“Karening”

The last time I remember unabashed single gender based humor was “I Love Lucy” – a place so lame or so precious (depending on your perspective) that it lives on in black-and-white immortality.

A new black and white episode has enlightened me to another single-gender comic description. Last week a crazed person, who happens to be a white woman, has a dog she is “fostering” off its leash in Central Park. A small, skittish dog. The dog freaks out seeing a black man who asks the woman to leash her crazed pet, per the Laws of Central Park. That man happens to be black.

Rather than, “Oops, sorry” the woman becomes victimized.

The weirdness happens because of phones. The man starts filming her weirdness, and the dog freaking as a way of shaming. The woman doubles down on her weirdness and calls the Police, the Keepers of the Laws of Central Park, and in leashing her temp dog, nearly chokes it to death in pantomimed aggression. Her call to the police elevates victimhood into racist fantasy. An African-American is threatening her. Why does she think that will bring retribution for her embarrassment? Why film her? Why choke the dog?

Apparently, according to the hip, there was “Karening” going on. A self righteous woman was self righteously offended at the offense of another person over breaking the Laws of Central Park. The Kabuki theatrics of victimhood were on full volume.

There was Internet Justice: the woman was fired and her temp dog was re-assigned. To the glee of the hip who saw her outed as a racist “Karen”.

So being a jerk is being a White, Privileged and Defensive Woman is being a “Karen”, I did not know that. The hip went on to decry “Weaponizing Police”. Well if the police are weapons used to enforce anything, (and I hope they are) then they can be summoned in stupidity as well as in the cause of justice.

The schadenfreude of another’s clear assinnity is the meat of the Internet’s feasting upon the lame. Without moral superiority our own inner “Karen” been expressed, the Internet would be only food, cats & dogs and babies. Oh, and nerds doing things.

This is a time where The Law has grown to include conduct of all sorts, because as our “Karen” voice says, that conduct is “killing” us, when most often it is just breaking new Laws.

Now Mika Bryzinski is deemed a “Karen” as “Karen’s” “Ask for the manager” when things do not follow the Law, and she is calling the Manager of Twitter, because her husband is being falsely accused of literally breaking real laws by the strangest President we have ever had.

Do we validate bad behavior by following the “Karening” to create moments of High Dungeon and righteousness? Sure. But more, we trivialize things like racism, cruelty to animals, even pathological megalomania.

But it’s good Internet.