“THIS IS STUPID” reads like someone is shouting. “Hey, you don’t know what you are talking about”…this can come off as harsh without the correct context, intonation, and cultural background. Modern Internet culture has become quite punchy with sarcasm ruling the online forums. Sarcasm can be considered sassing, harassment, and/or snarky without the right lead-in or a setting of readers that are expecting something akin to a ‘mocking bird’ retort. Fatigue, hunger, cultural differences, and age are a few challenges to overcome to ensure the audience or just one member of an audience grows angry by misinterpreting the author.
How can an author convey sarcasm or snark without being an asshole, jerk, dumbass, or fucker? Well, the author can simply have a “fuck-it” attitude and let the words remain without worry for those who do not get it. Reddit is one of my favorite places to get news, read about the postings that could become viral and catch up on topics that are dear to me, like r/stopdrinking and r/quittingsmoking, which are two forums that helped me quit these vices. Some groups like r/politics and r/news are consumed by one-upmanship with the parodies, sarcastic commentaries, obtuse references, and otherwise off-topic incomplete sentences that receive upvotes from enough folks that the more sincere commenters are drowned out from the first 10% of a thread. FUCK, I really get sick of the little witticisms that get in my way of reading well-considered comments by people that I agree with…why else would I come to Reddit so frequently other than to check up on my sobriety and offer my sage advice as a nonsmoker for 170 continuous days that will be 180ish days in 7ish days?
Here is a good example:
Comment Owner:
Something else these people don’t understand. Your constitutional right does not give you the right to go into a store and shop. Going into a store that is owned by other people than you, just like walking into someone’s home that you do not know it’s called a privilege. Just like driving. It is a privilege. If Walmart wants your ass out of the store they will tell you to get out if you don’t follow the rules.
Me:
Because bakers don't need to bake cakes for gay weddings....leopards are feasting on the multitudes that loved that decision. I'm happy SCOTUS made it clear...no shirts, no shoes, no mask, GET OUT!
Comment Owner:
EDIT: I changed some of this because it was brought to my attention that may be the person I am responding to was not being in the negative but was being agreeing with me. So I went and head and generalized this post to be more in line with a statement then a disagreement. If I’m wrong then I can always change it back LOL
I think it’s wrong that there are companies out there that discriminate against certain types or groups of people. Wearing a mask or shirt isn’t about a group of people. It’s a blanket rule. People are trying to tie in a rule and a right . They are not always the same. People have a right to equal and fair treatment when the law says they do.
Our civil liberties are things like free speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, The right to privacy and so on.
Civil liberties are not a privilege. They are rights. Rules put in place by companies are not covered. People have the choice to not follow the rules and the companies have the choice to not let you in. No ones rights have not been violated. No one is going to jail. No one is being discriminated against because anyone who doesn’t wear the mask doesn’t get in regardless of age, religion . gender and so on.
I don’t know if it’s general confusion with what a right and a privilege is or that people think because you have certain rights with private enterprise and they don’t.
Tons of edits on the fly
3rd Party:
I thought the other comment was agreeing with you?
Me:
I'm was being snarky about the meatheads who thought their discrimination against homosexuals was vindicated by the SCOTUS ruling. Now, the same is bring used against them for not wearing masks. While I wholeheartedly agree with you that businesses should not be able to discriminate against anyone for sexual orientation, why the heck was a gay couple wanting a wedding cake made by a homophobe? This was not a small town without another maker in 200 miles...but Denver as I recall. This was a made up imbroglio to make a point...point made, move on to another baker said SCOTUS.
I'm a progressive liberal. I fight and vote for equality...i apologize if my snark was not evidenced and agree with your thoughts. Virtual Hug...thank you for taking the time to ensure I was not who I could have appeared to be.
Comment Owner
I apologize as well. I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep and when I saw all capital letters I was like they’re yelling at me 🥺🥺.
I really want to go to the next step and instead of having to read words people have to record their voice and I can just listen to that rather than having to read
Oh that whole thing that happened in that town was a complete an obvious ploy for attention. I don’t really agree with stunts that way. But sometimes in certain circumstances I would agree with it. I don’t think that’s one of those cases though. We’re talking about a cake for god sake
Me:
I use *Smile* when writing with a keyboard. I use it to indicate tonality. I sure could have used a Reddit smirk :/ or another. I agree capitals indicate yelling...I'm using Capitalists now to emphasize without yelling my words... letter capital. I'll type out an essay for ideas about new ways to install sarcasm, snark. And incredulity...successfully without as much misconception.
Hug, sleep dear friend. I quit smoking and drinking and sleep very soundly now. Life is stressful and our brains are really, really stressed with the Covid19 Era raging.
What Could I Have Done to Better Convey My Response to ensure that the original commenter was not “attacked” by my retort? Well, maybe nothing given the Op was tired, stressed, hungry, or whatever…I could have just overlooked it as well and thought, “fuck him”…or I could have wrote that verbatim.
Yesterday, I was helping an older person with setting up Medicare appointments. I visit her three times a week to walk her big dog that barks given she lives alone in her house and really does not want to go to a retirement home/care facility. I could not get her to pay attention to me and she went off on a tangent about losing a piece of paper with the context of blaming me given I cleaned up her pig sty recently. Well, I got plenty pissed off and shouted to her about needing to pay attention to me; I was wearing a mask in her home, which SHE HATES. I felt as though she was being shitty to me because of my mask; I got upset given I am spending upwards of 3-6 hours with her three times a week as a person who only signed on to walk this big dog for $25 per walk. Backstory, I am getting unemployment money with Covid19 and felt I needed to give back, so I went a step further than just walking the dog for some spending money. I really care about her, but SHE Pissed ME OFF…and I got upset.
Am I doing my best? Yes, sometimes I am magnificent with managing anger from others. Sometimes I am the instigator and gladly let the fire I set burn up a relationship. I can be a true ‘shithead’ sometimes. But, generally, I am in the former camp with managing anger, disgust, misunderstanding, and otherwise that is unwarranted. Let me get to the reason this was supposed to be just an essay and turned into a long position piece. We can use red herrings to indicate the intention of our context, for instance emoticons, text gestures :( or :/ or :) are a few such items to indicate the remark’s milieu. I prefer *smile*, which as far as I know is my own little insertion. *smile* came from writing long letters to friends, women I am dating/loving, and others that could potentially see my sentence as provoking a meaning that I did not intend to imbue it with for the reader. In this instance, I was embodying r/Leopardsatemyface is a forum for the unintended consequences for people that judge others harshly getting a taste of their own medicine. This forum was founded after the woman at the Cincinnati zoo sustained injuries from a leopard after jumping into the cage with it for a photograph…she tried to sue the zoo for having a leopard that would maul her when she violated the rules of the zoo.
Not transcribed, or rather copy/pasted, are a series of comments agreeing with the Comment Owner about my callous intolerance. Also, not included are the Comment Owner’s discussion of how these threads make us all better humans as we interact with each other to understand what we want out of others as human beings. If we knew each other, he would have just laughed at my snarky retort, but he did not know me well and I did not give the right indication to draw that conclusion clearly. Will I do it again, YES…will I be taken incorrectly again?...YES. Will I care?...NO. Will I respond to a really hostile response?...YES. Does this make sense to just me or do you understand why I am sharing this recitation?
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