So What? We Grew Up With That

I grew up in the 70s when Bugs Bunny was the main cartoon. I remember one episode when he was trying to convince Elmer Fudd that he must have come down with Rabbititus. Bugs Bunny did quite a bit of gaslighting back then. Us kids didn’t understand, but it sure did make for unconscious acceptance of these modes of behavior…though not the original intention of it.       

In this one episode, Bugs painted different colored spots on the wall to try to convince Elmer Fudd that humans could get sick with it as well as rabbits, and, since he was seeing spots, which, he claimed, was a symptom of Rabbititus, that was proof! In the end, it was poor old Bugs who began to see his own fabricated spots everywhere, floating around in the air instead of being painted on the walls!

This gaslighting theme has been an accepted theme in our culture for a long time, even being made into jokes and games that people consider to be fun.  This can be considered to be in the realm of “dark humor“. I get it, I used to be the dark humor type myself. This was when I was unaware and self-absorbed, because, when humor is used as a tool to harm and manipulate, it’s simply not funny at all. When someone is laughing about these things, it is usually because a) others are laughing at it, b) they have been brought up with these themes being considered to be funny, c) they are in a negative, mental and emotional space themselves, or d) they have chosen a path in which they want to harm others.

When we do these things without question knowing that they very obviously harm others, yet we consider this to be entertainment, who does that make us? Now, I’m just as much of a Bugs Bunny fan as the next person in my generation, but has anyone else really looked at it for what it is? Just because we grew up with something, doesn’t mean that that kind of behavior is OK. None of us are running around trying to be Wile E. Coyote, Supergenius, are we? We know that attempting to ride a TNT rocket is not a good plan.

Then, why do we think it OK, and even funny, to act like Bugs Bunny, the master manipulator?

~Janice M. Burke

Image by Kindel Media