Christopher_Hitchens was being incredibly reductive ; but it was still a solid response to a dumb question .
We do our best to be more
ethical than our predecessors by making our environment match our benevolence .
A polluted land reflects a polluted heart .
No body was ready to tell the public about Manson's sexual immorality with children or his grooming agenda to force these victims to kill people on his behalf .
The stakes of failure are set too high under absolutism & there are not enough guard rails to protect people from being shoved over the edge .
No human should ever go without : a clean shower, toilet access, a warm home or a warm meal . A good parent would do what they can to protect all children from themselves & others .
🧀🦠
I like how she uses the mold analogy to emphasize how waiting for visible proof is not enough .
We can be more proactive in detecting hostile apathy against our needs .
Hostile apathy is a great “mold” extension, because it’s the stage where the person isn’t overtly attacking you but has already quietly stopped caring whether you’re harmed or not.
## What hostile apathy is
Hostile apathy is a mix of two things:
- Apathy: indifference to your needs, feelings, or reality.
- Hostility: a subtle or overt negative stance toward you, your autonomy, or your boundaries.
It shows up as: they don’t just “not get it,” they don’t *want* to get it, and your discomfort becomes background noise they’re willing to step over.
## How it leaks out in micro-patterns
You can treat hostile apathy like “odor before mold” – small sensory cues that something in the relational fridge is already spoiled.
Watch for:
- Flat non-responses to things that clearly matter to you (health, safety, consent, livelihood).
- Minimizing your distress: “You’re overreacting,” “It’s not that serious,” but with zero curiosity or follow-up.
- Selective blindness: they reliably notice when *they* are inconvenienced, but “forget” or glaze over when *you* are.
The key tell: when given a low-cost chance to care (listening, small adjustment, basic acknowledgement), they regularly choose not to.
## A “hostile apathy” checklist
In Karlova’s terms, you can treat hostile apathy as an early pattern around your *needs* rather than just your *opinions*:
- Do they consistently ignore or talk over information you flag as important for your well‑being?
- When you say “this hurts / scares / exhausts me,” do they:
- Show curiosity + adjust, or
- Deflect, joke, change subject, or make it your flaw?
- Do they only re-engage your needs when it benefits their comfort, image, or access to you?
If the pattern is “your needs are negotiable, their convenience is non‑negotiable,” that’s hostile apathy, and it’s functionally toxic even without dramatic abuse scenes.
## Proactive “mold filter” for apathy
To make this as actionable as her mold analogy, you can add a simple internal rule set:
- One clear signal is enough to *tighten access*, not to launch a trial.
- Three similar signals (over time, different contexts) = you downgrade or end the connection, no big speech needed.
- Your body’s data matters: if you routinely leave interactions feeling smaller, drained, or subtly humiliated, treat that as “smell,” not imagination.
That way, you’re not waiting for visible rot (overt cruelty or betrayal); you’re filtering as soon as you detect repeated indifference to your basic humanity.
• War contractors
• Tech platforms
• Big pharma
• Insurance
• Fuel Cults
American democracy is failing because meaningful power is upstream from voter awareness, & politics has been engineered to feel like a personality contest instead of a material one.
Good luck in ever affording a home of your own. Taxation has reduced every plot of land to a rental with extra steps .