I was beaten with a belt which left huge red whelts and bruises on me, the buckle really made terrible wounds on me, all the while I was being cussed out. Usually my dad was upset at someone else and took it out on me. All I learned was to fear and hate my father. I used to hope and pray he would die in a car wreck on his way home. He was so mean and cruel to me, my sisters, and my mother. He never really talked to us, we were lowly females. My sister didn't find out until she was about 40 that my father had an older brother who is still MIA in WWII. He never talked to us nice and calmly.
I have long ago forgiven him, no one is that angry and mean on purpose. I never whipped my kids with a belt. I found that a tiny slap on their leg, and I mean tiny, same way I gave them a love pat, was all it took to get their attention. You don't have to beat them. There is a thin line between spanking and beating, it can escalate. And there was no place to go to and complain back in the 1950s.
In my father's defense, I will admit that I was a pretty awful kid...We all were-Always up to something. But we were never spanked unless we ignored repeated warnings, and not because someone else had a bad day. I do agree with you that there are some that take it out on their children, but there is a big difference. Nevertheless I likewise was filled with rage at the time. Some of my father's punishments were really creative. Knowing I hated baseball, the worst one, worse than a spanking, was to make me stay indoors and watch baseball games on a beautiful June Day. That punishment was reservd for SERIOUS transgressions, like making gunpowder and bombing the neighbor's chicken coop.
We were bright creative kids, who found really interesting ways to p*ss people off, and extremes were sometimes needed to get our attention.