It seems that it would be easier to keep one’s identity small the less one deviates from the norms.
Literally screaming racial slurs in a person’s face is an offensive act. Acting cool may be one good defensive strategy, but other strategies are not unwarranted.
Maybe I’m having a problem with ‘offended’ as a mental state as opposed to something like ‘angry’. ‘Angry’ seems more of a mental state or feeling within yourself, while ‘offended’ seems less of a feeling but more a description of an act that you are attributing to the other person.
I read this post more as “Don’t get angry” than as “Don’t get offended” or “Don’t feel attacked”
It seems that it would be easier to keep one’s identity small the less one deviates from the norms.
Not least because identity isn’t just under one’s own control — it’s also imposed from without by other people. So if person X is unusual in some salient way, other people are likely to end up impressing that fact upon person X, even if person X wants to discount that aspect of their identity.
It seems that it would be easier to keep one’s identity small the less one deviates from the norms.
Literally screaming racial slurs in a person’s face is an offensive act. Acting cool may be one good defensive strategy, but other strategies are not unwarranted.
Maybe I’m having a problem with ‘offended’ as a mental state as opposed to something like ‘angry’. ‘Angry’ seems more of a mental state or feeling within yourself, while ‘offended’ seems less of a feeling but more a description of an act that you are attributing to the other person.
I read this post more as “Don’t get angry” than as “Don’t get offended” or “Don’t feel attacked”
A large part of one’s identity is acquired by conforming to and identifying with social norms.
Not least because identity isn’t just under one’s own control — it’s also imposed from without by other people. So if person X is unusual in some salient way, other people are likely to end up impressing that fact upon person X, even if person X wants to discount that aspect of their identity.
Not that it’s impossible mind. Just harder. Still, good point.