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The reason why... [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-01
People take delight in the suffering of others; they love to mock and poke fun at those who are different. Yet, they never stop to think, most of our discoveries, advances, arts… come from those very differences they mock. Think about it, almost every great name in history, in any field has in their time been labelled different, eccentric, odd or other. Perhaps that’s why they do it.
I was told recently that there was no reason to take offense at something that did not affect you personally. You don’t find certain things offensive; it is because you are not the target of that practice, joke, attitude, comment etc. Perhaps this inability to put yourself in someone else’s place is the reason the world is so cruel today.
If you had to look into a rape’s victims’ eyes as you told a rape joke, either you wouldn’t tell it, or it would be the last time you did so. If you had to look at a child with down syndrome, looking at a caricature of someone you hate morphed into a person with down syndrome, if you had any humanity you’d stop doing it.
If you could feel what we feel when you use our differences to score points in your childish games of upmanship, my bet is that practice would end rather quickly. But you can’t so you find all sorts of excuses to ignore the pain you inflict on unintended victims of your teenage humor.
Cruelty in humor is not funny, it is just another system of bullying and denigration of people that you find somewhat offensive and beneath you, even when you call yourself an ally.
I’m always baffled when people who claim to have empathy, who say they sympathize, call themselves good, kind, allies… resort to turning the differences in people into some sort of inane joke with the oft used excuse “it was just a joke” “come on it’s X or Y, they deserve it”… the problem isn’t what your enemies deserve, it is if the one whose condition you use for your joke, did they deserve it? Well?
Real humor, real comedy is a finely honed and sharpened instrument, it is not the lazy immature contents of memes. It has wit, flair, subtext and humor. It defies time and stands up to scrutiny decades later. Punching down on people is just bullying.
As I tell my son, if someone stays stop, just stop. You don’t need to know why, but it’s probably because you’ve touched a wound or a scar and pain even when inflicted by accident still hurts.
#ThePoet
Muriel Vieux – April 1st, 2025, ©All rights reserved
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