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« on: September 22, 2013, 02:49:26 PM »
At no point was Stokes inflicting deliberate cruelty on Adam with his speech, far from it. From Elliot's perspective, he was trying to teach Adam some unfortunate truths, out of kindness and a desire to help as much as he could. Unfortunately, he's not listening to himself, and making it up on the spot, and so doesn't realize he's just conveying society's prejudices, and making things much worse.
In many cases of one person hurting another, intent is irrelevant. If I hit you accidentally with my car, I may not have meant any harm, but that doesn't mean I didn't do any.