Hey, do you need an instant karma boost on Reddit? Here’s how to get yourself hundreds of upvotes in four easy steps!
1) Make or find a misogynistic meme graphic that suggests women are terrible and makes light of domestic violence
2) Post it to the AdviceAnimals subreddit with the headline “I know I’m going to get downvoted into oblivion, but its true….”
3) There is no step 3
4) Enjoy your hundreds of upvotes!
Huh. I guess that’s really only two steps.
Graphic after the jump because — trigger warning — it makes light of domestic violence, as do several of the other comments I’m going to quote.
It’s funny because it’s true!
(Note: That last statement is completely false.)
In the comments, one clever fella piggybacked off of the OP’s misogyny to win a couple hundred upvotes of his own with this hilarious comment:
And this guy won himself a couple dozen upvotes with a nice little list about how awful women are — and got his comment linked to in r/mensrights for allegedly providing great insight into “how Women are set on a pedestal in today’s society.”
Oh, but don’t worry, some brave Redditors stood up to defend women from these not-so-nice generalizations. Like this guy:
Huh. I guess that isn’t much of a defense after all, considering that it blames domestic violence on “immature bitch[es].”
Reddit: Where “chivalry” means suggesting that not all women are “immature bitches” who deserve to get punched. Just some of them.
The Advice Animals subreddit: amazingly, often worse than r/mensrights. It’s not clear if this is because the denizens of r/adviceanimals are actually more baldly misogynistic than the r/mensrights regulars, or if it’s just that the folks in r/mensrights know that really obvious outbursts of misogyny tend to make them look bad.
Good luck with the move (and the mortgage), Falconer!
But in the experiment they didn’t dislike it until they it was associated with the guy. And even the people who believed intellectually they *wouldn’t* have a problem, still did.
But that’s the whole thing – there is no reason for that to happen really – except for this concept we’re talking about. The effect itself is very real, but there is no rational basis for it.
Of course you can argue that it’s still irrational to refuse something just because you don’t like its provenance (“why would you turn down this perfectly good plate of cookies just because it’s from the neighbor who kicked your dog?”), but the key difference is that you don’t think there’s anything wrong with the cookies, you just don’t want them.
Maybe the students didn’t want to face the social consequences of volunteering to wear the serial killer’s sweater…
I rolled my eyes to the point of dislocation at that commercial. The ads were pretty lackluster all around this year.
Congrats on the new home, Falconer!
I’ve heard the sweater thing discussed before. I also don’t agree that it’s superstition. I think revulsion towards the idea of wearing something someone that bad wore triggers whatever part of the brain that deals with feelings of disgust (you know, next to the thingymathalamus). I don’t have the time to read stuff right now, but I’ve heard about this research before and I suspect it has strong bearing on the Serial Killer’s Sweater phenomenon:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/313/5792/1451.short
http://bigthink.com/artful-choice/clean-hands-clean-minds-the-psychological-impact-of-physical-cleanliness
Right, but isn’t knowing (or rather thinking) that it’s associated with the guy a valid reason to dislike it? Can’t one change one’s mind about whether they like it or not based on learning more information about it?
The problem is they jump from “there’s nothing inherently wrong with the sweater, but people don’t want it” to “people unconsciously believe that there’s invisible woo that will make you into a serial killer or something.” That’s a big jump.
I don’t necessarily think it’s irrational at all. Maybe they just don’t want it because it makes them think of serial killers.
And congrats to Falconer! Homeowning is awesome.
That’s a kinder way to look at it! I’m just wary of the whole tendency for these things to end up at the same-old, same-old “you are all superstitious and feelings are all woo and I’m totes rational and you’re not” place. Not from the bods doing the study, but the sort of jackasses who do the atheist = superior twaddle. (NOT anyone here, of course!)
I just get touchy about these things because of my own situation, of course. It’s like “Don’t tell me what exists and what doesn’t and what’s valid in my experience, kthanks.”
Congratulations on home ownership, Falconer. See you when you’re up-and-running!
On the sweater issue, I don’t think it requires a belief in anything mystical to explain that. If you told me that I was holding Fred West’s pen I’d flinch and drop it – not because I think it would contain his essence, just because he’s so horrible that it would be startling. OTOH, I think a lot of people do believe on a subconscious level that objects acquire their owner’s essence in some odd way. It’s related to the way that people react to places where they know something awful has happened, I think. It doesn’t require a belief in ghosts to feel creeped out at Auschwitz, or Chernobyl.
I feel the same way, natch. Especially when it’s cast as “don’t worry, it’s not your fault, it’s just your brain malfunctioning.” Um, thanks?
My particular bugbear is people who blame everything on confirmation bias. There are lots of other reasons people think and feel things!
I just wanted to share that I got good news today! My insurance company finally approved Cymbalta so I get to at least see if it makes the pain better or has some horrific side effect. (I’m hoping for the former, but will pay close attention to my moods in case it is the latter.) I’ve been waiting to try this drug since around November-December and just got through telling my doctor they probably weren’t ever going to approve it this morning. (Isn’t that always the way? I give up and there it is.)
This does mean going back on the anxiety-inducing Abilify, but maybe it’ll be worth it. 🙂
Cassandra – that’s how I reacted at Glen Coe. I didn’t feel consciously upset, and it was the second time I’d been there, but I just started crying. Not violently or anything: it was like my eyes were leaking tears and couldn’t stop. Very peculiar. I’ve known the story of the massacre since I was a teenager but it never had a strong personal meaning for me, so whatever caused this reaction, it wasn’t that.
@ Kittehs
I tend not to try to explain those feelings, just accept them. Some places/people/objects have Bad Vibes, and I don’t need to know why to know that I would prefer not to be around them. I do sort of wonder if it’s some kind of lizard brain warning signal, like get away from this thing/place/person right now, but I have no idea how or why that would work.
Also I’m now wondering if you’re a MacDonald by ancestry, that would know that story.
::high fives katz::
@Some Gal – high fives also for Cymbalta’s availability, and fingers crossed it helps minus horrible (or just bad) side effects!
Crossing fingers and toes for Some Gal!
Cassandra – one of my grandfathers was a Menzies, so who knows? If I’ve Scots blood it could be that some of it is MacDonald. But I’ve known the story as in having read about it long before I went to Glen Coe – it wasn’t an unconscious thing at all. It was only thirteen years ago that this happened.
Heheh just remembered something a gift shop attendant said when we overheard someone waffling about Braveheart. “Oh yes, I tell the Americans we love the film … as a comedy.”
Some gal, I hope that drug works well for you.
Would psychic imprinting be an appropriate term or is that only places?
It’d certainly make sense for items, wouldn’t it?
Thanks everybody! And congrats to Falconer! 🙂
I actually get the “this is a bad place and I would like to leave now” feeling very strongly, and so far there’s always been a reason even if I didn’t know that at the time. As to how or why that happens, I really have no idea, or even any good theories. It just does.