8 ms·
A friend of mind posted this article on Facebook earlier: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/11/liberal_schadenfreude_obama_s_win_br
by LeafStorm 14y ago
A friend of mind posted this article on Facebook earlier:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/11/liberal_schadenfreude_obama_s_win_brings_out_too_mean_gloating_on_social.html http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/201...
The summary is that in the aftermath of this election, Democrats and their allies are not just celebrating the fact that their preferred Presidential candidate won, but taking mean-spirited glee in the disappointment of Republicans - largely enabled by the preeminence of social media (for example, the "White People Mourning Romney" Tumblr).
The linked site is a pretty serious example of this phenomenon. The message behind it is essentially, "Ha ha, look how all the Republicans are dissociating themselves from Romney since he didn't win! What losers!"
- Xcelerate 14y agoI agree. There's a lot of mean trends I've noticed online, particularly considering almost half of the country did NOT vote for the president.
- kbutler 14y agoMuch more than half of the country did not vote for Obama: Barack Obama 62,088,847 US Population: 311,591,917 (source google/AP/US Census Bureau)
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- charonn0 14y agoWhy are you counting the ~100,000,000 people who are ineligible to vote?
- MiguelHudnandez 14y agoNot to mention the other share that are eligible, but couldn't be bothered.
- tux1968 14y agoWell over half the country didn't vote for anyone[1]. Even of those eligible, only a little over half voted. [1] http://www.statisticbrain.com/presidential-election-voter-statistics http://www.statisticbrain.com/presidential-election-voter-st...
- mjn 14y agoDoesn't that happen every election? Just in the years I've been voting, I recall Republicans gloating over "Sore/Loserman" in 2000, mocking Kerry's loss in 2004 ("maybe he'll get another purple heart for that wound!" type of stuff), and Democrats mocking McCain and (especially) Palin's loss in 2008. That was all distributed over internet memes as well as in other forms. Same on the local level in Texas (where I lived for some years), with partisans actually seeming happier about the TX Democrats' misfortunes than the TX GOP's success.
- antidoh 14y agoIt's not just elections, it's everyday politics. Politics is the last area where hate (of the other party) is socially acceptable.
- bratsche 14y agoI don't think it's actually hate. I'm not precisely sure what it is, but it seems to be the same thing that causes people to gloat when their favorite sports team wins. And sometimes it's pretty mean-spirited in the sports realm as well.
- stcredzero 14y ago> I don't think it's actually hate. It is actually hate. It's a controlled hate. Sort of like feelings you get when watching a movie.
- clarkm 14y ago> I'm not precisely sure what it is, but it seems to be the same thing that causes people to gloat when their favorite sports team wins. I disagree. Though sports fans have moments when they feel intense hatred for the other team, almost every fan knows that at the end of the day, it's just a game. They know that -- just like their team -- their opponent was just trying to win as a matter of pride. The consequences of political contests are much more serious, which leads many political supporters to actually hate the other side. They don't see politics as a game; they see it as an idealogical war that directly affects their quality of life. Many actually think that politicians they don't agree with and their supporters are evil. If you want proof of this difference, just look at the comments on articles about sports rivalries and compare them to comments on articles about divisive political issues. However, I'd guess that if the winning team of a sporting event was allowed to modify the rulebook for all future games, it would begin to look a lot more like politics over time.
- smithian 14y agoAny brief review of the righty blogs will show that the wingers are being just as derogatory toward the left, just slightly more quietly since they didn't win.
- jacoblyles 14y agoThe right thinks the left is mistaken. The left thinks the right is evil.
- __david__ 14y agoFrom my experience, you've got that backwards. Which I think goes to show that there are unreasonable people on both sides of the aisle.
- charonn0 14y agoThe left (IMHO) sees the right as having lost touch with reality (e.g. Sarah Palin), or as closeted racists. The right (in my experience) sees the left as weak, mewling followers of a Socialist secret Muslim bent on taking away their guns, making their children gay, and generally destroying 'merica.
- leviathant 14y agoI used to live in Central Pennsylvania and have a number of Facebook friends from the region. I saw a large number of 'closeted racists' came out of that closet in the 24 hours before and after the election was called - not my conservative friends, so much as their conservative friends. The stereotypical liberal as seen by the stereotypical conservative, however, is a complete fantasy - in line with the fantasy that Romney had a chance of winning the election.
- MartinCron 14y agoPlenty of people on all sides think that the other side is evil. I haven't read more than the one-word titles of Ann Coulter's books to know that she doesn't think that liberals are merely "mistaken".
