I get that people will have opposing viewpoints.
I get that people want to express their differing opinions.
I get that a good debate can be stimulating and enriching for both sides.
I don’t get ridicule. It’s not clever. It’s not funny. It is not good comedy or good argument. It has no point other than inflicting hurt, a goal which comes from cruelty and hatred. Why do people embrace this? What makes people reach for the verbal razor blades rather than rationally making their point or ceding to the better argument? Ridicule is nothing new but the Internet has given every person who chooses that particular weapon a platform in which to bask in his own toxic limelight as well as a host of comrades to pat him on the back. Ridicule is no longer an annoying symptom of our culture but has become a saddening epidemic, and no person, ideology, or topic escapes its sting.
Ridicule, in short, is nothing more than the handmaid of bullying.
A Room With A Pew 