I once had the following definition of ‘love’ put to my this way: it is the absence of duality. I think on that a lot sometimes, because I see a lot of people in real life and on the internet not practicing a lot of love. Quite often what I am seeing is separatism: “I’ll stick with my kind, thank you very much”.

I am certainly not saying anything like “shower your oppressor with fawning love”, or that the onus is on people who have been hurt/violated/suffered trauma to resolve the division they feel between them and oppressors: that’s clearly wrong.

My point is: I wonder what restitution for the oppressed looks like. I much rather prefer rectifying trauma without retribution. There’s a great deal of evidence to suggest that punishment and retribution does not prevent or deter further disgusting and harmful behaviour and attitudes.

Just thinking out loud right now, I’m not sure this is a coherent thought.