Schadenfreude and Internet Idiots
JD Vance and anti-trans-baiting memes
Schadenfreude: taking pleasure in someone else’s misfortune. As we use it in English, the German phrase is typically used for things from laughing at America’s Funniest Home Videos man-falls-on-a-beam type of clips, to an almost-sadistic pleasure at someone else’s pain. So am I an evil, vengeful person if I’m experiencing some schadenfreude right now, or is this simply an amoral (ie, neither good nor bad) reflection on how it feels to be a person living in these times? Let’s explore.
While I was addicted to the news from 2016-2021, because of the chaos that the Trump regime brought, it was a stressful, adrenaline-increasing experience. I was keeping up with American current events, but it also felt terrible to be drinking from the firehose of bad to worse information about the latest impending catastrophe. I turned my attention to other topics during much of the Biden presidency, because in Normal Times, a president isn’t someone you usually think about every day! Recently, as Trump rose to prominence again, being up-to-date with the latest goings-on felt tense and a little scary.
Now, however, the mood has shifted. We’ve got a presidential candidate not knocking at death’s door, and Trump’s attacks on Biden’s age could feasibly be turned on himself. Energy is in the air with young voters. And while writing, I just read the news about the VP candidate pick, which I’m quite excited about! Speaking of vice presidential candidates… that’s where my schadenfreude is really happening.
Good ol’ J.D. Vance. I read his book when it came out and was interested in his portrayal of Appalachia and why it’s so hard to get out of the cycle of poverty. But I felt conflicted, at the time, about the implication that maybe you, too, could bootstrap your way out of cycles of poverty to get to Yale Law School. And enough Appalachian people felt strongly enough against his portrayal of their culture to inspire a book in response, which is Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy.
He’s a complicated person and I’m not intending to be the eternal judge of his character. But I, and I think most people, find it especially distasteful when people are two-faced, when they pretend to be one thing and act another way, and when they so easily cast aside their integrity (if it was there?) in hot pursuit of power, money, and/or fame.
That’s why I’m not upset that some wild quotes from JD Vance have been circulating on the internet lately; bad enough that rumor has it Trump may be regretting his VP choice. I’m glad that his misogynistic comments about childless cat ladies (including… Pete Buttigieg? So perhaps, sexism AND heterosexism all in one?) are getting some oxygen. I roll my eyes at the sex-with-a-couch thing, and I’m really not too interested in following that one up too closely, but I can’t say I’m upset at all that he’s being teased. Just a little dose of schadenfreude, that’s all.
For the most part, I’ve been way too busy experiencing the joy of president/VP candidates who make me feel super hopeful; who are exciting (yet relatable! Coach Walz!) to support; who make me think that maybe there’s a chance the US is not backsliding toward our most regressive, repressive regime in history but we might actually enact social policies that are good for the general population and support/protect vulnerable populations!
I contrast this joyful optimism with the attitude coming from the right-wing extremist campaign. Fear-mongering and sowing division are the campaign strategies, and unfortunately fear and hatred are also powerful motivators for people.
I was on Facebook (ugh) the other day and saw a stupid clickbait meme about the Olympic Algerian boxer and how “men” are allowed to pummel women in professional sports nowadays. All you have to do is apply a high-school-level of critical thinking1 to the issue to poke some massive holes in it, like: what are we even saying here? Is this athlete even trans? (no) Where is this athlete from? (Algeria, a Muslim country, where there is no way in hell she could even live life as a trans person, which she isn’t in the first place). Where should this poor athlete compete if not in the women’s division, when she was born female and has lived her entire life as female? (**silence**)
I considered commenting on this post my cousin made — a cousin I haven’t seen in 20 years and never intend to see again. But I wondered what good it would do besides increase my anxiety and increase attention to the misinformation. Who has ever gotten convinced in the Facebook comment section? How do you break through the noise of fearful close-mindedness? But am I abdicating responsibility to not speak? But also… Facebook is often a hot mess of garbage and I don’t need to waste my energy there.
When I reflect on the second vignette about cruel, misinformation memes, it reminds me to hold my feelings of schadenfreude loosely: perhaps I can enjoy the pleasure of J.D.’s misfortune for the moment, but it feels way better — and healthier — when I focus my energy on hope and care. In the Olympic realm, I can uplift a trans nonbinary athlete I’ve been avidly following: Nikki Hiltz, who has been killing it in the 1500 meter race! They were assigned female at birth and compete in the women’s division, and I adore hearing Kara Goucher commentate on the races and use “they/them” pronouns without a pause of hesitation. And in the political realm, you can find me rooting for “America’s Dad” and crossing my fingers for our first woman president! It feels sooo good to have hope, joy, and optimism, and I’ll enjoy the moment for as long as it lasts. I hope that the story of love wins over fear.
Tell me: are you a comment-section-engager or do you avoid them like the plague? Do you wrestle over this like it’s a vital ethical issue? How do you feel about your own potential feelings of schadenfreude? And do you want to hear a story of why talking to my daughter about Jesus being an includer and lover of people nearly brought me to tears, in my post next week?
I recognize “the other side” is not the only side to lose critical thinking skills — it annoys me whenever anyone does it. But anyway, I am also annoyed about Vance criticizing Walz for “abandoning” his platoon before they were called into war, when anyone with rudimentary math skills and a desire to think critically would recognize he retired before that happened and also that he was like forty-f***ing years old and past his prime for fighting in wars, unless you’re a Ukrainian in desperate times // desperate measures. *Steps off soapbox*
There is schadenfreude, but there is also justice. Is it schadenfreude or justice when a lifelong criminal conman is finally convicted of crimes? Is it schadenfreude or justice when a hateful man who thinks nothing of destroying the innocent suddenly falls from favor himself? I feel satisfaction and NO guilt now that the scales seem to be finally tipping away from such an evil person. Speaking of tipped scales, JD Vance made it to Yale, but is there really that hope for any but the tiniest percentage of the rest of us? Of course not. (And BTW, he's white and male so of course nobody wonders whether he deserved admittance!) I just heard Jon Meacham of Vanderbilt University speak about this topic using the historical example of Richard Nixon who was admitted to Harvard but could not afford the tuition and had to go to Whittier College, while his contemporary rival JFK had the connections and the money to get him in. We all know the deck is often stacked in favor of a lucky or privileged few even when they don't deserve it, so is it really schadenfreude or is it justice when occasionally the scale balances and the formerly privileged and powerful evildoer finally gets what's coming to him?
I once trolled comment sections. It only led to bad mental health, and eventually to rage quitting all of social media for the better part of a year.