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make everybody else uncomfortable & nobody telling them to shut the fuck up. They were probably even invited back next time.

The recognizable situation is that of an Asshole being able to enter any room & ruin everyone else's day with zero repercussions.

Meanwhile, if anyone did speak up, even if just to voice polite disagreement, the Asshole would get all riled up & then the person who spoke up would be accused of ruining the mood. Maybe even excluded from the next gathering

2/

so as not to anger the Asshole.

As a result, Assholes know they can asshole without consequences & absolutely do so on purpose. Again, everyone has been at that table with family, at work etc. & seen the smug look on their face as they pull the trigger, daring anyone to stop them.

Simply put: While rampant, deliberate assholery has not been socially policed at all, pushing back against it carries a social death sentence.

This is why even now, with all that's going on in the world

3/

& with the evidence of harm on an unpredecented scale right in everyone's face, anyone even trying to speak up will almost always do so apologetically, carefully swaddling what should be an unmistakeable & rightful condemnation of assholery in weasel words & preemptive bowing.

- and then the speaker will bend over even further & apologize even more when faced with a just as inevitable barrage of accusations of ruining the mood, thinly veiled as questions.

4/

In essence, the only reason They were able to succeed in digging up the world's tiny minority of rampant Assholes, weaponize them into making us turn on ourselves & using the manufactured conflict to seize power - basically giving racist granny a bullhorn & then stealing all the silverware under cover of the ensuing chaos - is that Assholes were & remain the most socially protected, coddled minority in world history.

Maybe it's time we did something about that...?

/end

@jwcph I speak up right away now, you know what has changed? People are less shocked, even ready for me.