It's possible to read that subtitle and ask "How?" How do you forget about a trap? Surely it had a purpose, right? But, sometimes those purposes change or, perhaps, get lost with time.
I think that some of what we see nowadays could be old traps being triggered, perhaps even by people that didn't even realize they were traps. Bad situations with no real "good" outcome, brought about by a few too many ingredients being at the right place at the wrong time. Even as I step warily around it myself, I can already feel the polarizing nature, minds snapping to this situation or that experience at just the words, an easy trap to find.
Then how was it forgotten? The simple answer is that times, and people, change. It is the kind of trap laid by "think first" people for "act first" people. Two groups that are hard to get to communicate, for obvious reasons. The more challenging, and perhaps more true, answer is that it is the kind of trap, born of experience, that becomes second nature.
A bit like a bad experience with an animal. They can seem aggressive, hissing and growling, when they are simply being defensive. And yet, how many people do you know that have ignored those warnings, been bit or scratched, and from then on simply decide that those particular animals just "don't like me"? Maybe even continue to confuse those creatures as being aggressive toward them specifically? A personal trap, in comparison, no? Those are easier to set than you might think. Have you ever convinced yourself you dislike something you would normally have liked, for one reason or another? Perhaps the opposite? Was that reason controversial in nature, say akin to missing characters in a game, or poor quality from an otherwise beloved developer?
It is, in my opinion, as easy to trap ourselves with our biases as it is to trap someone else with theirs. But, once we have those traps, they are not easily removed to begin with, and our memories of why may fade over time. So, how to remove them? For some, we cannot without triggering them, snapping it quickly and, ideally, as safely as possible. Something that is rarely so easy. A personal bias, some small, defensive attachment for the off chance our past returns to haunt us... only to have it be why the past returns.
There are reasons we were always told to heed our histories.
Just a penny's worth of thoughts, for those trying to avoid being snapped at the ankle.
