Anger Makes Dull Men Witty...
A relevant fake news story (is there any other kind?) from the Onion:
Awful Man Offers Witty, Acerbic Take on Everything
ROCKVILLE, MD—Local resident Alan Bower’s particular brand of sardonic, no-holds-barred commentary about everything around him has firmly established the 31-year-old policy writer as an absolutely terrible person who is always ready to crack a joke, sources reported Monday.
According to friends of the modern-day Oscar Wilde, Bower has a singular knack for sucking every last bit of genuine enjoyment out of any situation with his hilarious, nonstop incisiveness…
Though Bower’s lightning-quick, whip-smart criticism occurs without pause, brother-in-law Peter Ulster, 34, said the deft ironist still manages to surprise those who know him by expertly dismantling their enthusiasm from an inexhaustible variety of angles.
“With Alan, you never see it coming,” Ulster said. “You’ll be discussing something you really enjoy—like, say, surfing or whatever—and you think he’s engaged and agreeing with you, and then bam! He pulls the rug right out from under you with a spot-on remark about how it’s a pretty feeble attempt to recapture one’s long-past youth. He’ll get you every time with that one.”
People want to be liked, not summed up with perspicacious contempt.
Alan Bower (the subject of this story) is so repulsive because he tells people what they do not want to hear, with obviously malign intent. Too, Alan ruins everyone’s good time; he seems like the hipster archetype taken to its logical extreme, where nobody cares about much of anything save themselves, and even then, not too much.
I see something of Alan in many people on the alternative right (not really the right term, IMHO, but it’s descriptive enough for the moment). I don’t see this attitude accomplishing much. I am not criticizing people for acting like this––that would be hypocritical, as I’ve done it as well––but pretending this attitude doesn’t exist, or would vanish within days of certain taboos being lifted, is dishonest at best.
