Ridiculing

Addison's assertion that ridicule is "made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense" is mostly true when comparing the past to the present. If anything, it has only gotten worse with the rise of technology and social media. There are several examples of texts where satire is used to highlight a problem, which emphasizes the problem more than just stating it bluntly. For example, in "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema," dentists are referred to as "holy-mouth-men," and an ordinary dentist appointment is called a "mouth-rite," and many magical materials are used to treat the mouth. The way of primitively explaining something causes us to think it's weird, and only when we realize that it's talking about us will we experience a revelation. In the past, there were much more examples of using satire to solve real-world problems, but that's slowly fading away. In today's world, spreading awareness is more accessible and effective than any other time, and it's the best time to speak for what's right. But satire is often used more to upset or make fun of other people than to actually make a change in the world. Today, the existence of a cancellation culture on social media platforms prevents people from sharing their opinions without being attacked. Because of this, using ridicule to "laugh men out of vice and folly" has naturally gone down because of the controversies that can arise so easily due to the accessibility of the internet. In the same way, making fun of people for doing good things has also gone down, which can be seen as a positive impact, but it doesn't change anything. The effect of satire that makes us question ourselves is mostly a thing of the past, and it's gotten worse because of the internet, which should've actually made it more effective.