> If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that maximizes the damage.<p>I'm noticing these more and more at work and everywhere else. Every single human interaction is an attack, a snipe, an attempt to clamber over someone else.<p>It's deliberately exploited to implicate, accuse and judge in a slimy, insidious way that by nature cannot ever be directly called out. In order to succeed you must become an expert in conniving, filthy, back-handed, two-faced poison talk. Verbal backstabbing is an essential life skill. Those who are honest with their words, who speak in literal terms and expect others to be doing the same, are treated as naive suckers, dragged about and tossed aside the moment they cease to be useful.<p>I'm slowly waking up to the fact that every conversation is a battleground, wherever you go. Even my own family I can't trust. And it's all so tiresome.