That analogy is too convoluted to be worth unpacking.
But some people react with hostility to A’s “rational problem solving” in the face of B’s “emotional problems” because they see A as a threat. Which A might well be; this sort of framing can be a significant challenge to B’s credibility. (More generally, it’s a status challenge.) Similarly, some people react with hostility to B’s “overload of emotion” because they see that as a threat.
So understanding why acceding to a perceived threat isn’t necessarily the only rational response seems important if I want to understand the thing ialdabaoth has yet to understand.
As for stress-reduction as a behavior-manipulation tool… I’m all in favor of it when the power differential is sufficiently high in my favor. When the differential favors the ill-behaved person, though… well, I’m less sanguine. For example: yes, I understand being X in public frequently causes anxiety in non-Xes, which can sometimes lead them to bad behavior, but for many Xes the (oft suggested) response of not being X in public so as to reduce the incidence of that bad behavior seems importantly unjust.
(nods) Fair enough. In cases where the underpowered person happens to know techniques for lowering the anxiety of the overpowered person without suffering additional penalties by so doing (e.g., has been trained in NVC), I’m more inclined to endorse them doing so.
That analogy is too convoluted to be worth unpacking.
But some people react with hostility to A’s “rational problem solving” in the face of B’s “emotional problems” because they see A as a threat. Which A might well be; this sort of framing can be a significant challenge to B’s credibility. (More generally, it’s a status challenge.) Similarly, some people react with hostility to B’s “overload of emotion” because they see that as a threat.
So understanding why acceding to a perceived threat isn’t necessarily the only rational response seems important if I want to understand the thing ialdabaoth has yet to understand.
As for stress-reduction as a behavior-manipulation tool… I’m all in favor of it when the power differential is sufficiently high in my favor. When the differential favors the ill-behaved person, though… well, I’m less sanguine. For example: yes, I understand being X in public frequently causes anxiety in non-Xes, which can sometimes lead them to bad behavior, but for many Xes the (oft suggested) response of not being X in public so as to reduce the incidence of that bad behavior seems importantly unjust.
Non-Violent Communication is a system for lowering anxiety in confrontations without giving in.
(nods) Fair enough. In cases where the underpowered person happens to know techniques for lowering the anxiety of the overpowered person without suffering additional penalties by so doing (e.g., has been trained in NVC), I’m more inclined to endorse them doing so.