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Pete's avatar

I really wanted to post this on Mastodon, but then I thought better of it...

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MA's avatar

There's someone at work who's really mean to me, despite the fact he's very bad at his job, and I have to do loads of work to tidy up after him. I'm sure he's nice to his family and everything, and I know he helps out at a local charity, but at work it's infuriating and exhausting.

Mean Guy is also running a local half-marathon at the weekend. It's thought that Mean Guy, a pretty good runner, might even come in the top 10. In fact, coming round the final bend, he's in the lead! But then he trips over his shoelaces just before the line and is overtaken, so finishes second instead.

I would expect the athletics correspondent of a local newspaper to accurately report that this was a tremendous athletic performance by Mean Guy, way ahead of expectations, and, in spite of the finish, a silver-medal result.

But when I'm chatting to my friends in the pub, letting off some steam about my work nemesis, I think it's OK – not perfectly morally unimpeachable behaviour, but just a normal human response – for me to say "Did you see how Mean Guy faceplanted – *smack* – right onto the tarmac! It was hilarious! What an idiot!"

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