The head of a gold mine in South Africa says a group of miners from an unregistered, rival union are holding hundreds of colleagues underground for the second day over a union dispute.
The head of a gold mine in South Africa says a group of miners from an unregistered, rival union are holding hundreds of colleagues underground for the second day over a union dispute.
Everyone’s imperfect. That doesn’t mean you need to be crass.
In fact, I put it to you the reason why civil discourse is the way it is and why disinformation so readily spreads is because people justify being crass, cynical and dismissive. Then suddenly everything devolves into a glorified pissing contest, like with most “debates”, where it’s all about one-upsmanship, social games and not really about merits or demerits.
Our inability to be serious about anything shows our lack of respect for situations that merit respect, and then we can easily and readily dismiss it and say “it was just a joke”.
But there is always intent.
I wonder: Did I not effectively communicate my point through my first joke? Would you consider anything I’ve said up until this point to have been instigating a pissing contest? Indeed… was it even I who initiated this conversation that we are currently having? A conversation which now feels – to me – so much more like a pissing contest for having now abandoned any pretense of good humor?
My point, if you wanted to confirm, was that ideals often mean little in the face of violence. An inherently cynical and dismissive opinion – seemingly a good fit for a cynical and dismissive joke. I’m no comedy expert, but in my opinion the fact that the literal text was written as a joke actually enhanced the intended meaning rather than obfuscating it.
And… by the way, the way you phrased this is patronizing:
I wasn’t asking for your permission to change. Condescension rarely cultivates civil discourse. Practice what you preach and meet people where they are. Or don’t! It’s really none of my business, after all.