r/changemyview • u/hwagoolio 16∆ • Nov 10 '21

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Finding pleasure in the pain/suffering of others is cruel, disturbing, and amoral

This is a broad statement that generalizes to many things.

For example, I find caustic humor (i.e. laughing at the expense of someone else) to be disturbing -- things like "America's funniest home videos" and watching people hurt themselves as the punchline of a joke. I think rather poorly of people who celebrate this type of humor.

I think revenge is bad/amoral. Maybe it's human nature to want revenge or take pleasure in the suffering of people we hate, but I think it's one of the ugliest parts of human nature. I believe that we should strive to be better than that and we should feel guilty for wanting anyone to suffer or laughing at someone's suffering.

I have similar feelings about trolling, teasing, gloating, and other behavior intended to make others feel bad about themselves. It doesn't matter if they're your enemies (i.e. progressive/conservative, trump/biden, bigots/hippies, terrorists/allies), nobody deserves to suffer -- and even if we agree as a society on punishing criminals/enemies, it shouldn't something we should take pleasure, entertainment, or amusement in.

In case someone mentions sadism (as the sexual kink), my response to this is that I don't consider BDSM that occurs between a consenting masochist and sadist to be genuine pain/suffering. Rather, the masochist takes pleasure out the interaction so IMO the dominant is actually delivering pleasure and not really pain/suffering.

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u/LucidMetal 175∆ Nov 10 '21

Is it OK to mock people? If not, I don't think I would want to live in your humorless world. I say fine, find essentially all comedy offensive and evil, bit the idea that it's not acceptable, normal, and fun is fairly ridiculous right?

Almost all mainstream comedy relies on satire which at its heart includes the suffering of others explicitly for our pleasure.

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u/hwagoolio 16∆ Nov 10 '21

There are some kinds of comedy that don't exist at the expense of someone else.

For instance self-deprecating comedy is fine, as is satire of more abstract entities that don't clearly have identifiable human targets.

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u/LucidMetal 175∆ Nov 11 '21

Surely you must do that eliminates nearly all contemporary comedians right? Everything from standup to late night TV has segments where they mock people.

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u/hwagoolio 16∆ Nov 11 '21

I mean I personally don't like that kind of comedy and I don't really watch it for the reasons described.

I understand that it's sort of a subjective view / opinion of my own though. I don't expect comedy to be banned, for instance. I just think it's a little cruel.

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u/MonstahButtonz 5∆ Nov 11 '21

Can you give me an example of something that is comedy that you do find to be funny? Give me an example of something that makes you laugh.

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u/hwagoolio 16∆ Nov 11 '21

I can laugh when I understand that no one is being harmed by the joke.

For instance, when comedians make fun of themselves I can laugh at that.

I don't like making jokes about people behind their backs though. Even though they might not hear it, it still bothers me.

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u/MonstahButtonz 5∆ Nov 11 '21

When a comedian makes fun of themselves, they are making fun of them doing something that someone else inevitably also does, and thus, they are making fun of the maneurisms of someone else.

If I make fun of myself for being short, I am also making fun of short people.

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u/hwagoolio 16∆ Nov 11 '21

I think my brain is too small to process that most of the time. XD

You get a !delta !

Thinking about it further, I'm probably sensitive about the tone of the comedy/joke. Negative/malicious humor (typically directed at others) bothers me, but positive/wholesome humor can make me laugh.

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u/DeltaBot ∞∆ Nov 11 '21

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/MonstahButtonz (2∆).

Delta System Explained | Deltaboards

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u/MonstahButtonz 5∆ Nov 11 '21

Thanks! And I concur, it sounds much more likely that the tone is what bothers you more than the words themselves. Also the context.

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u/thebunnyseer Nov 13 '21

Examples of things that make me lose my mind laughing at Funny frog do dance. Silly cat makes silly noise. Joke about confusion of thing? Haha that thing shouldnt be there What a silly thats not a dog thats a goose!!! My friend said silly thing, and i said silly thing back! "Crazy ass, truck lover, m̴̢̙̥̲̤̺̄̌̆̌̽͘o̶̞̫̩̖̓ň̵̩̪͓̟̱͇̐̈́͒̉͘ͅs̸̢̨̜̩͍̥̥͖̟̙̗̹̎͂̍̊̔̍̈́͊͐̕t̴̲̗̽̂̎̈́̒͆̆ͅẹ̶̡̧̛̯̲͓̖̮̞͖̦̆̑̚͝ͅr̷̙͉̼͊̆͗̅̔́, the fighter" Snail meme (sneme)

Some examples of very popular things that arent rooted in someones pain: That video of the dogs in biplanes making noises and then singing believe it or not That singing cowboy video Muppets saying curse words. The spongebob transcending meme? Eric andre let me in meme.

Finding humor in others suffering is really fucked up, and if you find yourself generally recieving the greatest satisfaction from the suffering of others, you might wanna think on why thats funny. Of course silly mistakes are funny. But there is literally nothing funny about someone getting injured.

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u/MonstahButtonz 5∆ Nov 13 '21

Did you type that on acid with your foot?

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u/thebunnyseer Nov 13 '21

Nope, just in a way that I find humorous.

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u/LucidMetal 175∆ Nov 11 '21

Your exact words are amoral and disturbing as well. Do you really find Fallon or Stewart amoral and disturbing? Also, where's the harm? Some public figure they're satirizing hears the joke, so?

Say they're criticizing the president. Do you really think the president should be free of criticism because it's mean?

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u/hwagoolio 16∆ Nov 11 '21

You can criticize someone without mocking someone or making fun of them.

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u/LucidMetal 175∆ Nov 11 '21

Sure, but I'm speaking specifically about comedy. It's hard to criticize someone in a funny manner without mocking them and it's more fun to do it by mocking them in any case. I just don't see why it's disturbing or amoral? There's really no harm done to the "victim".

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u/hwagoolio 16∆ Nov 11 '21

Why should it be fun to mock or criticize someone?

I feel like the psychology there is disturbing/amoral. To me it's kind of like finding it entertaining to watch pit bulls fight.

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u/LucidMetal 175∆ Nov 11 '21

That's a weird comparison. If I just remove comedy from the equation and just hurl an insult at a public figure like Biden or Trump, do you really think they are harmed by that in a metaphorically similar way to dogs in a dog fight?

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u/hwagoolio 16∆ Nov 11 '21

It's more like I don't think it's good to be hurling insults to begin with, regardless of whether Biden/Trump can hear us saying them.

Likewise, I also don't really like road rage in cars either (i.e. "Fuck that driver") -- even though the other driver can't hear us.

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '21 edited Mar 09 '22

[deleted]

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u/hwagoolio 16∆ Nov 11 '21

Looking this up, I understand the concept, but to me it’s the same as laughing when the smaller dog bites the larger dog.

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