Why must intelligent people be so sarcastic?

lol secret,
the quote," judge not lest thou be judged" makes some sense here.,

they were judgmental in their instruction causing nothing but judgment in return...

fuck all that

"as i see it the only "variable" in the equation is THOUGHT. you are capable of changing this and this alone."

Sarcasm is useful because:
- it gets your point across
- it proves your wit
- it makes the other position look absurd
- its funny

For these reasons sarcasm will remain an integral part of debating, those who don't use it will look dry and humourless. Those who can't answer it sarcasm will look ridiculous and self-contradictory.

"Durch Nacht und Blut das Licht"

my, you just named all the reasons i'm sick of sarcasm. yeah, it is fun at times, and i myself am guilty of it on occasion, but it keeps people from trusting you. if you always answer anything sensitive with a sarcastic answer, people will stop putting anything they care about out there for you to bash. it keeps you from getting into good discussions, not to mention the fact that it makes the other person feel like crap. i suppose if your talking about something entirely unimportant, it doesnt matter, but if it is a subject important to them, lay off.

"life sucks but its better than the alternative"

Well I like to be sarcastic about things unrelated to whoever I'm talking to. That way there's still the wit/fun/point but no one is being humiliated in ppublic.

"Durch Nacht und Blut das Licht"

I agree with Decius that the majority of sarcasm directed at people is childish and often reeks of insecurity. I've known a number of people who at first glance seem to be people I might want to befriend but then as soon as you open up to them or offer anything personal they immediately turn on the sarcasm, for these people it's a self defense mechanism. However there are certainly times when sarcasm can be well used. So long as all parties are in on the joke and the sarcasm is not meant to ridicule any one person or group sarcasm can at times be used to hilarious effect. Take stand up comics, some of my favorite routines feature a lot of sarcasm and irony. This only works of course because the audience is in on the routine.

Domz0r also makes a good point about differences between cultures. Take irony for example. Irony is a staple of North American and some European humour, it's the foundation of Seinfeld, Simpsons, Monty Python, and many of the comedies ranked extremely highly by north American audiences. However in other parts of the world irony just isn't that big a part of humour. In Asia for example some of these shows just wouldn't go over as well, it's not that they wouldn't get the jokes, it's more that they would probably feel "alright I get the point already no need to go overboard". The same goes for humour ported from other part of the world to North America. To those who enjoy Anime you will probably be familiar with the rather quirky sense of humour in a lot of Japanese cartoons. Of course it doesn't seem as quirky in Japan. One thing you will notice with Japanese humour is the focus on public embarrassment and scenes involving embarrassing interactions between people of different social ranking. Of course this is because these are big issues in Japan, here people sometimes see these jokes and feel they are just strange "why so much emphasis". The same has to be taken into account when dealing with sarcasm to some extent.

im with you teen. the reason i started this thread is just that i got fed up with it all the crap i've been taking on other message boards. i suppose all you really have to do is be relativily sensitive, and use everything in moderation.

interesting locut. never quite looked at it that way.

"life sucks but its better than the alternative"

quote:

---

i suppose all you really have to do is be relativily sensitive, and use everything in moderation.

---

"I am Akba-Atatdia"

Because I like sitting on my ivory tower.
It's when someone sets it ablaze and forces me off that I must belittle them.
Muahaha.

I get irritated with ignorant people, not the uninformed.

"Milk, almonds and pistachios."

My definition of sarcasm:

Stating something you do not believe in in an effort to:

Make it appear that it's so obvious that you should not believe in it, thereby belittling someone who was still on the fence about it.

You can never be sarcastic talking about someone else without belittling them. Comics for example, use sarcasm. In almost every instance, they are mocking the target of the sarcasm, hence my point.

Sarcasm is an immature method of communication that dies as you find more intelligent ways of communicating, being funny, and not needing to proove your superiority.

My suggestion is use it if you need to, but wean away from it if you want to be taken seriously by those who have surpassed your stage of enlightenment.

Also, I'm certain our definitions of "sarcasm" differ.. hence some thinking it's sometimes a good thing. My guess is, you're mixing up sarcasm and some other form of humour. Like irony, for example.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

Sarcasm is just repeating what someone else said, and putting it into a context which makes that statement absurd.

Whether or not its just funny or also relevant to the discussion depends.

"Durch Nacht und Blut das Licht"

Decius: You are probably right that I am distorting the definition of sarcasm here. I hadn't gotten much sleep when I posted that and even I don't really agree with myself when I read the post now. I probably did mean to say irony, which doesn't make much sense given the topic of the thread, but I guess lack of sleep makes you wander off on all kinds of tangents

No worries dude.

Gotta always make sure when you debate that you're actually debating, and not arguing semantics... which is (no bullshit) what 95% of arguments are anywyas.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

man isnt that the truth

"I am Akba-Atatdia"

By man did you mean only man, as if you think women aren't good enough to understand you! How dare you.

Ah semantics

Oh and context, there's a concept that takes a healthy beating.

"The Greatest Enemy of Knowledge is Not Ignorance, It is the ILLUSION of Knowledge. Stephen Hawking"

Question:

Why do most people refer to God as "Him", then?
Aye, that's the rub.

"Milk, almonds and pistachios."