Mirror neurons and emotions - do you "mirror"?

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How could you possibly show 'sympathetic laughter' to that brainless idiot in the video?!

I'm highly relieved at not to be able to laugh along with that type of person

I do sympathise with him for being an idiot though

Also, how is it over-analysing? Surely we were being asked for our opinion?

Don't tell me, is he your friend?

First of all, I don't know why we are calling anyone an idiot. Whether they are friends with anyone here or not. Why on earth would it be OK to belittle someone because of what they find funny? The guy was having fits of full-blown belly laughter. That is a beautiful thing, IMHO, even if I don't think that what he was laughing at is funny at all. It is healing to laugh that hard. It's too bad people don't do it more often.

Second of all, I think the point is that some people laugh when they hear others laugh, regardless of what they are laughing at. It is the idea that "laughter is contagious." It isn't that there is necessarily anything funny, it's the sometime-human-tendency to laugh when others laugh.

How this got to this point of negativity and name calling is really beyond me. Either you laugh when others laugh (completely OK) or you don't (completely OK). Why all the hate?

Perhaps having to live in a society where people often laugh at me some of the desire to make derisory comment on others has rubbed off on me?

NTs judge others horrendously all the time and yet we're continually told it's a bad thing to do

They ought to abide by their own rules a bit more!

Well, it isn't an NT who is wondering why you are denigrating someone over what they find funny. It's me. And I really doubt that you mean to be saying that two wrongs make a right; that someone else's meanness justifies your own (or anyone else's). The guy on this video has never done anything to you. He's a random person in this world with his own story. A story you do not know. And he is not harming anyone at all. At least not in a youtube video in which he is laughing uproariously over something that many would not even chuckle at.

I do my best not to hold others to standards higher than I hold for myself. I also try to steer clear of blaming others for my behavior. I realize everyone is not like that...I'm just sayin'....

Well I have NT attitudes stamped on my soul now, from having had to suffer them so often, so it's beyond my control I'm afraid

If you say so. I am much more inclined to let my inner stubborn child out and refuse to be "stamped" on by anyone.

How on earth can you do that if people are just making insulting comment on you in passing to each other?

I'd be the one looking even more stupid then, not to mention that it would piss off the person with me by making a show of them

You challenge them and they say 'What you on about?'

So where do you go from there?

I make no response whatsoever. Not with my mouth. Not with my face. Not with my body. People who do that...make random insulting comments to random passers by...are not worthy of any response at all. When I say I refuse to be stamped on by anyone, I mean it in an internal sense. I have no energy for confrontation with damaged people who get their kicks out of confrontation. But I do not allow their insults to change who I am, how I view myself, or how I treat others.

Or, you can just snidely say "Huh...that's classy" and continue about your business.

But you never let them see you sweat and you never let them change who you are. That way, you win, not them.

I wish I would have been better at this in my younger years. Unfortunately, I was the kid who burst into tears and then bent over backward being ridiculously nice to people who treated me like crap. I acted like I deserved it, and I suppose on some level I believed I did, though I didn't know why.

Don't let them change who you are, Nessa. Don't let them make you as mean as they are. Reserve your bitterness for those who have hurt you, not random people you do not know. It's hard not to be jaded, I know. I tend to vacillate between an overly jaded and self-protective point of view and a much more forgiving, accepting, and kind one. I find that my overall life satisfaction is higher when I am able to focus on the later instead of the former. At least then I know I am in control of how I feel. Not some rude jacka$$, ykwim?

Yes I understand, I have just developed an intolerant nature as a form of defence against this kind of thing as without any defence at all I'd feel more vulnerable

Is this rambling still going on? Jeez, now I'm glad I just picked "infectious laughter" as topic rather than schadenfreude, the butthurt-level probably would've been off the charts with the latter

I don't understand people who don't post on a thread and yet resent others who do

Where's the logic?

If you have something 'better' to say, say it

See...that is an example of something that I would have not responded to.

Nessa, my defense is that I do not care what mean people think or say. It has no effect on me. It's their issue, not mine.

I know what you mean, I just wanted an explanation

People like this rarely ever give one though so you're probably right to ignore them

There's no resentment here. I asked about mirrored emotions and picked an example supposed to trigger such a response. An example that you apparently disliked. That question could've been cleared within a single response, and I just see no point in inflating the thread with a discussion that bears no substance.

Really, he doesn't owe one.

And the truth is, we are very off topic at this point. It's his thread, so if he doesn't like that, he is entitled to comment on it.

Sorry about the intrusion into your thread. It didn't seem to be one in which you were seeking a true, in-depth discussion about mirror neurons, so I didn't think anyone would mind.

I thought it had substance so that's a matter of opinion

you talk about 'substance' after posting a video like that?!

we've evidently got very different interpretations of substance

you weren't adding anything to your own thread so others will talk about what they prefer