# Why do people despise weakness?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-despise-weakness/640755>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 12, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-despise-weakness/640755 "2012-11-12T05:02:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 97

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**Author:** ![taskmgr.exe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@taskmgr.exe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taskmgr.exe)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-despise-weakness/640755/97 "2012-12-01T01:08:27Z")

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> [@Munch](#):
>
> You’ve just described a \*tremendous \*amount of paranoia.

No. Some people are just _polite racist_. 😉 They pussyfoot around, with a passive-aggressive attitude, speak in clever double entendre, and pout. As simple as that 😉

From a suicide thread on this forum:

> [@Why do some people mock the ones who are suicidal?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-mock-the-ones-who-are-suicidal/612537/32):
>
> **People demonize the weak because they don’t want to be them, be associated with them, empathize with them, experience in any way the hopeless circles they travel in.**
> 
> My guess is that middle and high school children are so remarkably cruel because they are at a stage of life with a typically high level of uncertainty and fear. Real empathy is something only the brave can stand to experience.
> 
> When people say, “oh, he only does that for attention”, I can only think, “then why don’t you give just him some, since he doesn’t know how to ask directly?”
> 
> I’m not brave. But I know what it looks like, and it doesn’t look like contempt for the weak.

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