Has being mean become an entertainment?

[BanzaiBonnie]

If this is so, what are the implications for society?

Where are we headed? What's wrong and how do we make it better?

[msongs]

1. Kobe Bryant is an entertainer. He is mean. seems like the OP is correct nt

[Terra Alta]

5. So is Donald Trump. nt

[seabeyond]

6. my 13 yr old has been talking about him all day, and again at dinner.

he says he never has liked him, but he is so so so offended by what he did this last time. he was really bothered by the man. so we had a discussion how proud i am with his moral compass, and his ability to speak out with courage when he feels the need.

[HopeHoops]

2. Oh YEAH! Well FUCK YOU!

Seriously, you're right on target. The "mean" thing is in and it isn't a good thing. My wife's kindergarten class has its fair share of nasty little shits, mostly girls. This year isn't as bad as last. She had several "sluts in training" who only cared about fashion and were just plain nasty with the other girls. This year is mostly just normal mean stuff. The TV is their babysitter at home and some of the shows they reference I only know about from posts here on DU (we don't watch TV). Mean is in.

Did I mention FOX Noise?

[davidthegnome]

3. Ok, now THAT

was entertaining. I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read your headline. Lol.

[alphafemale]

8. I'm not sure that little girls haven't always been like that.

I had mostly guy as friends pretty much my entire school career. The only girls I ever had as friends were ones that didn't play the nasty, catty games.

That's actually the case even now.

I've been stung by "queen bees" way too many fucking times.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. When are you talking about - the Roman Empire, or earlier than that?

Being mean has certainly been used as an entertainment for over 2,000 years.

[seabeyond]

7. i think it is beyond entertainment. i think it is being accepted as the norm....

which for me, is much more bothersome

[Mnemosyne]

9. Accepted and encouraged; a very disturbing trend, imho. n/t

[seabeyond]

15. yup. nt

[housewolf]

10. I'd say so.... yes... look at the popularity of all the competition/reality shows like Survivor

all those shows the encourage cheering when someone loses or gets kicked off/out.

Today's society seems to be built on some sort of philosophy like "you have to lose for me to win".

Whatever happened to win-win???

[ejpoeta]

11. look at tv shows.. so called 'reality' shows.... where people who are mean are

rewarded. simon cowell was celebrated for it. they had all those shows with people parading in front of the american idol judges so everyone could laugh at them and say mean things about their lack of singing ability. yes this has become a mean culture. and it permeates so much... i mean, videos uploaded to youtube of people beating up other people... groups of them beating the crap out of somebody for their own amusement. yes, there is something very wrong. I don't really know how to make it better other than telling my kids that they should put themselves in someone else's shoes and think how they would feel if it were them. I can only hope that that will be enough to keep them from being so cold to others.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

12. you remind me of a book I want to read

Snark by David Denby

actually I thought there was another one called The Culture of Snark, but I can't seem to find it on google.......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/06/snark-david-denby
Snark
by David Denby

According to the New Yorker's film critic, David Denby, it is a kind of failed humour, muttered to a knowing audience, whose spread is systematically lowering the cultural tone. Snark is abuse, but abuse of a rarefied kind: "Personal, low, teasing, rug-pulling, finger-pointing, snide, obvious and knowing."

The professional snarker has no time for the virtues of political life and specialises in the kind of lily-livered laughter that is dead even before it hits the belly. Snark is the insult that "attempts to steal someone's mojo, erase her cool, annihilate her effectiveness". It finds its best expression in the stink bombs thrown around on the playground of the web, those codas of innuendo passed straight around to one's chortling gang.



- - - - -

No time for virtues of political life? Ha; in the US, it's the repuke party's modus operandi.

[Cleita]

13. Yes, the Survivor series is a study in mean

as entertainment.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

14. Don Rickles has always been mean...

And Betty White has been too. It is nothing new. And it is HILARIOUS in the right circumstances.
Duckie