I wish I were that decent…
nefarious sideways grin
For fuck sake. This person was a pain in the ass. He deserved a slap or three IMO but to be happy that he is in significant pain and might die after that pain is wrong. Morally or not I don’t really give a shit it just wrong.
I have personally hated and I mean HATEseveral people in my life but I would never be happy about their pain (discomfort yes but there are degrees to these things).
Gee, Andros…you noticed me laughing at someone’s brain tumor lately? Giggling at Cheney’s heart attack, even?
And Blessed Wolf could have stopped living with this guy, does not have to continue to have this guy in his life, and it is no longer an issue for him…very simple. That he chooses to be eaten up inside by a guy who, as I said, sounds like a real Cliffy from Cheers, is really sad and something he should really take a look at.
My disagreement with poiliticians is not an academic matter. Politicians have power not only over my life, but over my country and my planet. They can DO things that I find terrifying and evil. If all they were is annoying, I certainly wouldn’t devote the emotional energy. But they aren’t simply annoying, they are HARMFUL. Do you understand the distinction?
stoid
When I heard that Ronnie Reagan had alzheimers, I actually laughed. How choice! How utterly poetic that that iron plated cleft should deal with an inordinate amount of drool.Then I felt bad, guilty. Then I said no. That slime and his ilk have fucked us for years to come. (federal judgeships, for one, don’t be typically, apathetically obtuse). Stoidela’s distinction is apt and people continually think that by “appealing to the high (better, smug) road” that they are actually helping. Well, the gloves are off. These people are bad news and they are going to leave nothing but a smoking toxic husk for our children. I don’t personally have any–a vote of no confidence–but I have a nephew, and that makes it my business. Profit and (via) power before human need, that’s their creed and believe me; the next four years ought to hammer it home. If you are not livid, then you are probably an endvalve or dupe who voted for the Tejano Chimp.
When Cheney, that warmongering trog shits the bed, I won’t laugh, I won’t feel anything. That’s sad. All the chimp’s horses and all the chimp’s men…
There’s the key, andros. Deserving it. Sure, I can appreciate the poetic justice in seeing the driver that just tailgated me and cut me off being pulled over for a nice fat ticket. Fuck yes, I’ll laugh at him. He deserves it.
When something bad happens to a person you dislike, it is OK to laugh about it as long as it is in proportion with what they did to you.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m fully aware of the fact that this is a very broad and unfocused definition. I’m also very much aware that it’s a very personal thing. But I can merely call them as I see them.
Say, there’s this guy who just tackled you illegally in that football game. You’re aching all over, and the bastard wasn’t even punished for it. Moreover, he’s doing this sort of thing all the time.
Two scenarios:
[ul]
[li]Suddenly, he falls down and screams. It turns out he tore a calf muscle, and he limps off the field. DO YOU LAUGH?[/li]Yes, and hard, too. The calf muscle will heal, and this idiot isn’t hurting anyone anytime soon. Funny stuff. A proportionate reaction.
[li]Suddenly, he bumps into the goal post while trying to head a ball away. It turns out that he breaks his neck, and the doctor on the scene proclaims him fully paralysed for the rest of his life. DO YOU LAUGH?[/li]Hell no. This will affect the guys life for years to come, possibly to his death. Moreover, it will affect the lives of his family and friends as well. He’s an asshole, sure, but I hope he miraculously recovers. Laughing about this scenario would certainly be a disproportionate reaction.
[/ul]
Poetic justice? Fine, but it has to be in line with whatever it was the guy did.
A high horse? Not the way I see it, andros. It’s common sense, and plain decensy. The OP does not reside in the gray area where one can debate whether the “punishment” is proportionate or not. It’s WAY past that. Hence my comments.
And I love you too.
[end flaming of blessedwolf]
preface one: i know this is basically off the topic of everything, but is in the name of fighting ignorance in every forum.
preface two: i am not coming down on either side of this whole question.
having thus stated, Coldfire. you said that “A brain tumor MEANS he has cancer,” which, technically, i think, is not true.
according to this site: http://www.abta.org/information/dictionary.htm, a benign tumor is not regarded as cancerous. if it is located in a very important part of the brain, then it is still bad news, but not cancerous, per se.
also, in another part of this sight (nice big font, easy to read) it says that one of the things a tumor needs to do in order to be considered cancerous is that it needs to move far parts of the body. this would again disclude benign tumors as being cancerous.
i think anyway. the statement just seemed off to me from the beginning, but there could be more stuff that i am missing.
but anyway. sorry to nitpick.
[resume flaming, or whatever all this negative posting is called]
Well, after two days of thinking, I’ve decided a couple of things.
-
Yes, I do feel sorry for my ex-roomie. I do feel badly that he’s got a tumor. At least, I’m not laughing about it. He’s a guy that I spent two years of my life loathing, but it was an important and educational two years (It cemented my ability to be patient with fools like nothing else ever could); and
-
No, I don’t feel badly about hating him. But the karmic cause-and-effect is a bit unbalanced. Coldy, you were right. My reaction was disproportionate. I’d prefer that he gets into another car wreck instead.
Good question. After I posted, I noticed that it probably wasn’t the greatest idea. But I’ve gotten very used to sharing my life, thoughts and feelings on this board, so it seemed like the natural thing to do.
I suppose that on some level I wanted some validation of my feelings (and I did get some…), and I wanted to get others’ reactions and input on the situation.
The situation was a rough one. I couldn’t afford to live on my own. I knew nobody else in town and didn’t want to put an ad in the paper. See, the roomie I had before was even worse (but that’s a whole 'nother topic), and I had gotten BOTH of them through the classifieds.
