Thread by @seconds_0

Thinking about predatory instincts this morning as part of a longer thought process evaluating my own life path.

There are at least two types of predatory instinct in humans, but non-traumatized people rarely differentiate them:

Eat the Weak vs the Unleashed Rage

Eat the Weak is being able to quickly assess the strong and vulnerable and how to take advantage of them opportunistically.
It is, imo, a very strong empathy skillset coupled with awareness of status. How often one pulls the trigger is a byproduct of a variety of other factors.

Many people with strong Eat the Weak instincts are cowards. They've gotten good at assessing which fights or scenarios they'll utterly dominate and don't like engaging in ones they will not. Im one of them. When confronted with direct conflict with unknown aspects, they back down

Unleashed Rage is the second one. This is the Lash Out instinct when confronted with Something Bad (tbd depending on your situation). A key component here is not stopping to evaluate your chance of success - just immediate, aggressive action in the most direct manner possible.

Ive noticed people who had to fight a lot for real as kids have big Unleashed Rage instinct. Their best chance of long term survival is lashing out immediately and not presenting as prey; or at least as incredibly costly prey.

Ive noticed that many people like me, who grew up in safe but highly competitive upper middle class households, have highly refined Eat the Weak instincts. Direct response was always shut down - it made you a target. Subtle responses and keen situational understanding was power.

I have an incredibly strong Eat the Weak instinct - it is has been a source of a lot of success and many things I regret. It is the voice in my head that tells me exactly what to do to Win in any circumstance, regardless of the cost - who to hurt, to deceive, to suck up to.

As I've gotten older, I realize that I play every scenario to win, basically pathologically. My issue always came from letting other people define the game I was playing. When 'winning' was about money or drinking or pure status or quantity of women fucked, I was a villain.

It took running out of major cultural milestones for me to understand I defined my own path and that I could define the game for myself. It became apparent that I could use Eat the Weak to find the people who needed help the most and give them what they needed at that moment.

What I still lack today is a well honed Unleashed Rage. I've spent almost my entire life suppressing my anger response. I can be incredibly cruel and I have chosen to never speak words of anger; they have never been worth it, but there have been situations I regret lacking it.

In college, during a rugby game, I watched an opponent grab the knee of one of my younger teammates and intentionally bent it to the point of an ACL tear. I froze to process - what should I do? Was it intentional? Who saw that?

What I should have done is stomped his fucking face

There are many men I know who would have done it; good men who've lived hard lives whose reaction to harming people they care about is immediate, direct, pointed violence. But I froze.

And it makes me worry about if I would react fast enough to protect my wife and child.

Both Eat the Weak and Unleashed Rage are completely natural instincts in humans. Both are incredibly powerful and both can be used for good or evil. I know where I stand and I hope you take the opportunity to assess yourself.