Why are tyrants afraid of laughter?

[bemildred]

Last week, a Malaysian cartoonist was charged with sedition over posting tweets criticising the ruling coalition. Zulkiflee Anwar Alhaque, better known as Zunar, was charged with nine counts of sedition over a series of tweets condemning the country's judiciary. The charges came "amid a widening government crackdown on opposition politicians and the media using the colonial-era law", and was "slammed by critics as a move to stifle freedom of expression".

What's the matter with these politicians and tyrants? Can't they take a joke? Why are powerful generals, murderous tyrants, and stuck-up theocrats so incensed when someone makes fun of them?

"A Turkish court has sentenced two cartoonists to 11 months and 20 days in jail for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan." Going to jail for drawing a few lines that may, if they are any good, succeed in making people chuckle?

Perhaps the most famous case of a cartoonist being savagely attacked by a ruling tyrant because of his courage and imagination is that of the Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat. Ferzat's brother, Asaad, told Al Jazeera that "his brother was kidnapped at 5am by five gunmen from outside his home and taken to the airport road. 'He was savagely beaten, they broke his fingers and told him not to satirise Syria's leaders'." Ferzat survived the attack and managed to draw a picture of himself giving Assad the middle finger.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/04/tyrants-afraid-laughter-150412060406048.html

[rock]

1. The same reason they're afraid of tolling bells

[DetlefK]

2. 1986 movie: "The Name of the Rose" (spoilers)

A series of mysterious murders takes place in a monastery. It turns out, the old blind monk has been killing people to cover up the existence of a hidden library and especially of a certain book therein: It was an old, greek book on the topic of comedy. And it led the reader to the conclusion that it would be okay to laugh about God.


Laughter is the opposite of fear. And if you don't fear him, the tyrant fears you.

[bemildred]

3. Correct.

Laughter is a very democratic thing.

[bvf]

9. Excellent example.

And an even better novel.

[on point]

4. Recalls that dream where they walk outside and aren't wearing clothes

[no_hypocrisy]

5. It obviously denotes that an individual is not afraid of a tyrant.

The fear is what they live for.

[bemildred]

6. Yeah, a lot of our cops live for it too.

It makes them feel big.

[geek tragedy]

7. laughter and humor can diminish a target in a way that outrage and anger can't

The refusal to take a leader seriously is even worse than opposing him

[MBS]

8. Because they are insecure.

IMHO-tyrants,autocrats, dictators and bullies of all sorts are insecure almost by definition.As they say, "Uneasy lies the crown"

[Nay]

10. Because they are generally very thin-skinned, like a lot of people who can dish it out

but not take it. Bullies, IOW.

[MisterP]

11. dunno, a lot of tyrannies use mockery and cartoons for their own cause

and to attack critics even on epistemological grounds ("everyone laugh at the stupid peasant who can't see or remember straight! that's no massacre, it's just a military drill or something&quot

[bemildred]

12. +1.

Yes. It is using their own weapons against them.

[MisterP]

13. it in fact turns mockery into one of the battlegrounds, common ground becoming contested ground

but again we can't just complacently assume that laughter and drawings and posters are inherently "weapons of the weak," as virtuous by their very nature

[bemildred]

14. And they hate the internet for similar reasons.

They are not the only guys with a bullhorn now, anybody can talk. Big shots can be de-humanized and denigrated too. People can say mean things.

[MisterP]

15. and yet the internet's also great for spying and outing gays in Cairo!

the old saying is that technology's neutral, but I disagree: its users are definitely responsible, but its uses basically count as its purpose--even The Button is meant to be pushed

the Internet's something that lets you both out gays and arrange revolutions, reveal rank corruption and make Stasi officers green with envy

everyone's choice is whether to laugh at those above or those below

[bemildred]

16. Yep, the internet is not a safe place. Anything goes.

And yeah, whatever technology is, it is not neutral, technology is power.