If I have beef with someone, I could punch them and go to jail.

But I can also bully them, humiliate them, degrade them, psychologically annihilate them even, and that’s fine, legallly. Why?

  • curiousaur@reddthat.comOP
    0·
    1 month ago

    My follow-up thought. Would so many people not rather be hit once than ostracized forever from a group?

    Isn’t a punch or a slap or a headlock better any social or mental punishment? It becomes almost therapeutic for both parties.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      1 month ago

      Mutual combat wasn’t uncommon when I was a kid. When two men were sick of each other’s shit, they would fist fight. They wouldn’t fight dirty. When the fight was over they’d often shake hands, and be done with that conflict. The wounds would heal within a couple of weeks. Emotional wounds from harassment and betrayal sometimes never heal.