Laughter
For the next week, the Rev. Morgan Guyton's blog is a "mocking-free" zone.
One of the most toxic things that happens in our social media world is the phenomenon of mocking. We really really enjoy it. And in our warped slacktivist brains, we turn it into a duty. We make it our responsibility as concerned citizens to show those angry arrogant progressives/conservatives how stupid they look so that they’ll stop being such idiots, since making other people feel stupid and under attack is such an effective way of changing hearts and minds. I had a recent encounter in which I got mocked and I mocked back. I’ve spent the whole evening feeling disgusted about it and so I’ve decided to spend a week without mocking as a spiritual discipline.
I don’t want to be one of those uber-pious people who say that sarcasm and satire and snark are always wrong. There is a legitimate place for these things in social critique. People in positions of privilege whose way of looking at the world is “self-evident” don’t have to be impolite when they’re saying things that oppress others, so sometimes contradicting their status quo necessarily involves some sass and rudeness. That being said, just like we can fast from food as a spiritual discipline, we can fast from mocking in order to recover our humanity, because even if there’s a legitimate place for sass in discourse, it does dehumanize us.
So here are the rules I’m going to set for myself. If you’d like to stand in solidarity with me against mocking, you’re free to adopt these for yourself or adopt your own but please tell me you’re doing it so I will be encouraged.
1) No sharing memes that make fun of anyone in a mean-spirited way regardless of how mean the person is who’s being made fun of.
2) No sarcastic, dismissive, or disrespectful responses to people in social media conversations regardless of what they say to bait me. If someone cannot be engaged healthily, I will say something like “Peace be with you” instead of retorting.
3) No sarcasm or disrespect against “those people” in my tweets or Facebook statuses. I can express disagreement and critique without the feigned incredulity and LOL-ing at how stupid/hypocritical/self-contradictory “those people” are.
4) No straw men in my blog posts. I will try my best to present the objects of any critiques that come up in the most charitable light possible.
5) No “liking” other mockery in social media or affirming it with my own comments/retweets. I will not judge or rebuke it; I just won’t engage it.
I think I’ve covered the bases. Help me to think of anything else. Call me out if I fall off the wagon with this. Let me know if you’re willing to take a week off from mocking with me. I’m hoping to be in a much better place spiritually by next Sunday night.
The Rev. Morgan Guyton is the newly appointed United Methodist university minister at Tulane University in New Orleans, La. He blogs at Mercy Not Sacrifice.