When Cruelty Is “Funny”

“Everyone’s so uptight.” “No one can take a joke.” “Back in my day, we could take a little ribbing.” If any of these sound familiar, it is because being an absolute monster has been normalized, and people are finally telling the monsters to be quiet. For the longest time, the dominant narrative put people in power who had no relation to the people, but could depict a caricature of a “leader.” This person was not required to have any actual skills, but needed to show the idea of charisma. Now, people are recognizing that listening to cheap talk leading to cruelty has nothing to do with actual leadership, but everything to do with showing why being a monster eventually unleashes horrors.

Strength is a very subjective measurement of how well the empire is doing, but within the imperial messaging, the only focus seems to be “strength.” Theoretically, there are different kinds of strength, some of which require character and social intelligence, both innate and learned. Now, the only demonstration of “strength” seems to be through weaponry and socioeconomic resources, which is why regular folks are being terrorized and the working poor is being attacked with what we cannot easily fix. Most of the people enacting this “strength” are either surprised that they have terrible reputations, or could not care less about their images among those they consider “less” than they are. Those who do not care are demonstrating the depths of their depravity, and people are rightly becoming afraid.

Before the world finally put labels on behavior, pranks were “good fun,” hazing was just “kid behavior,” and bullying was considered “the way things are.” Thankfully, no one with sense is buying the “strong” act anymore–but even more interestingly, tolerating the “strong” act is no longer seen as resilient. People are finally calling things what they are, and we are also ignoring anyone who uses the opening poor statements as excuses to be cruel. Empathy might be missing from the normalization of pain, but those who cause pain are finally no longer being seen as “good people who make bad choices.” This is one of the first steps towards a societal reckoning that restores balance.