.substack.com/p/my-free-speech-means-you-have...
- oatmeal1 3y agoThe comment you're replying to is accurate. The intent is to silence her.
- mbb70 3y agoI'm sorry you feel that way
- tinktank 3y agoI see what you did there. If that's what makes you happy...
- circlefavshape 3y agoMeh. When I'm passive aggressive it's when I'm trying to surpress my annoyance about something, but it sneaks out anyway.
- naremu 3y agoHave you never been in a real workplace? Passive aggressiveness is generally the tool of those in power to deflect any potential criticisms/issue taking, and the lower rung and more powerless the worker, the less their overt aggression matters, and is much more tolerated by their same level colleagues/environment.
- hinkley 3y agoI came to say that PA is a tool (weapon, really) of covert narcissists, so your response is as good a place as any to chime in. Since bosses are disproportionately narcissistic, there’s going to be some correlation there.
- achow 3y agoDown voting of this comment is aggressive or passive aggressive? The words 'coward', 'powerless' too aggressive? That's the reason this comment is getting passive-aggressively downvoted?
- ganzuul 3y agoLooks like venting. Some people are however able to word their venting so that they get upvoted for the same.
- the_af 3y ago> passive aggressiveness is used by the powerless and the cowards. Those are potential users of passive-aggressiveness, but if you meant an implied "it's ONLY used by...", then you're wrong. The article itself narrates an example where it's used in a context where the person is neither powerless nor a coward.
- PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y agoWhat you're trying to say is that it's also used for deflection, which is true, but that falls under cowardice. If you were powerful or not a coward you wouldn't need to deflect for dissemble. When people talk about FU money, this is what they're talking about.
- the_af 3y agoI don't think it falls under cowardice, certainly not consciously so. I don't think human behavior can always be classified as either "brave" or "cowardly". (I also disagree that deflection is always a form of cowardice -- not wanting to deal with something directly is sometimes cowardice, sometimes laziness, sometimes tiredness, and sometimes other things). It seems people develop certain behaviors, sometimes defensive, sometimes aggressive, sometimes something other, as they grow up, and they get deployed not always consciously. It took the Aaron of this story at least 1+ therapy sessions to partially unpack what he was doing, and possibly why. It doesn't reek of cowardice to me. He was in a position of power (the money-maker) but wasn't afraid of his partner; rather he felt feelings of irritation which were masked with guilt. "Cowardice" is not how I would describe it.
- PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y agoMany people are not good with confrontation, passive aggressiveness is generally how you show aggression without confrontation. There can be a myriad of reasons for this, but it's still cowardice. I've read many accounts of people who have found their career's doing better once they have enough money in the bank to feel secure because they're more comfortable taking risks and being outspoken at work. Avoiding risk is what passive aggressiveness is about, hence the cowardice.
- ganzuul 3y agoBeing powerless and being a coward are very different outsets. It's not clear that you are taking that into account, and not inventing a new and rhetorically stillborn category.
- PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y agopowerless and cowardly people both eat, yet somehow we're still able to consider them separate outsets. And since I have no doubt this isn't going to be understood, passive aggressiveness can be employed by different categories of people.
- darkerside 3y agoPerhaps being passive aggressive is a choice, not just something people need to do. I could use the latent, or manifest, threat of violence to get my way in relationships. I choose not to, because I like those relationships and want them to continue. Is that passive aggressive? While interesting, I think the essay vastly oversimplifies in its effort to make a point.
- disambiguation 3y agosays the anonymous poster.