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November 28, 2020 The Curse of Sarcasm November 25, 2020 Writers' Two Friends November 23, 2020 Fantasy vs. Sci-Fi November 22, 2020 Keep It Private November 21, 2020 The Insomnia Song November 14, 2020 Career Announcement November 5, 2020 Early Voting Shock November 1, 2020 Before You Vote October 6, 2020 Excuses for Decisions |
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SITE UNDER RECONSTRUCTION LATEST NEWS November 25, 2020 All pages, plus all blogs from November 23 on, are now linkable on social media. November 23, 2020 |
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November 28, 2020
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There's something that's done a lot more on the left than on the right, and being on the left, it really pisses me off. Sarcasm. You read that right. There are a lot of people who think sarcasm is just making fun of someone. It's not. It can be, but not necessarily. And making fun of someone can be sarcasm, but again, not necessarily. Sarcasm, when correctly defined, is when what you say and what you mean are two completely different things. An excellent example is the book Why We're Liberals by Eric Alterman, which I recently reviewed on Goodreads. Basically, I gave what should have been a five-star book a two-star rating just because he used sarcasm throughout. Essentially, much of the book is written using the phrasing and descriptions that a right-winger would use all the time. If you don't see the problem already, you're part of the problem. This use of sarcasm--stating things as the opposite of the intended message--is nothing more than confirmation for the right. And there's the problem. Instead of getting through to the opposition, sarcasm actually reenforces their erroneous beliefs. To add to the problem, sarcasm--along with such basic concepts as imagery, metaphor, and underlying meaning--are beyond the understanding that the right-winger tends to already lack. The result is literalism, the understanding of a concept in terms of nothing more than the words. The actual meaning is lost, and vague statements are taken in however way each individual decides. The result is misunderstandings, at best, and intense arguments are not uncommon. If every word needed to understand something were to be written in a document, it would be far too long to be readable. Further, there would be occassions where the wording would tie someone down to a nightmare scenario. This happens in such cases as
And this is just a sample. When a person treats sarcasm like common English, then it becomes more and more difficult to trust what the person says because of constant statements that contradict reality. It eventually becomes unclear whether they mean the words that come out of their mouth. The truth is, sarcasm should be treated like a foreign language, so that it isn't used anywhere near as often. Sarcasm breeds and feeds literalism because it is, for all practical purposes, a lie. And not only do lies breed division, but (as I stated above) those who already believed the lie take it as confirmation. If we keep saying what we don't mean, the national divide will only get worse. Sarcasm is also one thing that costs Democrats elections all over the country. Swing voters are being lost because of people on the left who think they're being funny when the person they're talking with is taking it seriously. And if that swing voter doesn't catch that sarcasm, they will almost always vote Republican. One thing I've always said is that Democrats don't know how to get their message across. This is one reason. I have no idea who it was, but years ago, a friend told me, "Say what you mean, and mean what you say." I realized much later they were saying not to be sarcastic. Even then, I thought it was the best advice anyone ever told me. The only place sarcasm should ever be accepted in this world is stand-up comedy. It works there. It doesn't work anywhere else. Especially online, where mood is more difficult to express. Let sarcasm disappear from common practice. Until next time . . . |
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