The Art of Reviling

KQ · 01-14-2019, 07:00 PM

Have at it!

10 Tips for Criticizing People More Effectively

In the 1930s, William B. Pettus, the president of the College of Chinese Studies in Beijing, came across a strange little Chinese essay. It began by arguing that, "having a desire to revile, should you persistently restrain it you will sooner or later develop some malady or infirmity. Therefore, having this desire, it is right to give it vent, and there is no harm in so doing."

However, the essay continued, most people lacked the skill that great reviling required. What followed was a list of tips and techniques for becoming a master reviler, "one who enjoys reviling and meets with no rebuff."

When Pettus published his translation of this book, The Art of Reviling, he did not know who the original author was. It was later revealed to be Liang Shiqiu, the scholar now known for being the first to translate the entire works of Shakespeare into Chinese. Liang also wrote light satirical sketches of Chinese life, of which this is clearly an example, but knowing it is satire makes it no less true or useful—especially in the era of internet comment sections, where mastery of the art of reviling is more important than ever. Here are the 10 keys to becoming a master reviler.

1. You must know yourself and know your man.
"If another person has shortcomings, and you yourself are guilty of the same, in reviling him it is well to avoid mention of these."

2. Do not revile those who are your inferiors.
"You should select a person at least slightly superior to yourself…as soon as he replies…this brings you on a parity with him, as one pays no heed to inferiors…If, on the contrary, you revile a person of no reputation, the more you revile, the more pleased he is. The rule is that by reviling a man of no reputation you create one for him. Is this not a distressing sequence?"

3. In reviling, enough is enough and there one should stop.
"When you are reviling a man of standing and he has replied, this is the place to stop. Should you continue you cannot carry the bystanders with you."

4. Use the method of indirect attack.
"The more severely you wish to revile one, the more important is it to begin with expressions of pity & appreciation & even of respect and regret…the listeners feel that you are only speaking the truth and regard you as a person of poise & dignity."

5. Preserve a placid exterior.
"In ordinary street reviling the crowd regards the one whose voice is the louder and demeanor the fiercer as being in the right. But one who can truly revile is able to conceal his weapon until his antagonist's is wearied…when all energy is expended, he can retort in a few words, every one of which will draw blood."

6. In reviling use chaste and elegant language.
"Prevent your antagonist from perceiving, at first, that he is being reviled…the more polite your expressions the sharper will be the sting. It is a good rule in reviling to incorporate in your retorts favorite expressions of your antagonist."

7. Conquer by retreating.
"When about to revile and you remember that you yourself have shortcomings, it is wise at the start boldly to acknowledge these in a thorough manner…You must bring yourself down to the humblest position. This prevents your opponent's bringing you down to a lower level."

8. Lay a trap for your adversary.
"One experienced in reviling carefully notes his antagonist's every expression for those which can be returned with telling effect…by dropping an insignificant expression he will grasp at it and shoot his arrow…show him that it has lodged in a sandbank and that no injury results."

9. Make much of little.
"If a person deserves reviling, but the offense is of minor significance & scarcely worthy of reprimand…lead him into deeper water. Point by point use correct logic and endeavor to lead him to make illogical statements…When this is accomplished you can turn & severely revile him."

10. Make war on that which is near and cultivate friendship for that which is remote.
"At one time revile only one person, or, if need be, only one class of men, or you will have too many adversaries. Attack your opponent, but do not involve the listener. If it is absolutely necessary to include a large number of persons, under these circumstances you should declare that in so doing you have the interest of all at heart. If you fail in this you will have an avalanche of reviling descend upon you which will be troublesome to withstand."

Now go forth and revile well, my friends.

**SkiBall** · 01-14-2019, 07:03 PM

Seems like a lot of work.

**SumJongGuy** · 01-14-2019, 07:03 PM

Bless your heart...

**wyeaster** · 01-14-2019, 11:58 PM

Originally Posted by KQ

Have at it!

10 Tips for Criticizing People More Effectively

In the 1930s, William B. Pettus, the president of the College of Chinese Studies in Beijing, came across a strange little Chinese essay. It began by arguing that, "having a desire to revile, should you persistently restrain it you will sooner or later develop some malady or infirmity. Therefore, having this desire, it is right to give it vent, and there is no harm in so doing."

