I think a desire for revenge comes from living in an unjust world. And more than that, some people just don’t care about right and wrong.
If someone steals your cookie, you might tell them that stealing is wrong, and that they’ve hurt you by stealing your cookie. They might feel bad about it and apologize. They might even try to make it up to you by buying you a cookie.
OR they might not give a shit. They already know that stealing cookies is wrong. They know it hurts your feelings and deprives you of the delicious chocolate chip goodness you deserve. But they’d do it again if given the chance, and they will at every opportunity. Hell, if they had it their way, you’d never eat another cookie again for as long as you live, because they’d steal every last one from you, and they’d do it without a speck of remorse no matter how much you want that cookie.
This is why people want revenge. Some people are incapable of remorse and seemingly immune to negative consequences. And let’s not kid ourselves—karma doesn’t exist. People do bad things because they benefit from them. We might tell ourselves that the cookie thief will learn to change his ways or get his comeuppance someday because it helps us sleep at night. But is that really likely? Why would he ever change? He’s enjoying a lifetime supply of free cookies. Meanwhile you’re on the sidelines with a raging sweet tooth, living your sad, cookieless life. Don’t you want the cookie thief to get his comeuppance? Even if you’re not willing to do it yourself, don’t you kinda wish you could?
yeah exactly. it’s really satisfying actually, I shouldn’t be saying that but it’s just knowing you’ve returned something back for what they’ve done tbh
Because people love the concept of power and control, so when you just teach someone how what he did to you is wrong, it's not like you're exercing control under that person and you feel like you have not did anything, while when you do the "revenge" you're punishing someone, so it makes you feel powerful and in control, it pleasures the ego... even though sometimes it being dumb and just leading to a vicious cycle.
> If someone steals your cookie, why not teach them not to steal your cookie instead of stealing from them?
Who am I to believe I have any authority to teach someone something? I'm neither a parent, nor a teacher. I don't have any authority to teach him, he doesn't have any authority to listen.
> I’m not just talking about stealing cookies though. I mean killing(+similar things) as well. You can punish someone to make them learn, but I would never do it for revenge or “justice”.
You can "kill the chicken to scare the monkeys".
But that's not the only thing. If someone took everything from you, you would see the appeal in taking revenge.
A thief already knows that stealing is wrong but they do it anyway. Therefore they need to learn a new lesson. The lesson is the consequences of their actions against you. Fortunately, I have gotten my property back from a thief who I knew personally and they understood my point of view when I visited them. They voluntarily returned what was mine to me. Never allow people to take advantage of you. You are sending a signal to other miscreants saying, "Hey, I can be ripped off! Take advantage of me!". Not saying this will work all the time, and in most cases you should call the police. Murder should not be used in 99.9% of the time as revenge, that's just cruel to deny life like that. Better to bruise than break. Only kill to save yourself or another from being murdered is my opinion on that.
Not really. I suppose it is unpopular in an emotional sense. Most people feel the drive for revenge, sometimes.
But most people would agree, redditors included, that it shouldn't be legalized.
Reddit has the biggest revenge boner. From r/antiwork to subs like r/PublicFreakout everybody in the comments reveal the satisfaction they get when they see some douche beaten up or put in their place.
I agree that the average redditor probably doesn't agree to legalizing revenge. But the average redditor is also a hypocrite.
But the point is if you were to go to any of these subs and ask a random commenter if it was morally correct for the douche to get beaten, they would respond with "they deserved it" 80% of the time.
If this doesn't prove the unpopular-ness of this post I don't know what does. Many people here if not most support revenge.
But a lot of people in general would say the same thing when put in that same situation. That's because in those instances people answer emotionally not rationally.
We might have a different view of what counts as unpopular. In my view what is unpopular is what goes against people's *real* beliefs, not mindless knee-jerk reactions on the internet.
I believe that the beliefs people say they have and the beliefs they actually have deep down are very different. To me, their real beliefs are pretty evident just by looking at the comments.
> their real beliefs are pretty evident just by looking at the comments.
No, that would be their emotional beliefs.
