Poll: Which is worse, punching up or punching down?

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Punching is only acceptable after correctly offering a challenge. This can be done with the laying of a glove, or preferably a written request. Terms and conditions must be arranged before dueling commences.

On a more serious note, what on earth is this about? Is this another instance where a metaphoric phrase to mean something else on the online world is trying to become common speak? Does it have to? 'Puching up and down' sounds too much like 'Punching above and below' which has a completely different literal and metaphoric meaning in both boxing and relationships.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Edit: So is insulting people who don't vaccinate their kids bad? After all they are a very small group and we shouldn't punch down!

Yes. Insulting people for the sake of insulting them is always bad.

Criticising them on the other hand is justified and correct. It isn't 'punching' anyone. It is notifying them of why their opinion is not the reccomended option to take.

Insulting someone for their beliefs doesn't make them change... it cements them and makes the problem worse.

People like to be a victim. It means they get sympathy, and where there is sympathy it is easier to sell an unpopular opinion. That is how these movements grow. 'Attacking' them verbally and without reason helps create a rift of instability in the population that sit in the middle of the arguement. These people then gravitate naturally to a side. Which will they go to? One that actively attacks the other one, or one that seems bullied and victimised?

Anti vaxxers should be combatted solely by the doctors and scientists that understand the problem and can 'fight' pragmatically and assertively with reason and fact, not a bunch of irate, keyboard mashers who think themselves superior in a pack mentality.

EDIT: This also works on a bigger scale. This is also the way Da'ish has grown. It sells the idea of being vicimised in young people minds, using their beleif system to their advantage, then, like the Anti-vaxxers, uses the appearance of strength, confidence and good organisation to appear like a good thing to join.

Governments and large organisations, due to their nature, appear disorganised and slow to react (therefore weak). It is easy for a group or movement to exploit this to gain support, whilst still appearing the victim.

 

[Vault101]

Becuase a healthy society is one where you are forbidden of any negative talk about anyone under a self appointed label, all hail censorship!

censorship is not some che guvera style flag you can whip out evertime someone mentions bigotry

[quote/]Edit: So is insulting people who don't vaccinate their kids bad? After all they are a very small group and we shouldn't punch down![/quote]
being an anti vaxxer is not the same as being an oppressed group

 

[Something Amyss]

censorship is not some che guvera style flag you can whip out evertime someone mentions bigotry

And yet it's most frequently whipped out by people who don't grasp censorship. Much like Che Guevara.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

And yet it's most frequently whipped out by people who don't grasp censorship. Much like Che Guevara.

Ooh, nice!

It's always refreshing to see criticism of this scale. Someone who used their leadership skills, and ability to exploit (something learned through trial and error) to do the things I mention in my comment above (appear victim/organised etc) to rally support.

 

[Souther Thorn]

Both can be funny. It's much harder to make punching down consistently funny though.

 

[Vault101]

And why anti vaxxers are not opressed? I'm constantly reading hateful comments about them in newspapers with laws against them, that's as opressed as can be, that's as opressed as can be.

I dunno are scientologists oppressed because people say mean things about them?

systematic oppression has many historical and sociological factors which I neither have the time/patience/expert knowledge to go into

and given peoples wonderful grasp of logic I'd be wasting my time anyway

it's always refreshing to see criticism of this scale. Someone who used their leadership skills, and ability to exploit (something learned through trial and error) to do the things I mention in my comment above (appear victim/organised etc) to rally support.

......now I'm just confused

 

[MisterLiver]

Edit: So is insulting people who don't vaccinate their kids bad? After all they are a very small group and we shouldn't punch down!

Yes, basically.

A more thorough answer might be that randomly going after silly, silly people does nothing but offer them more exposure. People with sense will oppose silly, silly things and silly, silly people who subscribe themselves to silly, silly causes will condemn themselves with their own words until they've created an echo chamber.

Appropriately enough, think of it as getting a virus. I wouldn't infect myself with pox to show how grotesque and painful it is, because then all I've done is infect myself and expose other people. In the same way, I'm not going to go out of my way to insult someone's silly, silly cause (in an overly-public fashion) because all that will do is bring more attention to it than it deserves.

 

[chocolate pickles]

For the opponent, neither are pleasant. I mean, you are more likely to incapacitate your opponent with a head punch, but a solid body punch can really knock the wind out of you, which in turn has made me feel scared as my opponent comes barrelling towards me.

Oh, you weren't referring to actual punching. In that cases, I have no interest in another case of social network drama that escapists like to indulge in. Sorry.

 

[KenAri]

My vote is on 'Punching first' being the worst. Punching back is fair game. Direction is unimportant; we're all humans at the end of the day.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Both can be funny. It's much harder to make punching down consistently funny though.

Pretty much.

I actually thought the given example was funny, and I say that as someone who works and genuinely would love a half-day.

 

[Silvanus]

Punching down is worse.

However, punching first is worse again.

 

[Erttheking]

In my opinion punching in either direction isn't the way we should behave. Though, if I had to choose, it would be punching up that makes the least sense. I stumbled across some youtube video of celebrities reading "mean tweets" and it struck me; how pathetic someone's life must be that they lash out at people who are more successful than they are and who might possibly have some advice on how that happened. Punching down, on the other hand, is cruel and pointless but... it?s not like you?re alienating someone you could have learned from.

Let them eat cake!

Yeah, because all I needed in life was for some successful prick to come up to me and enlighten me. You know how youtube celebrities got successful? Luck. Pure luck. Their videos just happened to go viral. No advice there. This reminds me of how everytime I try to criticize the 1% in this country the people around me bring up some shit about poor people being "jealous"

Punch up all the time.

 

[visiblenoise]

Strange way of thinking. Why would the direction matter?

 

[Olas]

All things being equal, punching up is way better than punching down. A person in a place of power and or authority can generally better handle, and should expect, criticism. There's really no point in punching down. If someone is obscure and powerless you can just ignore them.

 

[Areloch]

Always punch up.
Because that's where the previous posts in a thread are! *rimshot*

Weither you punch up or down should only ever depend on if the baby is sitting in a highchair or not *rimshot*

The only reason you'd punch up is because you're too short to hit the target normally! *rimshot*

On Topic, I'm in agreement with this:

Both can be funny. It's much harder to make punching down consistently funny though.

 

[Nimzabaat]

In my opinion punching in either direction isn't the way we should behave. Though, if I had to choose, it would be punching up that makes the least sense. I stumbled across some youtube video of celebrities reading "mean tweets" and it struck me; how pathetic someone's life must be that they lash out at people who are more successful than they are and who might possibly have some advice on how that happened. Punching down, on the other hand, is cruel and pointless but... it?s not like you?re alienating someone you could have learned from.

Let them eat cake!

Yeah, because all I needed in life was for some successful prick to come up to me and enlighten me. You know how youtube celebrities got successful? Luck. Pure luck. Their videos just happened to go viral. No advice there. This reminds me of how everytime I try to criticize the 1% in this country the people around me bring up some shit about poor people being "jealous"

Punch up all the time.

Fair enough. Though most youtube celebrities didn't get there by luck, they got there by hitting a niche that other people weren't and running with it. To get topical, look at Pewdiepie, I would not have thought that his formula would have been successful but it seems to have worked out well for him. There is always something to be learned, even if it's just "look for something no one else is doing and try it".