Question of the day:

[featherynscale]

It is my understanding that in this culture, the proper response to random verbal abuse is to yell back, "Well, fuck you, then!" or some such brilliant retort. wolfieboy made a post about the tendency to do this about a week and a half ago.

So, my question is this: If you are the recipient of random verbal abuse and you have no particular urge to respond in the socially acceptable manner, i.e. by throwing it right back, is it more likely that you're enlightened/polite, or that you're apathetic/inured to abuse?

Comments

[kimjerosky.livejournal.com]

How about enlightened/apathetic? Apathetic essentially means "feeling or showing little or no emotion" and that certainly seems the enlightened response to "random" abuse. The abuser has failed on many levels when they get no response from a drive-by profanity. Lack of response could even be seen as a direct, frontal attack on their gender-hood. Of course, when viewed in that light, the "enlightened" part starts to slip away somewhat, but I feel the satisfaction is worth the slippage.

I can't get no...

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

I'll second this. Watching some rage impotently may not be enlightened, but it certainly makes for good stories later (see below).