Partly Cloudy, 64°
POINT: You Would Make A Fool Out Of Me? Shame, Indeed, Shame Upon You!
You think you can fool me without consequences? Nay, I say! You, a fooler of men, are deserving of shame. Shame indeed! To fool me once is once too far, and now you shall be shamed like you have never been shamed before! You are among the cruelest of our kind, to take advantage of such a poor and innocent soul as my own. How do you sleep at night, knowing that you have fooled me one time? The whole world shall know what kind of man you are, and they will look down upon you and cast the stones of their judgment. And yet, I almost pity you, scum. It’s one thing to be known as the fool, it’s another to be branded a fooler. I shall receive sympathy for my troubles, but you? Only shame and the deepest pits of hell await you now. So go, fiend. Collect your reward for your wicked acts. You have sowed your field of misery, and now you shall reap it.
COUNTERPOINT: Let’s Stop This Pervasive Culture Of Victim-Shaming
Shame is a term we throw around often, and I worry that we ignore the gravity of such a word. Many people every day get fooled for the first time, and we don’t shame them. Rightfully so, in fact. But what about the poor people who get fooled again? Where is our sympathy now? If they were victims of foolishness the first time, what makes the second time any less traumatic? These are the questions we should be asking, not ‘how did you get tricked again?’ or ‘why did you still trust them after they fooled you the first time?’ When we shame these poor victims, we are telling the real perpetrators that it’s okay to keep fooling people, especially those of us who forgive easily and maybe don’t remember how we got fooled the first time. We as a society can do better. Those of us who have been fooled twice deserve a third chance. Shame should only be for the foolers and those who get fooled a third time. Then, by my estimation, they deserve it. But if your only crime is getting fooled and then getting fooled again? Then I say live and let live.
