The Kaino-Oppressive Mindset’s Double Standard Concerning Punishment

While a person with the kaino-oppressive mindset outwardly frowns on even small and fair consequences, they will unfairly punish someone themselves under the guise of liberal-minded thinking. 

She condemns a punishment that goes against the self-centered will of the employees complaining against Simon. 

Christians,

A person with the kaino-oppresive* mindset is often mistaken as liberal-minded when they make out a small consequence and deterrent to be a “punishment” in the strongly negative sense of the word.  However, that is not what it means to be authentically liberal-minded in the general, non-political sense of the word.  This is an ingenuine version of the liberal-minded idea of pointing out consequences and deterrents that are genuinely felt to be too harsh.  Painting small and fair consequences as “punishments” allows people with the kaino-oppressive mindset to challenge those who try to curb their self-centered behavior in a way that makes them out to be the victims, but they will support or execute far greater consequences than they condemn against someone they see as being at odds with them personally and/or people who share their self-centered perspective.  The person they see as being at odds with them is often the “Other” who stands in the way of the self-centered will of the crowd.  Consider the following scenario for an example of how the kaino-oppressive mindset works in relation to punishment.

Two restaurant employees, Brian and Claudia, come back to work 10 minutes late for the second day in a row from their lunch break.  The first time it happened, the manager, Simon, professionally and firmly explained how this affected other employees, such as causing customers to become upset with them because of longer wait times.  Brian and Claudia assertively explain that they had something important to talk about and that it couldn’t wait.  This response makes the manager feel that talking with them isn’t going to persuade them to come back from break on time in the future, so he tells them that he can’t give them the gift cards he was planning on handing out on Friday as a reward for a week of exceptional week.  This makes Brian and Claudia very angry.  They later get two of their friends from the evening shift to come with them to complain to the manager’s supervisor about his leadership.  They speak to the manager’s supervisor, Aspen. Aspen then speaks to Simon. Aspen asks Simon why so many employees are complaining about how they are being mistreated by him.  Simon explains that two servers kept coming to work late and that they didn’t give any assurance they weren’t going to do it again, so he decided not to give them their gift cards that week as a consequence and deterrent.  Aspen confidently responds that punishing their servers by withholding their gift cards is neither a good way to fix a problem nor build the type of community their franchise prides itself on.  She finishes by saying that she needs to be honest with him about the fact that the position of manager is not right for him and that she is going to need to move him back to his original role (where he would be earning $10,000 less per year). 

Aspen shows how the kaino-oppressive mindset relates to consequences and punishments. She condemns a consequence that goes against the self-centered will of the employees complaining against Simon.  She also words what she says in a way that seems liberal-minded.  She refers to Simon’s action as “punishing their servers,” which makes it seem like he did something harsh that she needs to challenge.  Aspen also demonstrates how the kaino-oppressive mindset works in relation to consequences and punishments by handing Simon a consequence far greater than his and unfairly.  She punishes him in the negative and harsh sense of the word “punish.”  While Simon withheld gift cards, each worth $20, for fair reasons, Aspen (who has the kaino-oppressive mindset) demotes him, unfairly stripping down his salary by $10,000 per year. 

* This term was coined on this blog.