In response to Friend’s post describing a driver’s prolonged tyranical rant at him after honking at her for cutting him off at an intersection, marveling at the disproportionality and vehemence of it, incredulous at its intensity and utterly violent resonance:

“It’s been getting worse for years now, and escalating exponentially in the past year, in my observation. It’s the toxic milieu of the world, I’m afraid. Everybody is on their last nerve and lashing out impulsively whenever and wherever it has the least/fewest perceived consequences—at strangers. 😞 So the best thing each/all of us can do is self-regulate—meet aggression with peace and kindness, defuse rather than escalate. Easier said than done. Sometimes we will inevitably be the aggressor; in those situations we can hope that our target can respond with equanimity rather than hostility. This is how things will get better. One de-escalated encounter at a time.” 🙏🏼🫤❤️‍🩹