Why do Dopers start contests regarding grave matters?

The BBQ Pit
1

This isn’t really a “pitting” as such, but a matter for debate in which I am at least impliedly criticizing some of my fellow Dopers, so I thought this might be the best forum.

Why do some of you think it’s fun or acceptable to have contests, games, or bets regarding some serious issue?

I didn’t read this thread, but just the title by itself prompted this thought: 2022 Senate Confidence Pool Contest

We are living in a country in which the outcome of elections can mean life or death for some people, or some equally grave result: It could mean the rise of a fascist regime in our country, it could mean denial of critically needed health case, it could mean unabated murderous rampages against our children, it could mean unabated murderous rampages by our law enforcement system.

There are so many people who might suffer horribly based on electoral outcomes. Why would you make this into a game? Doesn’t it strike you as treating with disrespect the lives of your fellow humans?

Anyway, just a question.

2

No. It’s intent is to disrespect those who cause the suffering. This an application of something called hew-mer.

3

Dpn’t forget the Death Pool, both regular and themed.

And as to WHY it’s because it’s amusing.

4

I don’t find making this kind of thing into a joke funny or amusing at all. People made all kinds of jokes about Trump declaring his candidacy in 2015. They were wrong to think it funny and to make jokes about it. Make jokes about Trump, fine. Make the outcome of the election itself into a fodder for fun and games, especially a kind of gambling, not funny. It’s along the same axis as betting on whether your neighbor is going to get sent to the concentration camp. Make fun of the people running the concentration camp, but not this.

5

I wonder if it belongs in Thread Games. The unrepeatable confidence score requirement kinda harms it as any kind of serious political predictor.

As for the OP, bold assumption to make that none of the players would suffer under the kind of consequences it discusses. (Although I wonder if there’s an argument to be made that it promotes the “politics as sports” attitude that I’ve read many say is extremely harmful? Probably not, but it did come to mind.)

6

I’ll give that some thought, right after I make my over/under bets on the post-election composition of the House and Senate.

7

That would be a good one. Gambling over sports is relatively benign because the outcome has no real importance to society at large nor to people uninvolved.

8

I would argue that gallows humor is part of humanity in general. More, I would argue you either laugh at death or laugh not at all. Personally, I make Alzheimer’s jokes whenever I forget anything. My paternal grandmother had Alzheimer’s. As did my father.

9

I thought this was going to be about the celebrity death pools, which are arguably even worse.

10

Laughing at your own misfortune is one thing. Betting on someone else’s misfortune is something else, especially if it some untold numbers of innocent people.

11

Maybe. My OP doesn’t preclude inclusion of that as a subject of discussion.

12

Are you under the impression these bets which are not even real wagers have some effect on the outcome of elections?

13

I believe it was Mel Brooks who said ‘Comedy is tragedy that happens to somebody else’.

14

Why would you think that a relevant question?

Let’s try some other examples:

Would you gamble on whether the neglected child next door is going to be starved or beaten?

Would you gamble on whether the neighbor girl—a “notorious partier”—is going to be sexually assaulted?

15

What odds are you offering?

16

Because gallows humor is a thing?

Some people deal with shitty situations with humor. I tell jokes at funerals; ABOUT the decedent. When I hear of a tragic accident, if the details allow for it, I WILL make a shocking joke about it, without a second thought.

And since this is the pit, anybody that thinks they can be the arbiter of what I am allowed to find amusing or humorous can go fuck a cactus.

17

My dad had Alzheimer’s and cancer, and it was a race to see which would finish him off.

But he’d always had a great sense of humor, and loved to tell people:

Yeah, my doctor called me in and told me he had bad news, and bad news. So I told him to give me the bad news first. “I’m afraid you have cancer.” I was shocked, and asked for the other bad news. “And you have Alzheimer’s.”

“That’s okay, doc, at least I don’t have cancer!”

18

You made some kind of comparison statement about laughing at your own misfortune vs. betting on someone else’s misfortune. I can’t find any relevant point there unless you assume these jokes have an effect on the results.

So what exactly is wrong here? Fictional wagering of no consequence leads to… what?

19

It leads to fictional bookies breaking fictional legs to get their fictional money.

20

The OP is completely missing the point of that thread.

There is no betting involved even though the words “Pool” and “Contest” are in the title. It should be more accurately understood as a thread where members of the Dope can predict what they think the outcome will be.

I haven’t seen anything in the thread to support the idea that posters want to see the rise of a fascist regime in our country, denial of critically needed health case, unabated murderous rampages against our children or unabated murderous rampages by our law enforcement system. Quite the opposite honestly.

Actually reading the thread would have probably cleared most of that up.