A brief rant about laughing at hate.

[terrya]

There is a thread on this forum right now that posted a URL to a web site with some nasty homophobic shit.

And what I don't understand...and maybe I shouldn't analyze this so much...is why people would find this disgusting shit funny?

Racism, sexism, homophobia...hate is the underpinning of all.

Shouldn't we try to lessen the hate...instead of encouraging it by finding it funny?

I just don't understand the mentality of finding hate hilarious.

Thanks
Terry

[Guaranteed]

1. I think laughing is the only reaction you can have unless

you want to turn into a hateful person yourself because of that stuff.

I need to laugh more, I think. I'm getting extremely angry over what's happening in the world right now.

[Kamika]

2. okok I'm the bad person here so I'll explain it

When something is so STUPID as these comics you LAUGH, you LAUGH at how stupid they are. Ok??


It's seriously not a hard concept to grasp.

[supernova]

3. Laughter=taking the steam out of the hate

One way to think about hate is: it's about power. it's about control. I hate you, therefore I control you. Because I hate you I can ostracise you. I can make you go away (either because you feel bad or because you just don't want to deal with me), I can keep you from other people near me.

Laughter breaks that up. Laughing is a good way of saying "you don't control me" I do and choose what I want. Nothing, NOTHING enrages a hater more than being laughed at.

To the extent this stuff goads you into anger is the extend to which it controls you. Try a different approach. Don't become bitter because of someon else's neurosis.

[private_ryan]

4. maybe one day you will understand

that finding something funny doesn't mean you agree with the message...

[foo_bar]

5. depravity is the soul of wit

"Tragedy is when I get a papercut. Comedy is when you fall down an open sewer and die."
- Mel Brooks (apocryphal)

[gator_in_Ontario]

6. That site has the potential to be funny in a few hundred years...

when it is being studied as a "historical" document, as a partial reflection of a time when folks actually believed it. Now it is disturbing....

[Aristus]

7. If you can laugh at something bad, you take away it's power.

I think that's what Lord Byron meant, which is why I have it in my sig line.

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. It's worth laughing at - it annoys the hater

because it just tells them that they're stupid and that you don't buy their crap at all.

Imagine if, the next time says something hateful, instead of saying very seriously, "You know, I find that offensive, and I care not to hear it" you just laughed at them and said, "That's the stupidist thing I've ever heard! Thinking a racist/gay/anti-woman joke is funny. HA HA HA!"

I think you're getting very worked up over something that isn't much of an issue. Though I recognize the validity of your feelings.

I find all of Chick Tracts very funny because they are so overblown as to be ridiculous. Even the KKK, sometimes you just gotta laugh at 'em, because what other response is there to such absurdity? Not that laughter is to be our last and only actr against such idiocy, but the laughter is a release, a way to acknowledge that it has no power over us.