Schadenfreude

Gelzo · 2012-05-06 03:34:12

Facebook is great for this. Seeing people you're not especially fond of having breakups made public, chicks that shot you down in high school not going especially far in life, y'know. I'm not especially proud of the warm, fuzzy feeling I get from it, but I'm not going to apologize for it either. I figure it's fine as long as I'm not adding to someone's misery by taunting them for it or by having caused it in the first place.

To mention a specific instance, the couple that got seriously pissed of at me for teasing one of them about a watermarked picture broke up recently. Maybe the relationship issues were why they were being emotional in the first place. Regardless, I don't feel sympathetic.

When do you indulge in schadenfreude?

Misery · 2012-05-06 03:36:22

The answer to that question?

Frequently.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-06 03:48:08

Pretty much never.

I have, like, no sense of it really.

I often times feels sorry for people on commercials if it seems they where wronged, even.

Viani · 2012-05-06 04:32:02

I wish I didn't have a conscience, or was a good person at heart. Sometimes I wish I could revile in the anguish and misfortune of the people who I am disappointed by a little bit longer before I eventually console them and give them my condolences.

Gelzo · 2012-05-06 04:46:56

I don't really wish for the absence of a conscience, and I think even if I didn't have the emotions that are associated with it, I'd probably still want to establish behavior as a moral person as a general policy for myself. I always thought that would be the wise thing to do even from a selfish perspective. Never know when you can get caught.

Though, I've always figured that I could be a pretty fantastic troll if I didn't have any scruples, and I think I'd be able to get quite a lot of entertainment out of it.

Viani · 2012-05-06 04:54:09

Well, my main fret is being self-aware during anger and irrationality.

I want to hate somebody for breaking my heart, and in my rage I take my anger out on them, but there's always this Abridged Nappa-like voice going "hey Viani, we all know you're wroooooooong and you can't control how people feeeeeel"

and then I feel guilty for being irrational within minutes of the whole predicament.

Like word vomit, except it's I FUCKING HATE YOU, GO DIE YOU BACKSTABBING PIECE OF SHIThey look im really really sorry for saying that I'm being an irrational bitch please forgive me.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-06 05:05:50

Ulg, shit sucks, yo.

The impulse to hurt and twist the knife is really not that fun for all involved.

Course, if you did it with no remorse, you'd probably just be despised. So realizing you've done wrong is probably better than just being a bitch with zero self control.

And you know, being haunted by Nappa is only fun to people who get to watch you being haunted by Nappa...

Gelzo · 2012-05-06 05:14:42

I used to be more sensitive to things as a kid. Over time, I've strove to be more dispassionate about things.

Well, I guess I don't really know if I've have personally had any control over my emotions or whether it's just the process of growing up. I'm just pleased that it's hard for me to become angry, easy for me to feel satisfied, and that unrequited affection doesn't trouble me nearly as much as it used to. On the other hand, sometimes I worry that my emotional state makes me less motivated and less receptive to sheer joy.

Am I getting off-topic here? I guess it doesn't matter.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-06 05:15:48

WE'RE IN GENERAL, BABY!

WE CAN DO WHATEVER WE WANT!

*smoke cigarettes, drinks alcohol, has sex with women*

Gelzo · 2012-05-06 05:20:14

Lightweight.

*smokes crack, drinks Drano, has sex with horses*

Justice4243 · 2012-05-06 05:21:50

You win...in a manner of speaking...

lee4hmz · 2012-05-06 05:30:23

I'M RUNNIN THROUGH THESE HØØØØES LIKE DRANO

Justice4243 · 2012-05-06 05:36:14

Salix Babylonika · 2012-05-06 13:39:46

Pretty much never.

I have, like, no sense of it really.

I often times feels sorry for people on commercials if it seems they where wronged, even.

I said some time ago that I don't get schadenfreude, and I still don't.

Especially when it's things like (and pardon me for continually bringing this up) finding the fact that an African warlord who enslaves children is named Kony to be hee-larious. Or cracking jokes about Nuclear fallout in Japan.

