Years ago, I formulated the “No Bullet Hypothesis” of the Kennedy assassination: he wasn’t hit by any bullets at all, his head just blew up. I had been thinking it was a peculiar form of spontaneous human combustion, perhaps involving Marilyn Monroe and Tibetan Nazis, but now I realize that his head must have been full of nano-thermite, possibly inserted during a trip to the presidential dentist.
I’m not sure that heavy sarcasm like this is constructive. While I thought it was funny, I think it encourages the audience to automatically disregard and deride the subject. In my experience, heavy sarcasm tends to both make the subject angry and reinforce the subject’s (erroneous?) beliefs.
My own sarcastic responses (about political or otherwise weighty matters) typically just polarize the group I’m in, making the new in-group like me and the new out-group dislike me.
This comment is awesome, and I’d like to think that if I believed the twin towers were destroyed by demolitions set off by the government I would still upvote it.
Years ago, I formulated the “No Bullet Hypothesis” of the Kennedy assassination: he wasn’t hit by any bullets at all, his head just blew up. I had been thinking it was a peculiar form of spontaneous human combustion, perhaps involving Marilyn Monroe and Tibetan Nazis, but now I realize that his head must have been full of nano-thermite, possibly inserted during a trip to the presidential dentist.
I’m not sure that heavy sarcasm like this is constructive. While I thought it was funny, I think it encourages the audience to automatically disregard and deride the subject. In my experience, heavy sarcasm tends to both make the subject angry and reinforce the subject’s (erroneous?) beliefs.
My own sarcastic responses (about political or otherwise weighty matters) typically just polarize the group I’m in, making the new in-group like me and the new out-group dislike me.
This comment is awesome, and I’d like to think that if I believed the twin towers were destroyed by demolitions set off by the government I would still upvote it.