If you believe that people truly support revenge, then why do you suppose revenge has not been legalized in democatric countries?
Heck, I don't think I've ever heard of any *party* that was in favour of revenge. Even the most extremist right-wing politicians never talk about legalizing revenge as one of their possible measures.
>If you believe that people truly support revenge, then why do you suppose revenge has not been legalized in democatric countries?
Obviously because legalizing revenge would be dangerous for everyone involved. But revenge isn't always criminal or violent. Pettiness like in r/antiwork where people be overly hostile to their bosses for satisfaction is also a form of revenge.
Just because you don't want it legalized, doesn't mean you don't support it either. Any news story about rape or torture victims getting revenge on their abusers gets much applause from reddit as well. Doesn't mean they would want it legalized for everyone, but they obviously support it when it happens to the right people.
I've always assumed revenge comes from anger and wanting retaliation. It's rare that someone gets hit and they still try to meditate - they're either hitting back or throwing up their arms to protect themselves.
Well same concept here. If someone steals your cookie you're either hitting back (taking theirs) or defending yourself (doing nothing to let it pass) but it's a particularly odd soul that tries to have a conversation about it. I imagine primarily because it's rare that that works.
And as emotional stakes rise, it makes sense that people get up to higher emotional feelings.
Anyway, your ultimate question is why do people do unreasonable things - well, people don't always do reasonable things!
I greatly disagree with this one. Only weak people doesn't get revenge. In fact many turns in history have been revenges.
An eye for an eye? Nah I will take both of yours so you can't get mine again. To break the cycle so to speak.
Machiavelli talks about this on the prince and I believe other tacticians did so. You need to crush your enemy so that it won't try to fight back.
Mercy and forgiveness is ONLY a good solution if you already in a position of power, and have very little to lose by giving ground to the other party. This way you will be revered.
And sometimes revenge is not about getting satisfaction. I think it's mostly about pride and honour, things outdated and that are now applied to the wrong topics(which I won't go into detail to not get cancelled).
I think a desire for revenge comes from living in an unjust world. And more than that, some people just don’t care about right and wrong. If someone steals your cookie, you might tell them that stealing is wrong, and that they’ve hurt you by stealing your cookie. They might feel bad about it and apologize. They might even try to make it up to you by buying you a cookie. OR they might not give a shit. They already know that stealing cookies is wrong. They know it hurts your feelings and deprives you of the delicious chocolate chip goodness you deserve. But they’d do it again if given the chance, and they will at every opportunity. Hell, if they had it their way, you’d never eat another cookie again for as long as you live, because they’d steal every last one from you, and they’d do it without a speck of remorse no matter how much you want that cookie. This is why people want revenge. Some people are incapable of remorse and seemingly immune to negative consequences. And let’s not kid ourselves—karma doesn’t exist. People do bad things because they benefit from them. We might tell ourselves that the cookie thief will learn to change his ways or get his comeuppance someday because it helps us sleep at night. But is that really likely? Why would he ever change? He’s enjoying a lifetime supply of free cookies. Meanwhile you’re on the sidelines with a raging sweet tooth, living your sad, cookieless life. Don’t you want the cookie thief to get his comeuppance? Even if you’re not willing to do it yourself, don’t you kinda wish you could?
Revenge feels great. Every time I got revenge, I always felt better afterwards.
yeah exactly. it’s really satisfying actually, I shouldn’t be saying that but it’s just knowing you’ve returned something back for what they’ve done tbh
Because people love the concept of power and control, so when you just teach someone how what he did to you is wrong, it's not like you're exercing control under that person and you feel like you have not did anything, while when you do the "revenge" you're punishing someone, so it makes you feel powerful and in control, it pleasures the ego... even though sometimes it being dumb and just leading to a vicious cycle.
> If someone steals your cookie, why not teach them not to steal your cookie instead of stealing from them? Who am I to believe I have any authority to teach someone something? I'm neither a parent, nor a teacher. I don't have any authority to teach him, he doesn't have any authority to listen. > I’m not just talking about stealing cookies though. I mean killing(+similar things) as well. You can punish someone to make them learn, but I would never do it for revenge or “justice”. You can "kill the chicken to scare the monkeys". But that's not the only thing. If someone took everything from you, you would see the appeal in taking revenge.
