In the past weeks, I have posted twice on pie-ings and responses to them (here and here). One comment, by BooMan, puzzled me for a bit. BooMan said that, for him, pie-ing is OK, but he draws the line at shoes.
Eventually, I got it.
No matter what David Horowitz and Ann Coulter may claim, a pie-ing is not an act of violence. It is a sign of disrespect, sure, but it is also a challenge. The pie-er isn’t trying to hurt the “victim,” but to make him or her look like a fool–and is banking on a foolish reaction. (The same cannot be said of a shoe-er).
The person pie-ed has two choices: anger or laughter. The one who reacts angrily, with pie all over his or her face, looks stupid. The one who can smile, maybe wipe the meringue off and taste it, then continue with what he or she was doing–that one will win applause. The pie-er is betting that the “victim’s” ego is too big for a reaction with humor.
At SusanHu’s “request,” here’s a poll:
The claim by the recent “victims” of pies on the right that pie-ing is the first step towards terrorism is, in light of this understanding, even more preposterous.
And, consider this: over the past quarter century (correct me if I am wrong–but I know I am not far wrong), all of the acts of domestic terrorism in the US have arisen from the right. Perhaps the left learned its lesson through the stupid and self-defeating violence a few of its adherents perpetuated in the sixties and seventies–I don’t know. But the fact remains: our home-grown terrorists come from the right. And trying to equate people who throw pies with these killers is ludicrous.
And, by the way, those 19 on the planes 9/11? They weren’t leftists.
And none of them had ever even dreamed of hitting anyone else with a pie.
At SusanHu’s “request,” here’s a poll:
