Natalie Wynn (Contrapoints) mentioned The Joy of Pain by Richard H. Smith 3 times

Seen on Contrapoints nightstand in the video Envy

Anti-Semitism is often rooted in an envious obsession with the disproportionate influence and affluence of Jewish people. "The fact that ninth tenths of all literary filth, artistic trash, and theatrical idiocy can be set to the account of a people, constituting hardly one hundredth all the country's inhabitants, could simply not be talked away; it was the plain truth." (A- H-, M- K- quoted in the Joy of Pain by Richard Smith)

— Natalie Wynn (Contrapoints)

There's a good book about this called "The Joy of Pain: Schadenfreude and the Dark Side of Human Nature by Richard Smith." Schadenfreude is of course the pleasure we take in other people's misery, and Smith argues that we experience it because psychologically we gain something when other people lose. We're constantly evaluating our own worth by comparing ourselves to other people. So we get a reassuring self-esteem boost, a pleasant feeling of superiority from comparing ourselves to people beneath us, especially if we're kind of insecure to begin with. Maybe I'm not perfect, but at least I'm not this lolcow.

— Natalie Wynn (Contrapoints)