it’s actually wild how terrified of the general public most usamericans are. like you don’t realize it if you’re someone who mostly walks and takes transit and spends a lot of time in populous public spaces but then you talk to one of the thousands of people that seemingly never set foot in any public space besides a parking garage or a starbucks and you suddenly understand why it’s so easy for fascist rhetoric about the dangerous alien to take root. this country’s median voter pretty much never interacts with strangers who aren’t their coworkers or people they met on dating apps
saw a post on instagram that was literally someone citing statistics saying public transit is one of the safest travel options out there and the comments were literally just “ummmmm op this is so ableist and misogynistic of you :) don’t you know the average public transit user is a dangerous violent criminal who wants to set you on fire :)))”
it must be so terrifying and sad to go through life convinced if you set foot outside your car in public or interact with people outside your nuclear family you’ll instantly be raped and robbed by the Evil Poors no wonder so many of these people are reactionary tar pits
important points which I did not address but should be appended ☝️☝️☝️☝️
ITT:
- people giving their life story to explain why they have a special secret valid trauma reason to be a reactionary tar pit
- white true crime women assuming I don’t know what it’s like to fear rape
- fascists calling me a euroslave
- cybersmith, for some reason
It’s actually insane how pervasive this fear is and how normalized it is to be this paranoid. My mom has come across other hikers while she’s walking her dog in the woods and taken out her phone and started recording them to “give the police clues if they murder her” (as if a murderer would leave your phone behind???). My dad has repeatedly told me he is going to buy me a gun because as a Single Female Living Alone, I am going to be a victim of something. Not that I am at a statistically higher likelihood than a man to be victimized, I am going to have something bad happen to me because the world is out to get me and everyone is dangerous.
I also think it’s very important to identify the root of the issue. This fear is not new and it’s not a result of true crime or fearmongering on social media. This has always been a part of American Christian culture; women (white women especially) are delicate beautiful flowers who must be protected from the dangerous outside world by a Good Christian Patriarch, be that her husband or father. This is not subtext in conservative Christian spaces, it is very explicit. You are a lamb in a world full of wolves, and you need a shepherd to keep you safe.
And this serves one primary purpose; if women are terrified of everyone and expected to trust only in their patriarch, they are less likely to leave abusive and controlling situations. It has always been about control. It is not a coincidence that this fear is becoming more common and more intense simultaneously to the rise of a fascist regime. Subverting this fear was a massive part of feminism in the 2010s, to tell women that they do not need to be dependent on a man and can be strong and capable and take care of themselves, and it has all but evaporated in recent years. They want women willingly trapped in their homes and submissive to their husbands because they’re terrified of the world.