However, the essay continued, most people lacked the skill that great reviling required. What followed was a list of tips and techniques for becoming a master reviler, "one who enjoys reviling and meets with no rebuff."

When Pettus published his translation of this book, The Art of Reviling, he did not know who the original author was. It was later revealed to be Liang Shiqiu, the scholar now known for being the first to translate the entire works of Shakespeare into Chinese. Liang also wrote light satirical sketches of Chinese life, of which this is clearly an example, but knowing it is satire makes it no less true or useful—especially in the era of internet comment sections, where mastery of the art of reviling is more important than ever. Here are the 10 keys to becoming a master reviler.

1. You must know yourself and know your man.
"If another person has shortcomings, and you yourself are guilty of the same, in reviling him it is well to avoid mention of these."

2. Do not revile those who are your inferiors.
"You should select a person at least slightly superior to yourself…as soon as he replies…this brings you on a parity with him, as one pays no heed to inferiors…If, on the contrary, you revile a person of no reputation, the more you revile, the more pleased he is. The rule is that by reviling a man of no reputation you create one for him. Is this not a distressing sequence?"

3. In reviling, enough is enough and there one should stop.
"When you are reviling a man of standing and he has replied, this is the place to stop. Should you continue you cannot carry the bystanders with you."

4. Use the method of indirect attack.
"The more severely you wish to revile one, the more important is it to begin with expressions of pity & appreciation & even of respect and regret…the listeners feel that you are only speaking the truth and regard you as a person of poise & dignity."

5. Preserve a placid exterior.
"In ordinary street reviling the crowd regards the one whose voice is the louder and demeanor the fiercer as being in the right. But one who can truly revile is able to conceal his weapon until his antagonist's is wearied…when all energy is expended, he can retort in a few words, every one of which will draw blood."

6. In reviling use chaste and elegant language.
"Prevent your antagonist from perceiving, at first, that he is being reviled…the more polite your expressions the sharper will be the sting. It is a good rule in reviling to incorporate in your retorts favorite expressions of your antagonist."

7. Conquer by retreating.
"When about to revile and you remember that you yourself have shortcomings, it is wise at the start boldly to acknowledge these in a thorough manner…You must bring yourself down to the humblest position. This prevents your opponent's bringing you down to a lower level."

8. Lay a trap for your adversary.
"One experienced in reviling carefully notes his antagonist's every expression for those which can be returned with telling effect…by dropping an insignificant expression he will grasp at it and shoot his arrow…show him that it has lodged in a sandbank and that no injury results."

9. Make much of little.
"If a person deserves reviling, but the offense is of minor significance & scarcely worthy of reprimand…lead him into deeper water. Point by point use correct logic and endeavor to lead him to make illogical statements…When this is accomplished you can turn & severely revile him."

10. Make war on that which is near and cultivate friendship for that which is remote.
"At one time revile only one person, or, if need be, only one class of men, or you will have too many adversaries. Attack your opponent, but do not involve the listener. If it is absolutely necessary to include a large number of persons, under these circumstances you should declare that in so doing you have the interest of all at heart. If you fail in this you will have an avalanche of reviling descend upon you which will be troublesome to withstand."

Now go forth and revile well, my friends.

wrong forum, jongette!

**m2711c** · 01-15-2019, 07:18 AM

#9 is much in use here.......

SB · 01-15-2019, 08:10 AM

You mean this is not about potato pancakes?

I luv me sum potato pancakes.

**Bunion 2020** · 01-15-2019, 08:57 AM

Apropos of something.

A number of months ago, I listened to a podcast that has haunted me since — because it captures something essential about our culture warrior moment. It was from NPR’s always excellent “Invisibilia” series and it was about a woman named Emily.

Emily was a member of the hard-core punk music scene in Richmond, Va. One day, when she was nearly 30, she was in a van with her best friend, who was part of a prominent band. They were heading to a gig in Florida when the venue called to cancel their appearance. A woman had accused Emily’s best friend of sending her an unwelcome sexually explicit photograph.

