It works fine when everything matches; but if you guess wrong, the end result is always pain/confusion/revulsion and/or aggression. You have to fit the technique/response to type, and you have to get it right every time; and this interaction happens over and over and over every time you're targeted by some aspect of again, a society-wide pogrom against your existence justified by a propaganda machine so much bigger and pervasive than you yourself, can ever be.