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DGUtley
05-14-2021, 06:46 AM
Why are we so spiteful?... (https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/05/why-are-we-so-spiteful/618865/?utm_source=digg) Our culture is pettily vindictive in part because it is unequal. But we cannot punish our way to a more just society.
The purest eruption of spite I have ever witnessed took place at a former friend’s birthday party some years ago. We were all in our early 20s, and alcohol had been flowing freely. I slipped into the kitchen to refill my drink; when I returned, the birthday girl, her cheeks flushed from the wine, had become incensed at her boyfriend for some unaccountable transgression. On the coffee table was an enormous cake, brought by her now-disgraced beloved. The birthday girl seized the platter and, with a terrific crash, hurled the cake to the floor. “Now none of us can have any,” she seethed, raising an accusatory frosting-covered finger as guests began edging toward the door.

Spite defies logic. We act spitefully—lashing out to harm someone else, even at a cost to ourselves—when the desire to punish overrides other considerations. People in the throes of spite’s poisonous pleasures do not care if they injure themselves, or make the whole world worse off, so long as they satisfy their rancor. Yet because spite involves a self-inflicted cost, this petty and ultimately antisocial emotion bears a family resemblance to altruism. Many spiteful actors believe they are behaving nobly: meting out justice where it is due.

That we live in a particularly spiteful age is the very plausible premise of Spite: The Upside of Your Dark Side. According to Simon McCarthy-Jones, the book’s author and a psychologist at Trinity College Dublin, spite “may be the last weapon of the downtrodden.” Disadvantaged people acting out of spite can pull their oppressors down a few pegs. As a form of costly punishment aimed at the rich and powerful, spite can weaken dominance hierarchies and promote fairness. The book suggests that spite can be soothed, though never banished, by more just political arrangements. Yet the extent to which spite can serve as a mechanism for establishing egalitarian politics—rather than merely a registration of our discontent—is less than clear.

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https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/05/why-are-we-so-spiteful/618865/?utm_source=digg

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FindersKeepers
05-14-2021, 07:47 AM
Spitefullness is sad.

But, I really don't like people who create scenes out of spite.

MMC
05-14-2021, 09:00 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYDAF6NbgKc


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aitVUQw-6Tc

RMNIXON
05-14-2021, 12:51 PM
Consider the behavior of Democrats out to cancel anything connected to Trump as Bad Policy without looking at results or other practical considerations.

I don't recall that has occurred with such fever during any White House Party transition in our History!

Admiral Ackbar
05-14-2021, 01:17 PM
I am full of spite, bitterness and hate... it makes me strong

phoenix
05-14-2021, 03:44 PM
Consider the behavior of Democrats out to cancel anything connected to Trump as Bad Policy without looking at results or other practical considerations.

I don't recall that has occurred with such fever during any White House Party transition in our History!
Nothing as bad as what they did to Trump, but in recent politics I first became aware of the enormous spite [and worse] of the Clintons. I remember their minions removing the W keys from White House computers when Bush won. The meanness and spite has just continued to increase since then.

Daily Bread
05-16-2021, 01:25 PM
Some call it spite - some call it retribution .
I'm a fan of retribution lately because authorities that are supposed to uphold the rule of law that controls spiteful situations allow it and let it continue . That's where we get to the retribution stage .

Common
05-16-2021, 03:06 PM
Spitefulness is human nature and will always be. If you look up the definition of spite, its clear that spite is derived from somone who has felt wrong, shafted, lied too, betrayed etc and wants vengeance...we all know through out history of mankind revenge has been a human trait..

Nothing surprises me when it comes to spite or revenge. If anyone has a right to be spiteful its Trump towards the left, what they did to him was over the pale of anything anyone else has ever seen...and the obamas were the root of it

phoenix
05-16-2021, 04:28 PM
I didn't write my earlier post as well as I intended. I meant that the Clintons, and mostly Hillary, were the first ones I really noticed being cruel and vengeful against individuals. She even hired a Hollywood Detective to intimidate and scare the women Bill had relationships with. She kept files of information to threaten people with.

----Obama had a different agenda, he poked a finger in our eye each time he was in other countries and talked down about the USA. He probably laughed as he brought in tens of thousands of foreigners and spread them around the country. I used to write that Obama opened the Pandora's Box of Evils because he supported everything we considered 'wrong' and I was saying that many years ago. To me, the Clintons and the Obamas increased our downfall as a nation.

----We used to observe our 'moral roots' but people freely toss lies around now days and feel no remorse.

Peter1469
05-16-2021, 04:37 PM
It is a battle between freedom and Statism (many different types).

There, you have your answer.

Admiral Ackbar
05-17-2021, 07:53 AM
It is a battle between freedom and Statism (many different types).

There, you have your answer.
Very interesting... I for one never get upset when some one on this board calls me a name or some stupid thing like that. I dont report it because well it is stupid. But what does get me going is when the Maoist on the board try to frame opposing ideas as somehow so bad they cant be discussed. The truth has to be exposed so that is why freak out when I remind them the things they support are the same things the Chairman would be smiling about!

Statism vs Freedom is exactly the point!

We freemen must keep up the fight, despite being called names by these people

Peter1469
05-17-2021, 08:27 AM
Very interesting... I for one never get upset when some one on this board calls me a name or some stupid thing like that. I dont report it because well it is stupid. But what does get me going is when the Maoist on the board try to frame opposing ideas as somehow so bad they cant be discussed. The truth has to be exposed so that is why freak out when I remind them the things they support are the same things the Chairman would be smiling about!

Statism vs Freedom is exactly the point!

We freemen must keep up the fight, despite being called names by these people
Name calling is all they got.

Admiral Ackbar
05-17-2021, 09:08 AM
Name calling is all they got.

Alynsky says in Rules for Radicals that ridicule is the best way to attack an opponent. They learn this from CNN, MSNBC, Hollywood etc..