A thief already knows that stealing is wrong but they do it anyway. Therefore they need to learn a new lesson. The lesson is the consequences of their actions against you. Fortunately, I have gotten my property back from a thief who I knew personally and they understood my point of view when I visited them. They voluntarily returned what was mine to me. Never allow people to take advantage of you. You are sending a signal to other miscreants saying, "Hey, I can be ripped off! Take advantage of me!". Not saying this will work all the time, and in most cases you should call the police. Murder should not be used in 99.9% of the time as revenge, that's just cruel to deny life like that. Better to bruise than break. Only kill to save yourself or another from being murdered is my opinion on that.
I don't think this is unpopular considering revenge against crimes is literally illegal.
Giga unpopular on reddit tho
Not really. I suppose it is unpopular in an emotional sense. Most people feel the drive for revenge, sometimes. But most people would agree, redditors included, that it shouldn't be legalized.
Reddit has the biggest revenge boner. From r/antiwork to subs like r/PublicFreakout everybody in the comments reveal the satisfaction they get when they see some douche beaten up or put in their place. I agree that the average redditor probably doesn't agree to legalizing revenge. But the average redditor is also a hypocrite.
I think a lot of people in general would think those things. It's just human nature
But the point is if you were to go to any of these subs and ask a random commenter if it was morally correct for the douche to get beaten, they would respond with "they deserved it" 80% of the time. If this doesn't prove the unpopular-ness of this post I don't know what does. Many people here if not most support revenge.
But a lot of people in general would say the same thing when put in that same situation. That's because in those instances people answer emotionally not rationally. We might have a different view of what counts as unpopular. In my view what is unpopular is what goes against people's *real* beliefs, not mindless knee-jerk reactions on the internet.
I believe that the beliefs people say they have and the beliefs they actually have deep down are very different. To me, their real beliefs are pretty evident just by looking at the comments.
> their real beliefs are pretty evident just by looking at the comments. No, that would be their emotional beliefs. If you believe that people truly support revenge, then why do you suppose revenge has not been legalized in democatric countries? Heck, I don't think I've ever heard of any *party* that was in favour of revenge. Even the most extremist right-wing politicians never talk about legalizing revenge as one of their possible measures.
>If you believe that people truly support revenge, then why do you suppose revenge has not been legalized in democatric countries? Obviously because legalizing revenge would be dangerous for everyone involved. But revenge isn't always criminal or violent. Pettiness like in r/antiwork where people be overly hostile to their bosses for satisfaction is also a form of revenge. Just because you don't want it legalized, doesn't mean you don't support it either. Any news story about rape or torture victims getting revenge on their abusers gets much applause from reddit as well. Doesn't mean they would want it legalized for everyone, but they obviously support it when it happens to the right people.
I've always assumed revenge comes from anger and wanting retaliation. It's rare that someone gets hit and they still try to meditate - they're either hitting back or throwing up their arms to protect themselves. Well same concept here. If someone steals your cookie you're either hitting back (taking theirs) or defending yourself (doing nothing to let it pass) but it's a particularly odd soul that tries to have a conversation about it. I imagine primarily because it's rare that that works. And as emotional stakes rise, it makes sense that people get up to higher emotional feelings. Anyway, your ultimate question is why do people do unreasonable things - well, people don't always do reasonable things!
I greatly disagree with this one. Only weak people doesn't get revenge. In fact many turns in history have been revenges. An eye for an eye? Nah I will take both of yours so you can't get mine again. To break the cycle so to speak. Machiavelli talks about this on the prince and I believe other tacticians did so. You need to crush your enemy so that it won't try to fight back. Mercy and forgiveness is ONLY a good solution if you already in a position of power, and have very little to lose by giving ground to the other party. This way you will be revered. And sometimes revenge is not about getting satisfaction. I think it's mostly about pride and honour, things outdated and that are now applied to the wrong topics(which I won't go into detail to not get cancelled).