His bandmates immediately dismissed her allegations. But inwardly Emily seethed. Upon returning to Richmond, she wrote a Facebook post denouncing her best friend as an abuser. “I disown everything he has done. I do not think it’s O.K. … I believe women.”

The post worked. He ended up leaving the band and disappeared from the punk scene. Emily heard rumors that he’d been fired from his job, kicked out of his apartment, had moved to a new city and was not doing well. Emily never spoke with him again.

Meanwhile, she was fronting her own band. But in October 2016, she, too, got called out. In high school, roughly a decade before, someone had posted a nude photo of a female student. Emily replied with an emoji making fun of the girl. This was part of a wider pattern of her high school cyberbullying.

A post denouncing Emily also went viral. She, too, was the object of nationwide group hate. She was banned from the punk scene. She didn’t leave the house for what felt like months. Her friends dropped her. She was scared, traumatized and alone. She tried to vanish.

“It’s entirely my life,” she told “Invisibilia" tearfully. “Like, this is everything to me. And it’s all just, like, done and over.”

But she accepted the legitimacy of the call-out process. If she was called out it must mean she deserved to be rendered into a nonperson: “I don’t know what to think of myself other than, like, I am so sorry. And I do feel like a monster.”

The guy who called out Emily is named Herbert. He told “Invisibilia” that calling her out gave him a rush of pleasure, like an orgasm. He was asked if he cared about the pain Emily endured. “No, I don’t care,” he replied. “I don’t care because it’s obviously something you deserve, and it’s something that’s been coming. … I literally do not care about what happens to you after the situation. I don’t care if she’s dead, alive, whatever.”

When the interviewer, Hanna Rosin, showed skepticism, he revealed that he, too, was a victim. His father beat him throughout his childhood.

In this small story, we see something of the maladies that shape our brutal cultural moment. You see how zealotry is often fueled by people working out their psychological wounds. You see that when denunciation is done through social media, you can destroy people without even knowing them. There’s no personal connection that allows apology and forgiveness.

You also see how once you adopt a binary tribal mentality — us/them, punk/non-punk, victim/abuser — you’ve immediately depersonalized everything. You’ve reduced complex human beings to simple good versus evil. You’ve eliminated any sense of proportion. Suddenly there’s no distinction between R. Kelly and a high school girl sending a mean emoji.

The podcast gives a glimpse of how cycles of abuse get passed down, one to another. It shows what it’s like to live amid a terrifying call-out culture, a vengeful game of moral one-upsmanship in which social annihilation can come any second.

I’m older, so all sorts of historical alarm bells were going off — the way students denounced and effectively murdered their elders for incorrect thought during Mao’s Cultural Revolution and in Stalin’s Russia.

But the “Invisibilia" episode implicitly suggests that call-outs are how humanity moves forward. Society enforces norms by murdering the bullies who break them. When systems are broken, vigilante justice may be rough justice, but it gets the job done. Prominent anthropologist Richard Wrangham says this is the only way civilization advances that he’s witnessed.

Really? Do we really think cycles of cruelty do more to advance civilization than cycles of wisdom and empathy? I’d say civilization moves forward when we embrace rule of law, not when we abandon it. I’d say we no longer gather in coliseums to watch people get eaten by lions because clergy members, philosophers and artists have made us less tolerant of cruelty, not more tolerant.

The problem with the pseudo-realism of the call-out culture is that it is so naïve. Once you adopt binary thinking in which people are categorized as good or evil, once you give random people the power to destroy lives without any process, you have taken a step toward the Rwandan genocide.

Even the quest for justice can turn into barbarism if it is not infused with a quality of mercy, an awareness of human frailty and a path to redemption. The crust of civilization is thinner than you think.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/o...gtype=Homepage

**old goat** · 01-15-2019, 09:22 AM

So what you are saying is--I should stop reviling here because I am superior to all of you. In fact, I should not even acknowledge you all by posting in your threads, but I can start my own.
So I guess I need to take a brake, as DSM would say. Oops, I just acknowledged him.
Just forget I said anything.

Actually, since we all think we are superior to everyone else, we should all stop reviling. But then this place would turn into Alpine Zone. Paging Greg . . .