Rivka Wolf
1 min readApr 16, 2023

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Destructive acts are demonstrably not caused by trauma. They are caused by inner pain, combined with social power, combined with social norms which make those acts seem reasonable.

For example, white men locking up Black men in prisons is an example of a normalized act of violence which does not reflect trauma, but reflects social power.

Men who grow up in abusive households often grow up to beat their wives, whereas women tend not to grow up to beat their husbands, because wifebeating is normalized.

It's a misunderstanding of how people work or how social processes work to suggest that the most important determinant for whether violence occurs is whether a traumatized person is present.

Traumatized people are ubiquitous.

This idea is just used to marginalize those of us whose traumas are not considered normal, as opposed to those whose traumas are rendered invisible--and whose acts of violence are probably rendered invisible, too.

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Rivka Wolf
Rivka Wolf

Written by Rivka Wolf

I believe we can save the world.

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