"Passive-Aggressive" is Bullshit

[Cognitive Dissident]

"Passive-Aggressive" is a way of claiming someone who is not using aggression is being aggressive by not giving in to controlling people. 

Your ultimate "passive-aggressive" people are undoubtedly libertarians, because they don't accept the demands others place on them.  Agorism, seems a to be such "passivity" in action.

Think about some obvious passive-aggressive moves:

Don't pay taxes
Don't ask for permits to do things they expect you to get permits for
Don't obey (victimless) traffic laws (like turning left on a red when no one's there.)
Don't agree to let the police search when they "ask."
Argue that you have no obligation to do anything that someone demands of you when you haven't agreed to do so.

The controlling people cannot see that THEY are the aggressors, so they need to define a nonsense term (passive aggression is a contradiction in terms) to define what you are "doing to them."

In a voluntary society, the term need not exist, because those "offended" by "passive aggression" would voluntarily disassociate from those who they feel is "passively aggressing" against them.

That is all.

[The ghost of a ghost of a ghost]

IT really hurt your feelings when BonerJoe call you passive-aggressive eh?

[Cognitive Dissident]

When did he do that?

[Amazing Richard]

Widespread must have been drunk off his ass.

It was Anarchic who called BonerJoe "Passive Aggressive".

[Cognitive Dissident]

This is what I found...must be what he was referring to....

http://bbs.freetalklive.com/announcements/bonerjoe-is-now-in-charge/msg630548/#msg630548

Not me, though, and as suggested, it was someone calling BJ passive-aggressive.

[The ghost of a ghost of a ghost]

I musta been drunk.

My bad.

BJ got his feelings hurt when he was called PA.

[Cognitive Dissident]

There has been much debate regarding passive-aggressive behaviour as a personality disorder or just a defense mechanism. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders classified the symptoms in 1987. The manual stated that here are nine symptoms of passive-aggressive disorder. The symptoms include procrastination, sulking or arguing when asked to do something, working inefficiently on unwanted jobs and complaining without justification when asked to do something. Other symptoms are forgetting obligations intentionally, criticising authority figures without cause, thinking one is better at a job than others and not accepting helpful suggestions.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-passive-aggressive-mean.htm

Sounds to me like resistance to aggression.

[dalebert]

I always took it as an expression to describe people make little implied jabs and manipulate people with guilt trips and shit like that.  It's only recently I've heard it directed at people to imply some kind of actual aggression.  For instance, a PA person will make a comment about certain people or describe a certain kind of action when it clearly applies to someone in the room.  It's a cowardly way of insulting someone because you can't directly defend yourself until you can get them to be more specific.

[Zhwazi]

What you're talking about is part of what passive aggressive can be, but it is not always in response to aggression. To the extent that it is in response to agression I agree, I wish more people would be "passive aggressive" in the face of aggression, but in reality there are non-aggressive situations where one can cause psychic loss to another by doing what you have a right to do, and this can evoke the same reaction. It can also be in a voluntary environment where for example maintaining a small group lets the group be efficient, but one person in the group seems always to get their most-hated tasks, yet still where the disutility of leaving the group is greater than that of doing the unwanted work. This is not aggression, but it can still evoke the same "passive-aggressive" reaction. At least 95% of the time though it's a response to aggression, and the word is likely widely overextended to places where it's not a useful concept.

[BonerJoe]

9_9

[anarchir]

Widespread must have been drunk off his ass.

It was Anarchic who called BonerJoe "Passive Aggressive".

You really think thats my name Pube Face?

[anarchir]

I always took it as an expression to describe people make little implied jabs and manipulate people with guilt trips and shit like that.

Thats how I've always taken it.

Smiling while threatening.


People who believe they will be able to come into some sort of revenge-power, such as through Karma or "Judgment Day", etc. are certainly very passive aggressive at times.

[Riddler]

i'd put a 12 gauge scattershot through that note & the fucking door.
put a fucking door-closer on, if its that much of a cunt.........
or hire a hall-monitor

[dalebert]

See that "Someone" means she knows who you are and has a threatening tone without being explicit.  Classic PA.  (Not LITERALLY aggressive, of course.  Just assholish, technically.)

[Turd Ferguson]

My ex-gf from long long ago called me passive aggressive.


She was a psycho. Threw a lamp (still plugged into the wall) at me because she thought I was fucking around with another hairdresser she worked with (which I wasn't). Anyway, I waited a couple of days and pissed in her coffee. Told her what I did about 4 days later or something like that.

Does that make me passive aggressive? Sick maybe, but passive aggressive?

I was like 23 at the time, so dont judge too harshly.