Yeah. I'm a marshmallow. Sue me.

On the other hand, sometimes I worry that my emotional state makes me less motivated and less receptive to sheer joy.

You do seem incredibly blase' about everything, if you don't mind my saying so.

ProfessorGator · 2012-05-06 13:55:39

I sort of feel the same way as Justice and Lazuli. I'm sure I have felt this way before, but it's pretty rarely.

And to be perfectly honest, I consider myself very sensitive. I just try not to react too strongly to sensitive subjects because I'm worried that I'll overreact. It doesn't really help that communicating my feelings on certain things is more difficult than it really should be.

Corporal Forsythe · 2012-05-06 13:58:38

I wouldn't call what's going on in that comic "schadenfreude", maybe I have the wrong definition of it. One night during a training exercise one of the new Marines to the fleet ran right into, and got himself tangled into a mess of concertina wire (very nasty stuff) and we thought that was pretty funny, and so did he -- that's some live-and-learn kind of stuff. What I would consider schadenfreude proper would be the guy at work who just irritates you tripping and busting his mouth wide open and you enjoying the news more than anything.

Mr_W · 2012-05-06 14:17:32

I think I saw an obviously Photoshopped picture on FB with the caption like "like this if you believe in god. <3"

For reference, this was the picture itself.

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/543/att00056.png

Salix Babylonika · 2012-05-06 14:19:11

well that's funny, but I'm not sure that'd be schadenfreude.

which I cannot spell. Apparently.

Unknown · 2012-05-06 14:21:26

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Mr_W · 2012-05-06 14:40:55

You know what, that's not actually Schadenfreude. A better example would be laughing at all the grammatically-poor sob stories that seem to be written by 6th graders.

TheMightyAnonym · 2012-05-06 14:44:00

My Pastor talked about this in Church today! :D

Whenever I play any kind of pvp, I become progressively more hammy, cruel, and degenerate.

Which is precisely why I don't do it anymore. 0_0

Corporal Forsythe · 2012-05-06 14:52:57

Mr_W: ....one of my other Christian friends passed that image on to me in Facebook. I very gently informed them that was NOT the intention of the photo and pointed them to the Snopes article.

Unknown · 2012-05-06 15:09:32

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Gelzo · 2012-05-06 17:05:06

"You do seem incredibly blase' about everything, if you don't mind my saying so."

I don't really mind. I guess that's more or less the perspective I try to take. I can get in high spirits in real life when joking around with friends, and sometimes just on my own I feel a little cheerful and silly, but generally speaking, I don't see myself as anything resembling a hot-blooded person.

And besides dispassion being appealing to me as a perspective to discuss things from, there's the contrast that exists with all the wackiness exhibited by internet content and other posters, and the fact that I just think it's often funnier to play the straight man.

One-Winged Eagle · 2012-05-06 20:19:44

I try not to find the suffering of people I dislike amusing.

But I do.

Tre · 2012-05-06 20:23:48

So that's what it means?

Hmm. I find others' suffering funny when they deserve it or if it's of a somewhat humorous nature, but most of the time I try not to.

Empathy, empathy, put yourself in place of me…

Gelzo · 2012-05-06 21:46:00

I figure it's kind of pointless to try to not enjoy something. You just have to be sure you don't end up harming people to get to that pleasure.

Tachyon · 2012-05-06 22:04:47

I don't know if I really get Schadenfreude, but I do sometimes find mild, slapstick-type mishaps amusing, which I guess counts.

Partly it depends how people react though. If they're seriously upset, that's not funny to me.

Manly McMacho · 2012-05-07 00:36:46

Ulg, shit sucks, yo.

The impulse to hurt and twist the knife is really not that fun for all involved.

Course, if you did it with no remorse, you'd
probably just be despised. So realizing you've done wrong is probably better than just being a bitch with zero self control.

lol, the only thing I hate about that impulse is when I can't act on it.

Then again, that only applies to people I already hate, so does that countr?

Schadenfreude

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