I wanted to kick him out. I really wanted to kick him out. But then I would have had to place another ad, and gotten another roommate. I figured, better the devil I know…
I still won’t make any apologies for feeling happy that he’s suffering. We’ve all been happy when someone we despise is going through a very rough ordeal. It’s just a matter of degree. My temperament is such that every emotion I have is felt very intensely; that’s just the way I am. My love, my hate, my interest, my indifference…everything.
But I’m no longer dancing about the apartment.
I thought about being mean and snippy in my reply. But that wouldn’t accomplish anything. So I’ll just tell you that you really misinterpreted what I was writing here andros. I was saying,* hypothetically*, if he was writing it in ignorance then it would at least be some excuse. I never accused blessedwolf of actually “posting from ignorance.”
In fact, I accused him of worse. I said that he wrote the thread knowing it would enflame. Why don’t I call him a troll? Because he’s not a troll. The same reason I wouldn’t say to every SN with 20 or less posts who asks a stupid question “Wow, Concrete, you at it again?” There’s a very big difference between being a troll and having a lapse in judgement. Hell, if the latter were the former, I’d be a troll 20 times over by now.
I think that blessedwolf has answered the question. It’s not completely to my satisfaction, but he made it and I’m not going to harp on it any more. That would serve no purpose.
BTW, the character Ender from Ender’s Game used violence sparingly and only when it was absolutely necessary. He did it in proportion to the threat that he was facing. I, for one, consider the name entirely appropriate in regards to this thread.
Oh, two more quick things. Sorry I confused you with saxface earlier in the thread. Also, I’ve purposely stayed away from that last comment you wrote.
Coldfire:
Well, actually, yes, and loudly too. From the time of the hit until the time he gets carried off on the stretcher. After I found out he was seriously injured, I’d stop laughing, certainly.
See, thing is, we all feel at times that the punishment should fit the crime, yes? Someone drives like an idiot and gets a citation, that’s justice to some. Someone drives like an idiot and dies in a blazing dance of automotive hell, that’s not justice to many people.
But there’s a line somewhere in between. The issue as I see it is where that line gets drawn. Is it just that the idiot wrecks his car? Gets whiplash? Stubs a toe? Is scarred for life?
If some dickhead tackles the hell out of me and doesn’t even get a yellow card out of it, I may very well laugh at his injuries, but even allowing for the hypothetical I just cannot say how injured he would have to be for me to stop laughing.
Ender:
You’re right, I did. My apologies.
In his opinion. I suspect the parents of the boys he killed would disagee with his assessment. And even he admitted he would not have (nearly) exterminated an entire sentient species had he known he was doing so.
No worries about the former, I certainly wasn’t offended. As to the latter, while I understand your annoyance at my somewhat trite pedantry (and apologize fot it), to lambast anyone for posting non sequitors and irrelevances in the Pit is just kinda silly, as it’s long been a catchall for the topics that do not fit elsewhere on the boards. Right or wrong, he posted the thread here, and it surely has prompted some discussion.
Ah, I knew you’d probably pick up and argue the whole genocidal thing about Ender. I don’t want to get off onto a hijack here…but what the hell, the thread seems to be dying.
Hmm…I don’t want to spoil the book. But Ender didn’t know. He can’t be faulted for actions when he clearly had no way of knowing their results.
Now, for the boys he hurt, he merely stopped the threat. Sure, the parents probably weren’t too happy with his solution, but imagine how Ender’s parents would have felt had he died because he refused to fight back against bullies. Also, remember Bernard in the space shuttle? He was annoying Ender and he got his arm broken. Proportional response to the threat.
Sometimes there is a certain irony about fate.
I used to work in a hospital during a time when the UK government was busy appointing no-medical directors with absolutely no experience of working in this area.
These directors were largely selected on the basis of their support for the ruling party rather than ability, knowledge, or concern for their fellow humans.
The director selected for Leeds General Infirmary was a local millionaire who had made his fortune buying and selling property (real estate ?) and he sold his company, or rather his shareholding in his company - Mount something or other Estates - to his parents.Shortly after the market collapsed and the share value fell leaving his parents bankrupted (this collapse was no surprise to those working in the property industry at the time). He bought back those shares for a tiny fraction of what he sold and never bailed out his folks.
During all this he had bought a nearby building (next door to the hospital in fact) all the while knowing that there were plans to expand the hospital and that land was at a premium.
Having now become a director of the hospital he tried to ensure that, of the designs available, the one that entailed expansion in the direction of his property would be favoured, when it was not he suddenly resigned.
The irony is that very shortly after, having tried to royally screw the hospital, he was taken to the best facility available in the area for investigation into neuralogical problems, you guessed it Leeds General Infirmary, where a scan revealed that he had a brain tumour.
He died only a couple of months later and, although we should know better, the vast majority of staff working there reckoned he got what was coming to him.
Happy is too strong a word but a grim satisfaction certainly prevailed across the place.
My opinion of him was that he was a greedy little bastard.
I can see some point in the OP, its one of those things where maybe one should really be more politically correct about but sometimes acknowledging ones own flaws by admitting your true feelings is more honest.
Yes, I’m digging this bone up…
How about Lee Attwater, for a more recent example? No, he didn’t kill millions, but, more than anyone else, he was the man most responsible for the “take no prisoners” tone of American politics over the last two decades. After he was diagnosed, he expressed regret for what he did in public life; I think most felt sorry for him.
This person has understandably been a RPITA to you, so here’s an idea: if he is declared terminal, why don’t you offer to care for him from time to time? That way, you can give his family the occasional and much needed break, and you can watch as he loses control of his senses (and later his nervous system.) I’ve known people who have wanted to kill their own family members rather than see them suffer from this. If you’re going to experience schadenfreude, you might as well play it to the hilt.