Why do you think people need to make fun of other people

At work today, someone was mocking the publisher of another paper. What makes us (generic) prone to attack others. Particularly when the others are not there to defend themselves. Why do you think we need to put others down?

We don't like them? They irritate us half to death? It's better than saying I wish they'd quit, get fired, or have a brain or personality transplant?

I think it defuses our emotions sometimes. And sometimes we do it because we are upset at something else, or worried and some people do it because they are just plain mean people who prey on people who are weaker than they are. I don't like to be around someone who does it on a regular basis. It's just unpleasant and I don't trust them after that because I know they'd do that to me, the moment my back is turned. But other people vent a little and that's all it is.

For a lot of people it expresses their insecurities. People are mirrors, and if there's something we really make fun of or really, really dislike in someone, it's because there's an aspect of that in ourselves that we loathe (often deep-down). We don't really judge other people, just ourselves, in a different plane.

Been meditating on this for years. When I find myself highly critical of someone, it's because there's a trait of that in me. It's not them I have the problem with, it's myself. I think that's true for everyone, though not everyone is ready/willing/able to see it. What started me on that realization was my teenage homophobia.

We are our own worst critics.

They go after this guy all the time, and they only know him well enough to nod to him across a room.

Then he's the scapegoat, SG. They concentrate on a target.

TigersEyeDowsing wrote:For a lot of people it expresses their insecurities. People are mirrors, and if there's something we really make fun of or really, really dislike in someone, it's because there's an aspect of that in ourselves that we loathe (often deep-down). We don't really judge other people, just ourselves, in a different plane.

This. I heard yesterday that my sister-in-law was criticizing me to my boss and another coworker in the front office where we work. Apparently I was guilty of being a curvy girl in skinny jeans, something she would never have the confidence to wear despite being quite a bit smaller than me.

I just wonder what makes her think doing that is okay.

They have to do it to make themselves feel better about themselves. Their self esteem sucks and they do it to try and convince themselves that others are as flawed as they are.

I agree it's mostly our own insecurities. I was a pretty miserable kid and I was horrible to those I thought were weaker than me. I was a geek who was mean to other geeks.