- richforrester 14y agoI harbor no ill will towards either candidate, yet I find this funny and lightly informative. I also appreciate the technical side. Coming from a country where self-deprecating humor is considered the mean, I must say that this didn't even remotely think "What losers!" about republicans. Come to think of it, my first thought was "silly Americans", a thought aimed at the people that "liked" someone they thought might end up in office, and then un-liked him as soon as that didn't happen. I guess there's two kinds of shallow at work there: - Mine, for thinking "silly Americans" when it's only a portion of them - Theirs, for liking someone because he's popular In the end, the dislikes say more about how people use Facebook (or maybe, social media in general) than about Republicans. Finally, isn't it amazing what we can learn about human behavior with just a simple graph?
- Evbn 14y agoWhat is wrong with following a brand when it is in business and unfollowing when it goes out of business? It was a campaign, not a religion.
- richforrester 14y agoAs I said, it was rather shallow of me to think that. Nothing wrong.
- guscost 14y agoIt's nice to see that this is already the top comment. Be dignified, folks.
- beedogs 14y agoI honestly haven't seen any of the gloating behavior this article's complaining about, on any of my social media feeds. I've seen a lot of relieved people, not a lot of 'poor winners'. This article seems like a lot of hot air. What I have seen, though, is a lot of pathetic doom-and-gloom and sky-is-falling idiocy from the right wing -- people crying about how "my country is done for" and other such stupidity.
- incision 14y ago>What I have seen, though, is a lot of pathetic doom-and-gloom and sky-is-falling idiocy from the right wing -- people crying about how "my country is done for" and other such stupidity. This has been my experience. What's really nasty is that it's seemingly unavoidable. I don't subscribe to political feeds, but folks like this lovely lady [1] will find ways to spread their vitriol to anything, even an exoplanet discovery [2]. 1: https://plus.google.com/110015856734255535904 https://plus.google.com/110015856734255535904 2: https://plus.google.com/+SETIInstitute/posts/QRYq51e5cPu https://plus.google.com/+SETIInstitute/posts/QRYq51e5cPu
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- clarky07 14y agoI've seen lots of the gloating in my stream fwiw.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- bonch 14y ago> What I have seen, though, is a lot of pathetic doom-and-gloom and sky-is-falling idiocy from the right wing -- people crying about how "my country is done for" and other such stupidity. Sounds like Kerry supporters in 2004.
- 13rules 14y agoI don't post doom-and-gloom stuff or that our country is done for, etc., but I have gotten responses from left-wingers as if I had, just because I am not an Obama supporter. Not all conservatives are alike ... just because we have some looneys that vote the same way we do, does not make them our ally or mean that we agree with them. I'd imagine that the same is true on the left as well!
- seandougall 14y agoI have to admit to indulging in my fair share of schadenfreude this election, though I've personally only seen it directed at the campaign and right-wing blowhard pundits -- not at Republican voters, of whom the many I know are intelligent and good-hearted people. However, this page really is not compelling to me, because these graphs are such a prime example of a blatant misuse of vertical scale. The y axis currently ranges from 12,046,000 to 12,050,000, which makes the decrease look like a sharp 45° falloff, when in fact it's fallen by 0.02% during the time shown. The numbers are the same to within four significant digits. So what is this supposed to be telling me?
- tokipin 14y agonot that i partake in the gloating, but considering all the echospheric rhetoric thrown at the president over the last four years (just think Rush Limbaugh) i think the gloating is very, very well-deserved
- charonn0 14y agoMost on the Left have come to view the Right, and the GOP in particular, as petulant, self-absorbed and obstructionist jerks. This perception only really came into its modern form when Newt Gingrich and the Republican House of Reps. forced the Federal Government to shut down in '95/'96 over Medicare (Medicare again!) and then voted to impeach Bill Clinton for getting a blowjob in '98. Subsequent to this was the Presidential Election of 2000. Widely viewed by the Left as illegally stolen by the monied interests of the GOP putting the importance of victory over the legitimacy of their power. This President presided over the worst decade in American history since the 1930's, and he and his party (and their supporters) are widely blamed by the Left for the clusterfuck the world found itself in circa 2008. Less than four years later, the GOP seems to have suffered from amnesia. They didn't seem to grasp that most of the problems they railed against Obama for not having fixed in four years were the result of their own bright ideas being put into practice over the preceding eight. Certainly, Obama screwed up by trying to work with the GOP when he had the advantage in Congress. After two years of GOP obstruction, the midterms handed them enough of Congress to see that absolutely nothing of importance to the President (even if those things also important to everyone else) ever saw the light of day. Whether or not these views are accurate, I think this is the mindset from which many on the Left are lashing out at the Right.