Beyond Schadenfreude: My Criticism of the r/HermanCainAward community

Schadenfreude (literal German for harm-joy) is defined as "the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another" or "enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others."

The official description for the r/HermanCainAward community is as follows: "Nominees have made public declaration of their anti-mask, anti-vax, or Covid-hoax views, followed by admission to hospital for Covid. The Award is granted upon the nominee's release from their Earthly shackles." The earliest notion of an "award" being given upon a person's death originates with the Darwin Awards from Usenet as far as I can recollect. The Darwin Awards began in 1985 and became more popular in 1993 with the establishment of a standalone website. Winners were people of reproductive age who had died from their own stupidity, thereby "chlorinating" or "purifying" the gene pool of their folly. r/HermanCainAward strikes me as a very similar concept.

The Darwin Awards can more easily be classified as pure schadenfreude. You have people taking pleasure at the avoidable or seemingly stupid deaths of people after the fact. This is in stark contrast with the r/HermanCainAward community, which has the "nomination process" which runs off of hospitalizations rather than deaths. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have stated that the chance of dying from COVID-19 provided that one has already been hospitalized is around 10%, so we'll run with that number. This means that the members of Herman Cain are already contemplating celebrating an anti-vaxxer's death when it is possible in some instances that their real chance of survival is 90% or so (ignoring potential deterioration in the hospital that would raise the probability of death before actual death occurs). This goes beyond mere schadenfreude. This is the sickest form of malice.

I understand the counterarguments that the community is a useful educational or persuasive aid because of the notion of IPAs, but I find the community very harmful when considered as a whole. Keenly interested in the community's thoughts. Nevertheless, I'm wishing all of you the best, and I highly recommend the COVID-19 vaccines as a cheap and effective therapy against this illness.