Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude is a German term generally understood to mean "the pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune."

Many years ago a holy roller preacher was discovered to have had an affair with a down-and-out prostitute, spending church money to shower her with gifts. The story was trumpeted on every national news broadcast—after all, this man often criticized the rest of us for not leading exemplary lives and for not following "God's word." He collected millions in contributions with the stated intent of helping the downtrodden. In fact, he pocketed a significant share of that money. When he was found to be flawed himself, his disgrace was trumpeting widely. Why? Schadenfreude. After all, there's nothing better than seeing a sanctimonious hypocrite taken down a few notches.

In Washington, a town that is populated by more than a few sanctimonious hypocrites on both sides of the aisle, there's one senator who stands above the rest—Elizabeth Warren. A leader of the ascending left-wing of the Democratic party, Warren regularly rails against income inequality, large corporations, misogyny (both real and imagined), and of course, all of the "-isms" that are the core of identity politics.

But back to Schadenfreude.

National Equal Pay Day was celebrated this week. The intent of the Day is to emphasize the disparity between the wages of women and men, even though that disparity is very tenuous and is based on assumptions about work and pay that are open to broad interpretation. But no matter. The Day allows Democrats to preach to the rest of us. The editors of the Boston Herald write:

... last year Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren marked [National Equal Pay Day] with an impassioned statement calling it a “national day of embarrassment.”

“By the sound of it, you would think it’s some sort of historic holiday commemorating the anniversary of a landmark day that our country guaranteed equal pay for women,” Warren said. “But that’s not what this is about. Not even close.

“The game is rigged against women and families, and it has to stop,” she added.

So this year the Washington Free Beacon had a special Equal Pay Day surprise for Warren in an article documenting that the pay gap in Warren’s Senate office is nearly 10 percent higher than the national average. By their calculation, women working for Warren earned 71 cents for every dollar paid to men during the 2016 fiscal year.

One can't help but smile. Why? Schadenfreude!
Oh ... BTW, the Warren story was never mentioned by the majority of major media outlets. Guess they're immune to schedenfreude when the target is a sanctimonious hypocrite who just happens to be a Democrat.