Recently, on and off, I've been in deep thought about my moral code... My core tenant (reduce suffering, maximize happiness in the aggregate) hasnt changed.. but some of my choices I am in doubt about...

1) Mocking, even lightly as I usually do, other people who are rude, hateful, or even violent towards me,

While I dont feel bad for having done this, per se, I dont think it necessarily achieves my core tenant either. Or maybe it does... I need to consider this.

2) Mocking people, usually limited to public figures, with less compassion than #1 above, by virtue of the fact that they are so far removed I dont expect them to hear it so I dont see harm in mocking them.

My concern here is that someone who adopts a similar quality as the one im mocking might get hurt just by association... for example I was specifically thinking of the case where I laughed at styles at an italian runway that were quite ridiculous and over the top as they tend to be. I thought the person who was posting it was posting it specifically to make fun of it. Turns out they were italian and into style and in fact they were posting it because they liked it. I unintentionally hurt their feelings and we dont talk anymore because of that.

Reflecting back on that the way I see it, mocking it has only the small potentential for good associated with a laugh (which is non-zero to be fair, thats good for the health)... but a much larger potential to hurt someone, more potential to hurt, as I saw, than potential for good.

So maybe I should be carefuil of how hurtful it may be to mock things that arent truely evil and worth mocking as a minimum.