How to react to aggression?

🟥1. Even two thousand years ago Cicero warned — “Impunity is the greatest encouragement of crime.” Lack of reaction on the part of the object of aggression is always perceived by the predator as weakness, as an invitation to continue the aggression. It has long been known in criminology that major crimes are rarely committed suddenly — they begin with small everyday incidents and then, fed by impunity, grow exponentially.

🟥2. Dehumanization and humiliation — these are signs of preparation for aggression; they form the perception of the other as “less than human,” or an “artificial state,” which simplifies aggressive actions. Dehumanization begins with small restrictions and ridicule (ban from a position, prohibition of activities). It leads to the formation of a kind of “defective” image, which makes aggression “justified” in the aggressor’s mind. At the same time, the aggressor often denies it — presenting the aggression as a joke or irony, or masking it as humor (“it’s just a joke”). In, reality, it constantly humiliates. “You don’t get jokes? Are you offended?”

🟥3. Aggression is always at first disguised as an accident. The school bully “accidentally” shoved, the husband “accidentally” hit, and so on. A person pushes, steps on a foot, throws something “by accident” toward another, but presents it as a coincidence. How to distinguish a real accident? The aggressor never takes responsibility and always shifts it onto others (“I raised my hand and here your face reacted”).

🟥4. The aggressor constantly shifts the blame onto the victim, presenting himself as the victim; he always emphasizes that he was forced to use aggression in order to restore order — I had to teach my wife to behave appropriately, I was provoked and I was forced to respond toto restore order, and so on. I am restoring order, not the aggressor.

Instead of expressions of concern, let us listen to Machiavelli’s practical advice on how to defend.

✅1. The earlier the response to aggression begins, the easier it is to prevent it. “A disease in its beginning is easy to treat but difficult to recognize; when it has developed, it is easy to recognize but difficult to cure.” (Il Principe, ch. III). Aggression must be stopped at the bud before it grows into a dangerous conflict. It is like cancer — the earlier and more complete the response, the higher the chances of cure, while advanced stages are hard to cure.

✅2. The response to aggression must be fast, brief, and powerful. Machiavelli believed that if one responds to aggression with weakness or hesitation, it will provoke further attacks. Better one strong blow than constant minor punishments that create hatred — otherwise, aggression will only multiply. Therefore, cancer is not removed precisely along the border — it is always excised taking healthy tissue, removing regional lymph nodes — an extended operation reduces the probability of metastases.

✅3. The response to aggression must vastly exceed the result of the aggression, and not merely be proportionate to it, to suppress the desire to try again and to instill fear. The criterion of the response’s effectiveness is the formation of a sense of fear in the aggressor — only this is capable of stopping him. In responding to aggression the main thing is to create fear of the consequences.

✅4. Appearance of calm, essence of harshness. Public expression of worries and fears increases the likelihood of repetition of aggression, because that is the goal — to intimidate to paralyze the will to resist. Outwardly appear calm, but be ready for a harsh response. “A prince must be able to be a beast: both a lion to frighten wolves and a fox to recognize traps.” (Il Principe, ch. XVIII). Outwardly, one should look temperate and just, but in responding to aggression — act harshly and without hesitation.

Do not believe the disguise about “focus on the nation’s health” — in reality the right-wing have always aimed aggression at sick elderly people and disabled people, from programs to kill disabled people in fascist Germany to dismantling public healthcare, reducing its accessibility, cutting sanitation programs and vaccination programs — violence and aggression are so easy toward the disabled!

✅5. Wives and children.

Do not believe the disguise about the “traditional family” — the right-wing strive for total power and impunity for violence within the family. This manifests overtly in decriminalizing domestic violence or covertly as an emphasis on the “traditional family,” where a man supposedly must have power and control; resistance to laws protecting from domestic violence under the pretext of “state interference in the family”; denial of the systemic nature of the problem (for example, claims that violence is “exaggerated by feminists”).

Here also is aggression in the form of control over education — cutting the quality of educational programs, reducing people’s knowledge about their health and psychology — so they remain vulnerable.

Biology of right-wingness in simple words. The right-wing spectrum of views (traditional or better to say barbaric) can be simply explained through amygdala activity. The larger the amygdala, the more right-wing views a person adheres to. The size of the amygdala can have a genetic influence; it is more often larger in cases of an adverse childhood or life in conditions of high social unpredictability (unsafe communities).

📖The larger the amygdala, the greater simultaneously the fear (fear of the new, fear of threats, fear of change) and the higher the aggression and vigilance (increased reactivity to threat leads to impulsive aggression). Fear and aggression — that is all you need to understand the right-wing (barbaric) mind.

In primates the amygdala plays a key role in perceiving hierarchy and regulating behavior in social groups — acting as a social scanner. Local position in the hierarchy is determined by who beats you and whom you beat.

🤔It is simple here: in relation to those higher in status it triggers reactions of fear, anticipatory submission, flattery, groveling, and threats before a more statusful individual (to reduce the likelihood of conflict). The primate brain assesses status through enacted aggression — therefore the coolest ones seem to be those who inflict the most violence and can kill with impunity.

Such people have a strong tendency toward submission — they strive to submit preemptively, blindly follow rules, and express personal loyalty and fidelity to those higher in the hierarchy. And those who inflict less violence appear low-status. That is why tramp grovels before all dictators — they seem to him much more high-status, and for example in russia a leader’s popularity is directly proportional to the number of people he has killed.

In relation to those lower in the hierarchy (this means capable of less violence from the primate brain’s point of view) the amygdala provokes a drive toward aggression and control. The more defenseless someone is (low threat), the more organized aggression is directed at them. This aggression allows one to raise one’s status (the more violence you demonstrate, the higher your subjective primate status). Therefore hatred becomes desirable, and the number of objects of hatred and enemies steadily grows, bringing dopamine.

Very often the object of aggression is anything foreign, new, and spontaneous (it produces a mixture of fear and aggression) — from dances to technologies — generating acts of violence such as destroying 5G towers and other conspiracy-driven attacks.

The drive of the right-wing brain is usually simple — maximal control over the bodies of vulnerable groups and a passionate adoration of all objects that can be used to perpetrate violence (fanaticism for combat sports, weapons, etc.).

Who are the typical objects of violence?

✅1. Women, especially pregnant women.

Do not believe the disguise about “the rights of the embryo” — they do not care about it. A pregnant woman is the ideal vulnerable object of violence for the right-wing. Pregnancy, breastfeeding and raising a child make a woman dependent and a desirable prey with nowhere to run, dependent on the abuser and vulnerable financially and physically. Misogyny and ridiculing women are typical traits.

✅2. Migrants and people of other nationalities and races.

Do not believe the disguise about “traditional values” — they are not advocating courses about history and culture for migrants. Migrants and minorities are ideal objects of persecution and violence simply because they are more vulnerable and stand out more, which means aggression toward them will be easier and more likely to go unpunished.

✅3. Gays and LGBT people.

Do not believe the claim of “traditionalism” — violence and obsession with what other people do in the bedroom and the desire to control it is aggression into the intimate sphere where violence is so easy to carry out and intimidate. For the right-wing, sex itself is only a weapon of humiliation.

✅4.Sick people.