Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: high schooler buying a tuba


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Posted by Rick Denney on July 12, 2000 at 12:18:44:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: high schooler buying a tuba posted by Abe on July 12, 2000 at 11:43:53:

You are correct, of course. My use of the word "earnest" wasn't the same as yours, but yours is the correct one.

My meaning was when people pretend to ignore what they must know is a joke so that they can *appear* to be "earnest." They do this to give themselves gravity and to take some away from the other person. Sometimes they are truly offended, in which case it is a sincere response but still a little hard on the conversation. I assume this to be the case here. Other times, though, I'm convinced that they are stifling a laugh in order to be offended on purpose. This is neither sincere nor honest, but is designed to put on a sincere and honest facade. That sort of hypocrisy is all too common these days, it seems to me. I'll take honest, but biting humor any day over false sincerity.

One thing I've said before in many Internet forums in which I participate: A good strategy for approaching any discussion in cyberspace is to bring both a thick skin and the good-will-based assumption that the other person is trying to be funny. Even when another person really intends offense, the assumption that they are joking and the resulting response rob the statement of acid and likely do more to put the offender in his place than a direct challenge.

Finally, a joke by a Southerner at the expense of a Northerner should be much less offensive than the other way around--after all, the Southerners were defeated and still suffer from that defeat to a certain extent. But the converse is much more common in my experience, though that may be my perspective as a Southerner showing through.

Rick "Veteran of many Internet discussions" Denney


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