There’s this thing that despised groups do which they might consider not doing anymore. By despised groups I mean political factions which are hated by the other side (all political groups, in other words), ethnic groups that are hated by other ethnic groups, religious groups that are hated by other religions, and so on.
People in these groups take things that people who hate them accuse them of wanting to do and make jokes about doing those things. I understand why people make these jokes. The idea behind the joke is “This accusation against my group is so crazy that I wish to mock it, and the way that I have chosen to do that is by embracing it”.
I worry that if I give examples, people will either think “Archibald is criticizing people on my side, screw him” or “Archibald is criticizing people on the other side, screw those other people”. Neither is right. I am criticizing everyone who does this. Even if you don’t make jokes like this, I assure you that people in your faction do.
So here are some examples:
Feminists joking about how men are sub-human and deserve to suffer.
White Identitarians joking about forcibly sterilizing the Sudan or whatever.
LGBT people joking about molesting/grooming children.
Etcetera etcetera. I’m sure I could think of more examples if I was worse at avoiding people who make jokes like this.
Here’s why jokes like this are bad and shouldn’t be made:
1. You are giving plausible-deniability to the people on your own side who unironically do think this way. You are making it easier for them to say that they were only joking, even if they weren’t. That’s bad.
2. You are provoking the other side just for the sake of doing so. You may think that you are provoking them towards a self-destructive overreaction. You cannot actually make that prediction with any confidence. I don’t know how to prove to you that you are not actually a master of psychology who can predict the exact right provocative thing to say to generate the exact right angry response, but just think about whether you really are that much of a genius and you will see that you are not. Your actual motivation is that you are provoking them because you like to cause people you hate pain and have invented a justification for doing so. Anger makes things that involve sadism seem more sensible than they really are.
Moreover, a world where every side tries to make all the other sides angry all the time is worse than a world where no one does this. You are defecting in a prisoner’s dilemma where your only reward for doing so is momentary self-gratification.
As you finish reading this blog post and go back out into the world, try to think about what “aura” or “vibe” or “energy” you are projecting, and how that might be reflected in the actions of others.