the.com/persecution
the surest sign your enemy fears the idea more than the person.
means The sustained, hostile mistreatment of a person or group, often for their beliefs, identity, or origins.
from From Latin 'persequi,' meaning 'to follow through, pursue, chase down' — built from 'per-' (through, thoroughly) and 'sequi' (to follow), a cousin of words like 'sequence' and 'pursue.' The image is brutally literal: not just disliking someone but hunting them, dogging their steps without letting up. It entered English through Old French 'persecucion' in the medieval period, already carrying the heavy sense of relentless pursuit aimed at the faithful and the dissenting.
- word origin
- Latin persequi, to pursue relentlessly
- backfire effect
- banned books outsell ones left alone
- early Christians
- Roman martyrs grew the faith they died for
- complex
- feeling targeted can be its own delusion
- legal term
- a recognized basis for asylum claims
rwandan genocide — hutu extremists killed approximately 800,000 tutsis and moderate hutus in 1994
holocaust — nazi germany systematically murdered 6 million jews between 1941-1945
rohingya crisis — myanmar military drove 700,000+ rohingya muslims into bangladesh starting august 2017
armenian genocide — ottoman empire killed 1.5 million armenians between 1915-1923