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"This is a confession: sometimes I feel good when others feel bad." (Found that article mentioned in one of the responses to this Twitter thread.)
For me, there has to be an element of "they had it coming" before I will express the feeling of schadenfreude at someone's misfortune. Said misfortune has to have an element of being somehow directly related to whatever thing about which said victim was being stupid and/or hypocritical beforehand.
Schadenfreude is why the Darwin Awards exist, for instance. (Though, for me, some of those are less worthy of schadenfreude than others. YMMV.)
Someone falls into an icy lake and freezes/drowns to death? Not schadenfreude-worthy. Someone falls into an icy lake and freezes/drowns to death while attempting to film themselves tap-dancing/break-dancing on top of the icy lake? That's a little schadenfreude-worthy.
Someone crashes their car into a tree and dies? That's not schadenfreude-worthy. Some moron who loudly mocked seat belts and then gets drunk off their ass and crashes their car into a tree and dies? That's schadenfreude-worthy. (Though, more likely, said moron would crash their car into the minivan of a family of five, killing them all, while only suffering minor scrapes themselves, which is most definitely not schadenfreude-worthy. Even if the moron also died in that case, it still would not be schadenfreude-worthy. Well... maybe a little.)
Someone dies of COVID-19? Not schadenfreude-worthy. Some idiot dies of COVID-19 after spending months beforehand being a vociferously militant anti-masker/anti-vaxxer? Yeah, I'm not going to lie, that's pretty schadenfreude-worthy. (Though it was unfortunate that said idiot was able to act for those intervening months as a vector for unnecessary COVID-19 transmission to who knows how many other people who otherwise might not have caught it.)
Schadenfreude is why one of the biggest goals of RWNJs is to "own the libs." Seemingly every action taken these days by RWNJs is solely so that they can then point and laugh at the resulting gnashing of teeth of their liberal opponents. Even if said "owning the libs" comes as a direct result of heinous self-owns against themselves (which, itself, is a source of schadenfreude for the very liberals the RWNJs are attempting to "own," whether or not the RWNJs are aware of how badly they self-owned themselves [and if they aren't, the liberals will helpfully point it out to them]). However, "voting against their own self-interests to own the libs," as RWNJs far too often do, is not schadenfreude-worthy, because that harms everyone and not just the RWNJs.
Schadenfreude is one of the very, very few "good" things about the mere existence of Donald Trump. Trump being such a vile, disgusting, morally-bankrupt person, while at the same time consistently being such a miserable fuckup in just about everything he tries to do (up to and including being President of the United States) makes Trump a perpetual source of schadenfreude. However, when Trump's many failures, such as that whole "being the President" thing, end up causing suffering in others beyond himself who don't deserve such, that makes it not schadenfreude-worthy. As with the previous examples, that's another element of schadenfreude, or lack thereof, at least for me: the deserved misfortune of the schadenfreude-worthy can't also involve misfortune inflicted upon the undeserving, else it loses its schadenfreude-worthiness. Again, Trump voters getting fucked over by the asinine policies of the man they voted in as POTUS could have been somewhat schadenfreude-worthy, but the fact that everyone else was also getting fucked over by said asinine policies robbed it of its schadenfreude-worthiness.
Trump getting attacked by an eagle while trying to do a photo shoot involving an eagle? Schadenfreude-worthy. Trump filmed with toilet paper on his shoe while boarding Air Force One? Schadenfreude-worthy. Trump filmed having to use a golf cart to keep up with other world leaders as they walked along? Schadenfreude-worthy. Trump's ridiculous "hair" flying away in the lightest of breezes? Schadenfreude-worthy. Trump tweeting out "covfefe" and "hamberders"? Schadenfreude-worthy.
Trump catching COVID-19... and then surviving, while millions of other people are dying of it, too many of whom are doing so as a direct result of listening to and taking seriously the anal-seepage escaping from the orifice between Trump's nose and chin? Not schadenfreude-worthy. If he'd died of COVID-19, that might have been a little schadenfreude-worthy, but for me at least, it would have been intensely frustrating, because it would have meant that Trump had otherwise escaped accountability for every other shitty, stupid, spiteful thing he's ever done. I'm still holding out faint (very faint) hope that Donald Trump someday will indeed face justice for all the evil, criminal shit he's done. If that ever happened, it would be the ultimate in schadenfreude-worthiness.
