Bad Intentions

Comedian Doug Stanhope has raised a lot of money for a Moore, Oklahoma tornado survivor. He says he's rounded up the moolah because the woman is an atheist and he wants to "piss off" the Christians she's surrounded by.

Those Christians, by the way, were affected by the tornado, too. The family of Kyle Davis, for instance, was hit particularly hard. Devout Christians, they lost their eight year old son in the disaster. Not that Stanhope gives a rat's ass.

Then again, who's to say? Is it beyond the realm of possibility that a person who torments tornado victims might also find the death of a child amusing...or perhaps even deserved?

The point here is that Doug Stanhope is a sick guy. I've no doubt he's funny and that he's got lots of people supporting what he's done here...but that doesn't take away from the fact that the man's got serious issues.

"Charity feels good." Stanhope claimed in a piece he wrote for Vice.com, "even when you're doing it as a big 'Fuck You' to Christians who you've pre-judged, and not because you care about someone losing their shit."

Glad you feel good, Doug. No doubt you'd be delighted if someone pointed out that Christ was big on condemning those who did good things for bad reasons.

But I digress. Is there anyone out there, anyone at all, who believes Doug Stanhope is a genuinely happy person? We've all been hateful at one point or another. And, if we're at all honest with ourselves, we can readily admit that being hateful takes its toll on us.

Which leads me to my final point:

In 2014, we, as a society, should try to stop focusing on the negative so much. America has become an insanely tisky, overly-sensitive, and angry place. It's all turning us into a nation of Doug Stanhopes, a people so jaded that we can't see the value of just being nice with no attachments.

And no one wants to be like Doug Stanhope. Not even Doug. Trust me on this.