Over the last few years, I have fully gotten on board with the idea that the haunting vestige of the idea of people as property is one of the core weaknesses of American society, and the "western civilization" enthusiasts that promote its supremacy.

Of course, there are a lot of other people who have been on board with that point of view for centuries.

To those people "love" means "I want more than anything" and not a mutual relationship. They are possessive with everything in their life and that includes their children. They will never see their kids as other people until they are alone on some family holiday. And probably not even then.

They lack empathy. They lack imagination. They act like they lack object permanence with how much they hold onto the things they have.

Some people are just broken that way.