[bots]

Originally Posted by Maru

Maybe it is not a British thing(?), but during times of great stress particularly, we really seem to gravitate towards humor more than anything else compared to other cultures as a means to deal with difficult feelings. That may seem disingenuous to some, but internally we tend (it varies some by person) to think the person is trying to help others relax.

I can't speak for others, as this could be an individual thing for me, but I see the process of campaigning itself as a bit of a joke on one hand because of the amount of forced reactions from both candidates and other people. Yes, certain aspects are serious. Like the debates. Humor wasn't a good feeling then at all. But I think people feel stressed in these times and one default way we can deal with it is to laugh at our predicament. Just think about it, all "good" candidates (past candidates who actually won) have to strike this balance. It is part of the role of leadership. If one can't laugh "with the crew" so to speak, ie their skin too thin or self-importance too inflated, we tend to turn on those leaders fast when they fail because part of the role is to comfort the public. Partially because we start to wonder if they are laughing at us rather than "with" us since they aren't doing the typical thing. But again, that might just be an American thing..

I think Kamala has been coached too much to try to emulate this formula (unfair to her really) and the fact she fails to authentically connect well enough with enough of the populace may cost her the election. Almost all of our Presidents have had that unique charm on some level that causes people to relax. (This is where personality politics does matter) Biden is actually funny as hell if you listen to him enough. Bush 2, for all his issues, was cited often for his charm. He reverted to a scowl after some point of receiving so much criticism that the public stopped really resonating with him. (I credit that to the impression that it gave that he not only lacked empathy but couldn't handle criticism, similar to Trump, he tried to make it into an evil press thing..) TLDR: The ability to laugh and smile indicates empathy and showing empathy is hugely important in mainstream American politics. But it's not something that can be simply emulated... and it's not important in every role, but very important in roles where public relations are a critical service to the position.

BTW, most of this isn't really in reference to Alf's response, just the recipe for political humor part of it...

*Basic edits. My touchscreen is trash.

the first thing that people do here is make jokes about disasters etc, it's a basic coping mechanism. People just get way to offended about anything these days