What does someone have to do that means no amount of remorse or effort to fix things will get you to forgive them? I don’t mean forgive and forget to the point where they can hurt you again. If someone repeatedly steals from you, forgiveness doesn’t mean putting them in a position where they can steal again.
I’m asking this purely out of curiosity. I’m just wondering what the attitude in my corner of the internet is.
For me, it’s really just a lack of actual remorse or effort to fix things. As long as they’re willing to demonstrate they recognize what they did and will work to be better (and it’s not a recurring pattern), we’re cool.
Probably dishonesty. Coworker threw away thousands of dollars worth of my department’s equipment and then lied to me about it. I know she was just repeating her boss, but she knew it was a lie. I’ll hold a grudge against both of those bitches forever!
Two former friends hit on my husband - not just flirty, pretty seriously with an expectation of more. They’re both out forever!
When they do the exact same thing after you already forgave them before.
Also when they were given plenty of warning before doing whatever they did.
So, for both cases, it’s when they show that they are OK with breaking your trust because they expect to be forgiven afterwards.
If they go out of their way to hurt you, or are so indifferent about you that they hurt you in the process of doing something else and decide they don’t care.
People who value you and your feelings so little that they would do either are not worth keeping around, and certainly aren’t worth your effort emotionally to be able to forgive
Totally agree on this - I have forgiven a lot of shit in my life but the one thing that has truly hurt me is when someone I cared about was offended by my methods of expressing concern to them about their behavior, and they retaliated by trying to get my partner to leave me.
Despite the fact that it was a laughable attempt, the intention to actually hurt me, not just accidental toe-stepping or expression of frustration, is what drew a line for me.
I will forgive unintentional damage followed by remorse, I will forgive outbursts and emotional interaction, but actively trying to hurt someone is the behavior of an adversary.
The only time something would become unforgivable is if it were done with intentional malice or becomes a pattern of behavior. I’m willing to forgive quiet a bit, if the harm an action caused was not the intent. When it becomes the intent, such as physical violence or repeated trauma, that’s where I take a hard line and will not forgive. For less spectacular transgressions, repeat events are where things become unforgivable. I am willing to give grace on that more because I’m bad about not communicating to others how their actions hurt me, but if we’ve talked about how their behavior is a problem and they keep doing it? No sorry, we’re done.
When criticism of the act gets enough likes on Lemmy and/or Reddit—that’s when I know what to think.
I’m really glad you at least partially qualified what you mean by forgiveness. Or at least what you do not mean by it. The type of forgiveness I think you’re trying to suggest is more of an internal process. It’s not really about the other person at all. For example, there are some family members of murder victims who say they have forgiven the killer. They are not saying the killer deserves to go free. They’re just saying they don’t want to carry that hatred through the rest of their lives. By that definition, I don’t think any of us know what we might be able to let go of.
If people are truly sorry and have taken steps to make sure that what they did will never happen again, they are eligible for forgiveness of anything.
When the same attempts to set healthy boundaries with that person are ignored repeatedly. Sure, give them a chance to try and adjust their behavior if the relationship is otherwise valuable.
But after you are sure that you have been consistent and clear for a reasonable amount of time and the boundaries still get invaded?
Bye, Felicia.
Things that betray trust are very hard for me to let go. Theft, backstabbing, lies, etc. If I can’t trust you, I can’t hang out with you.
It’s not about “forgiveness”, it’s about whether the mistakes can be undone.
Consider you accidentally insult somebody. That can be undone by apologizing.
What if you murder somebody? That can never be undone.
An apology doesn’t undo what you said any more than it brings someone back to life.
People do occasionally forgive murderers.
Not the victims, admittedly, but their families sometimes.
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Forgiveness is always possible, although if someone hits me with DARVO, I’m going to forever filter their behavior through a check before helping them. It’s sorta amazing what we can go through and forgive after, but I guess the misnomer is that the apology is for them and not ourselves.
That time my cousin and aunt made a scene the first night in the funeral home after my mom died. That’s irreparable because
- My mom died that fucking day, 2 years after my dad and they were supposed to all be close.
- It was due to my personal life (my soon-to-be-wife). To add some context: she is a foreigner so there is a lot of racism and a bit of classism.
- Her only living sister.
- It’s been 6 months and they haven’t contacted me, apologized or anything,
Don’t get me wrong. They are forgiven, but it hurts and it will hurt for the rest of my life so I don’t be able to ever open the door for them to come back into my life.
Hmmmm probably a lot of things, but first to mind is animal cruelty
Intentionally did something dangerous that you know will get people hurt with a slightest mistake. Like driving recklessly, or pushing others in a huge crowd. There’s no amount of sorry will make me believe you’re remorseful, you’re only sorry because stuff that will happen happened.
Ohh and embezzlement of public fund. Fuck off with that crocodile tear.
