--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_re...@...> wrote: <snip> > To the point that even *imagining* the persecution > is enough to fuel the fires of "specialness." Thus > if a cult's beliefs or practices are ridiculed or > criticized, it's never individuals making fun of > individuals -- its a systematic form of "hate crime," > a form of "religious persecution."
The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Hatred is often conveyed via ridicule and malicious humor. <snip> > The whole cult *act* in these ongoing attempts to > make themselves "special" by being criticized is to > project onto the critics an "intent" that the cultists > claim is "obvious," but as you say no one else can see > *at all*. Examples would be someone making a joke > about a female political candidate and the wannabee > victim claiming that the joke was "intentionally* > an example of misogyny or hatred of *all* women. As I pointed out to Curtis, Barry often uses the "victim" theme to excuse himself of responsibility for his behavior. In the case of misogyny, first it should be noted that the term is not much used nowadays to mean hatred of all women. More often, it's used to mean an attitude well short of that, but involving more hostility and fear than just your garden-variety sexism. Second, there are jokes and jokes. It's entirely possible to tell a joke about a female candidate that isn't misogynistic. But when such a joke has a distinctly misogynistic flavor, *and* the person making the joke has a long history of misogynistic commentary, it's hardly a matter of "projecting" intent to characterize the joke as such. Finally, as I also noted to Curtis, pointing out the intent to victimize is not the same as feeling oneself to be a victim. Again, the claim that someone is playing the victim is very often an attempt to deflect blame for one's bad behavior onto its target. <snip> > IMO ongoing "grudges" are ALWAYS an exercise in self > importance and the attempt by someone with low self > esteem to feel "special." And the *audience* for long > term grudges is always those whom the grudge-holder > is trying to "recruit" into the cult of Oh-aren't-I- > special-for-having-discerned-this-truth-and-you-can- > be-just-as-special-by-agreeing-with-me. And of course, Barry could *never* be accused of trying to recruit anybody into his Hate-Judy-and- TMers-in-General cult by this means. Not even in the post I'm responding to. <guffaw>
