I've never played Cards Against Humanity, although I find the idea intriguing. But then I saw this, and I'm thinking their name is somewhat ironic, because they're trying to protect us from evil.
Can A Popular Card Game Stop Donald Trump?
| Unshelved | by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum |
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2 comments:
I don't want to get into a full-on political argument here, as I enjoy reading your blog and would like to continue doing so. Suffice to say that half the country has a different notion of the "evil" that the country needs protection from.
As for Cards Against Humanity, the game tends to feed into the distressing increase in cynicism over the last few decades. In the past, cynicism and its outward expression, sarcasm, were discouraged in public discourse because they tended to promote hatred and even violence between civilized people, reducing them to the level of tribal brutes. In the past one's mother or grandmother would teach "If you can't say something nice about someone, keep your mouth shut." These days that has been changed to to "If you can't say something nice about someone, come over here and tell me, and we'll both snicker over it." Thus people that need to tolerate each other in public and interact peacefully instead go to separate corners and fume, make obscene gestures, and curse each other. It won't lead to a happy ending - - and both sides are to blame.
Well, you have some excellent points. And I suppose 'evil' was a bit of hyperbole. I really don't care for Hillary either, of course--I was a Bernie supporter. I hate that this election really embodies the phrase 'choosing the lesser of two evils'--and of course, people have different opinions on which that is.
As for the card game, it does seem to capture today's sheer snarkiness. Here in Kentucky, there's a fine old Southern tradition of being nice to people in the interest of polite society and then either discussing them behind their backs or undercutting them somehow. Then we expect others to do the same, so some can be a little paranoid about it. Or, as in my case, like the British, we take great pains to be polite to the point of not engaging or confronting, yet then quietly fume to ourselves. It's not very healthy. I don't know if it's the same where you live. A friend of mine, who is from a fine old aristocratic Southern family yet somehow missed this in his upbringing, and who would be very much at home in New York City, will say shocking things right to people's faces, but they always know where they stand with him. I find that refreshing, and I wish I could emulate him a bit, but of course, I'm still the shrinking violet who thinks of wonderful things to say after the moment passes. Don't get me wrong, politeness has it's place, it helps keep us all civil, and I don't believe you should be an ass in confronting people. But sometimes, particularly when something is unjust or just wrong, I wish I spoke up more.
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