the.com/retaliation
Revenge wearing a business suit and calling itself justice.
means Hitting back at someone for something they did to you first, often dressed up as fairness rather than payback.
from From Latin 'retaliare' — 're-' (back) plus 'talio,' meaning a punishment matched in kind to the offense, the root behind 'talion' and the old principle of 'an eye for an eye.' So retaliation was baked from the start to sound measured and lawful, even when it's just fury returned in kind.
- legal term
- punishing someone for reporting wrongdoing, itself illegal
- workplace stat
- most common complaint filed with the EEOC
- psychology
- feels proportionate to the giver, excessive to the receiver
- escalation risk
- rarely ends at one exchange, almost always compounds