For me, there has to be an element of "they had it coming" before I will express the feeling of schadenfreude at someone's misfortune. Said misfortune has to have an element of being somehow directly related to whatever thing about which said victim was being stupid and/or hypocritical beforehand.
Schadenfreude is why the Darwin Awards exist, for instance. (Though, for me, some of those are less worthy of schadenfreude than others. YMMV.)
Someone falls into an icy lake and freezes/drowns to death? Not schadenfreude-worthy. Someone falls into an icy lake and freezes/drowns to death while attempting to film themselves tap-dancing/break-dancing on top of the icy lake? That's a little schadenfreude-worthy.
Someone crashes their car into a tree and dies? That's not schadenfreude-worthy. Some moron who loudly mocked seat belts and then gets drunk off their ass and crashes their car into a tree and dies? That's schadenfreude-worthy. (Though, more likely, said moron would crash their car into the minivan of a family of five, killing them all, while only suffering minor scrapes themselves, which is most definitely not schadenfreude-worthy. Even if the moron also died in that case, it still would not be schadenfreude-worthy. Well... maybe a little.)
Someone dies of COVID-19? Not schadenfreude-worthy. Some idiot dies of COVID-19 after spending months beforehand being a vociferously militant anti-masker/anti-vaxxer? Yeah, I'm not going to lie, that's pretty schadenfreude-worthy. (Though it was unfortunate that said idiot was able to act for those intervening months as a vector for unnecessary COVID-19 transmission to who knows how many other people who otherwise might not have caught it.)
Schadenfreude is why one of the biggest goals of RWNJs is to "own the libs." Seemingly every action taken these days by RWNJs is solely so that they can then point and laugh at the resulting gnashing of teeth of their liberal opponents. Even if said "owning the libs" comes as a direct result of heinous self-owns against themselves (which, itself, is a source of schadenfreude for the very liberals the RWNJs are attempting to "own," whether or not the RWNJs are aware of how badly they self-owned themselves [and if they aren't, the liberals will helpfully point it out to them]). However, "voting against their own self-interests to own the libs," as RWNJs far too often do, is not schadenfreude-worthy, because that harms everyone and not just the RWNJs.
Schadenfreude is one of the very, very few "good" things about the mere existence of Donald Trump. Trump being such a vile, disgusting, morally-bankrupt person, while at the same time consistently being such a miserable fuckup in just about everything he tries to do (up to and including being President of the United States) makes Trump a perpetual source of schadenfreude. However, when Trump's many failures, such as that whole "being the President" thing, end up causing suffering in others beyond himself who don't deserve such, that makes it not schadenfreude-worthy. As with the previous examples, that's another element of schadenfreude, or lack thereof, at least for me: the deserved misfortune of the schadenfreude-worthy can't also involve misfortune inflicted upon the undeserving, else it loses its schadenfreude-worthiness. Again, Trump voters getting fucked over by the asinine policies of the man they voted in as POTUS could have been somewhat schadenfreude-worthy, but the fact that everyone else was also getting fucked over by said asinine policies robbed it of its schadenfreude-worthiness.
Trump getting attacked by an eagle while trying to do a photo shoot involving an eagle? Schadenfreude-worthy. Trump filmed with toilet paper on his shoe while boarding Air Force One? Schadenfreude-worthy. Trump filmed having to use a golf cart to keep up with other world leaders as they walked along? Schadenfreude-worthy. Trump's ridiculous "hair" flying away in the lightest of breezes? Schadenfreude-worthy. Trump tweeting out "covfefe" and "hamberders"? Schadenfreude-worthy.
Trump catching COVID-19... and then surviving, while millions of other people are dying of it, too many of whom are doing so as a direct result of listening to and taking seriously the anal-seepage escaping from the orifice between Trump's nose and chin? Not schadenfreude-worthy. If he'd died of COVID-19, that might have been a little schadenfreude-worthy, but for me at least, it would have been intensely frustrating, because it would have meant that Trump had otherwise escaped accountability for every other shitty, stupid, spiteful thing he's ever done. I'm still holding out faint (very faint) hope that Donald Trump someday will indeed face justice for all the evil, criminal shit he's done. If that ever happened, it would be the ultimate in schadenfreude-worthiness.
