I'm not being sarcastic, I'm enhancing your ability for creative problem solving

[kestrell]

Kes: See? That's me: always with the shiny lining.
The Science of Sarcasm
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/The-Science-of-Sarcasm-Yeah-Right.html

Comments

[kestrell]

Thank you for the link to the GimpSnark LJ, these are so my people! I have definitley grown weary of what many people call "snark" and which to me seems nothing more than petulant and humorless whining, so it's nice to see some people trying to revive the art.

Oddly, I don't see all sarcasm as a manifestation of anger; as a matter of fact, I think sarcasm/irony can often help turn something that makes you angry into something you can laugh at. Most of the people who make me really angry are both incredibly clueless and incredibly complacent in their belief that what they are doing is not prejudice. Many fo them will explain how they are trying to help me, and my attitude is what is the problem. When I mention that it's a cute little attitude and I've named it Fluffy, I can feel the blankness of their expression. Granted, I don't always know when I'm going to get infernally pissed off and when I am going to be able to laugh it off, but sometimes I start feeling angry and then I just click into "this is so ridiculous" mode and then I can laugh it off.

I guess what I am trying to explore is how sarcasm is often the final outcome of this incredibly complex series of emotional and intellectual reactions and, to me, it is neither entirely an expression of anger nor entirely an expression of humor, but instead something like blues music, which is what you create when you are kind of beyond just being uselessly angry and you need to make some kind of art out an experience just to feel as if there is a point to it.

[capri0mni]

but instead something like blues music, which is what you create when you are kind of beyond just being uselessly angry and you need to make some kind of art out an experience just to feel as if there is a point to it.

This. So much this. Because, even if you can't go back an tell that willful ignoramus where he/she/ou can put it, then at least you can create something that helps you look back on the memory and laugh instead of swearing to make a sailor blush.

Oh, and after my last post, I realized that "idiot" was once a medical term for a specific sort of mental disability. So I've decided to use "Willful Ignoramus," instead, from now on-- because it's the willful ignorance that makes people obnoxious, not a lack of intellectual gymnastics.