Living in Fear

[tackattack]

@BrianSoddingBoru4  I agree it was bigoted and very trope-ish as Rev said, and for the offense I do apologize. I didn't even know you were from NI or that you had lost an eye. I hope you can excuse my ignorance, and regardless it was out of place. Now back to the impact if you don't mind sharing a little more You said " I got over that feeling after a few years in New Zealand - people here just don’t seem particularly interested in killing each other." so it's lessened but not gone? I would assume that the impact of your wounds from the Poppy Day Massacre (thanks for the research and I'm sorry that you were a victim of a deplorable situation) would cause you considerable fear in going outside. Is it something that affects you regularly in an emotional or social sense?

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I've had occasions when I've feared for my life, but never because of my social identity. It was always a matter of circumstance and as such it doesn't follow me around.

Perks of being a straight cis white man who lives in a Dem-dominated area like Chicago: I'm not too much of an outlier in most of the normal "protected class" sort of ways. Except maybe for my autism, but by the time I started being open about my autism, people were at least understanding. The only person who ever made Raymond Babbit jokes in my presence was me. The closest quality that I think could have been a liability is that I have a foot fetish (because for some reason, to many women, the phrase "you have pretty feet" is something akin to "I have a weapon and I want to rape you.") Even coming out as an atheist in a Catholic high school didn't put much of a target on my back.

Then again, being an extreme introvert who probably does more socialization on this forum in one day than I do with people in the flesh world (outside my dad and my therapist) in an entire year, even those deviations don't often come out.

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Does your extreme introversion come from a direct fear like agoraphobia or is it more of a social choice?


@AFTT47 I think my mother had a fear of guns from when I was young I was playing with a rifle and it went off. I was hit by another car 3 different occasions (the other person was at fault or it was a mechanical failure) and for a few weeks after I was very afraid of getting in a vehicle. Seemed that necessity of having to go places forced that and lessened the fears.