I think the difference between people who say, "I'd whip their ass over words" and some of the ones who cry foul over that mindset may be the levels of violence the average person experiences or have witnessed in real life. Real violence is dangerous and damaging. Seriously. I've seen too many egos turn to such violence that someone's life was irreversibly altered. Many times even when it wasn't intended to go that far.
The "whip their ass to protect ______ honor" mentality was imported into the deep south with Irish and Scott immigrants--those parts of Britain that were still uneducated, ungoverned and uncivilized. They were remnants of violent societies where human life held little worth. That kind of culture has long sense been rightly discarded where the American south imported it from, while the American south has segments that still revel in advertising their lack of education, rational thinking or ability to respond in better ways.
is getting on my nerves.
