the.com/cruelty
the talent for treating a feeling person like a thing without flinching.
means the deliberate or callous infliction of suffering on a living being, or a disposition to take pleasure in such harm.
from From Old French 'crualte,' from Latin 'crudelitas,' rooted in 'crudelis' (harsh, unfeeling) — itself tied to 'crudus,' meaning raw, bloody, or undigested. The same 'crud-' lurks in 'crude' and 'cruor' (spilled blood), so at its core cruelty carries the image of something unsoftened, uncooked, with the rawness left in where mercy should be.
- empathy switch
- Cruelty often requires turning off, not lacking, empathy
- crowd effect
- Larger groups reliably commit harsher acts than individuals
- oldest pun
- Latin 'crudelis' shares roots with raw and bloody
- animal cruelty law
- FBI tracks it as a predictor of violent crime
- theater origins
- Romans staged real killings as midday entertainment
animal testing in cosmetics — millions of rabbits, mice, and guinea pigs tested annually in labs worldwide despite alternatives existing
factory farming — 70 billion animals raised and slaughtered yearly in industrial conditions with extreme confinement