Winners & Losers | Defeating the Absurdity of Violence with the Absurdity of Joy

How we can resist the trap of punching down.

Illustration by Abdelafatah Mukhtar

I have a general editorial policy that extends to my life and my world. It exists in comedy, too. Don’t punch down. It’s why Maya May’s show is called Punching Up. Don’t pick on people who are less powerful than you. There’s nuance here, of course. Sometimes, weak people do terrible things. But, if you think about it, doing terrible things to others is a form of power exertion, right? Weak people commit acts of powerful violence. In any case, the policy tends to work. Don’t punch down.

In Trump’s world, it’s just not that simple.

American media has been in a decade-long debate about how to criticize MAGA voters who hold very little political power individually and, in some cases, not so much economic power, either, but still vote for racist or fascist (or both) policies and politicians. Do you rage against a small family of four in a rural district for not voting the way your own family votes? Do you call their employer and try to get them fired for voting for a racist?

I hope not.

David Pepper

had an amazing piece on this last week on his Substack. You need to read it, but the gist is that when he posted about speaking with someone at a wedding who was reeling from Trump’s economy (and who fit the mold of a Trump voter), the comments on the post were along the lines of, Great. I hope he suffers, or He’s getting what’s coming to him.

I get it. Schadenfreude feels good. It turns out, the person with whom David was speaking wasn’t a Trump voter, which immediately turns you around, doesn’t it? I hate that it turned me around. I realized that I was cheering on the suffering of someone with as little political power as I, but with whom I imagined I disagreed.

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