Sarcasm never inspires trust.
This should be a no-brainer for people, but they either don't get it or have succumbed to the lure of appearing smarter than those of whom they're making game.
I'll spell it out for those would-be wags who don't seem to understand. When you make fun of people, they are not, repeat, NOT, so struck by your wit as to accept such petty vitriolic slander without resentment.
Furthermore, they are not inspired to trust anything you say or to come round to your point of view. I know of positively no one whose mind was ever changed because someone chose to denigrate his or her views.
Do you think someone like that would say to him- or herself, "Gosh, this person is just so witty! Perhaps they have a point! I should change how I think! They must be right, after all, if they're so clever."
Yeaaaahhhhh.....don't think so.
Today I was flipping through a controversial book called God is Not Great just to see what the author had to say. You know, attempting to be "open-minded" and fair. I had the feeling, just from reading the title, that I would not agree with the conclusions reached therein. However, I tried to give it a chance.
There on the first page to which I opened the book, the author was calling creationists "yokels."
So, insulting the people you're trying to convince -- yeah, way to win points with the opposing side.
Not!
Just had to vent, LOL.
We all do this on occasion, and sure, it feels good, but we have to keep in mind it doesn't do anything for our image, and it most certainly doesn't help win people over to our point of view. The only people that will enjoy hearing us rant on and on about what idiots the folks on the "other side" are are the ones who are already convinced that "we're" right and "they're" wrong. They'll get a laugh, but nobody else will. Especially not those who hold the opposing viewpoints. Just something to keep in mind.
:)
posted by Jess @ 12:56
13 comments
13 Comments:
Very good things to keep in mind Mary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)!!!!! we got to get to gather soon!!!!!!!!!!!! Love ya! Laura
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Hey nice to hear from you again Mary!
I have a few comments to your little note.
First, please tread lightly about us brain-size challenged folks. Lobe frunkeness is a wide-spread issue among many.
Second, I love the word vitriolic.
Third, does all your comments include blogging, where I routinely poke fun at all sorts of issues?
Fourth, is a "yokel" something bad? Perhaps the author was reflecting with happy thoughts about his Flemish past where his diminutive great grandfather, Morten, would sit on his porch smoking a pipe after a long day trimming his shrubbery with a herring? See my rationale below;
"The term bumpkin may at one time have been directed at an entire people rather than that segment of the population living in a rural area. The first recorded appearance of the word in 1570 is glossed by the Latin word Batavus, "Dutchman," making plausible the suggestion that bumpkin may come from either the Middle Dutch word bommekijn, "little barrel," or the Flemish word boomken, "shrub." The connection would be between a squat object and the short rotund figure of the Dutchman in the popular imagination. Any bumpkin would surely prefer this etymology to the suggestion that bumpkin is a derivative of bum, "the rear end." [Taken from Dictionary.com.]
Fifth, after reading your posting I looked outside and could still see the mushroom-shaped plume of gas rising from your direction. Boy, when you say you had to vent you weren't kidding!
He!He!
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SFL!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your soooooo mean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Laura
Yeah, I know it. But you wer probably smiling while you wrote chastizing me, weren't you? Hum???
It's all clean fun. Mary knows she's my favorite yokel.
Cheers!
Alright it was a little funny.......... Laura
Just "a little funny"? Oh, the pain!
I'm downcast.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello to my commenters!
SFL, I too love the word vitriolic. I was delighted to have a chance to use it.
And no, this vent of mine doesn't include commenting on blogs, since we all know that the comments are made in fun. :)
As far as the word "yokel" goes, if the word itself is not derogatory, the implication is, and that's enough for me. Unless, of course, the author was merely joking...which I doubt.
And Laura! You traitor, you! How could you laugh at his making fun of me?! *sniffle, sniffle*
LOL!!!!! I love that we can abuse each other so cheerfully. It's great.
My, my, my aren't we a sensitive little thing?
Use Yokel, and BOOM! off-gassing we go. Forming mushroom clouds, polluting the environment with extra CO2 and heat. You should consider thinking the best of others and assume they are being nice until additional data supports an alternative conclusion.
And now you're abusing poor Anonymous-Laura. Perhaps the Laura portion of the entity known as Anonymous-Laura did not want to send the posting where laughter occurred. Perhaps the Anonymous portion of the entity known as Anonymous-Laura handcuffed the Laura portion of Anonymous-Laura to a bike rack until the Anonymous portion of Anonymous-Laura finished typing and sending the post.
You see, you really should give portions of people the benefit of the doubt until all the facts are known.
cheers!
OK, in what universe is "yokel" ever used in a positive sense?
Perhaps in your fictional little alternate universe, or perhaps in the Dukes-of-Hazzard-verse.
But not in this universe!
And just because you are frunken-lobed and borderline schizophrenic, don't assume that everyone else is too! Anonymous is a pseudonym for Laura, just as Hattie used to be. Laura does not have multiple alternate-universe personalities.
Trust me.
WELL.............. I can't think of anything to say.
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