Secret Recordings Reveal Sister's Sad Schadenfreude Shortcoming

 via The New York Times...

My sister revealed that she often records phone conversations that she has with our father without his knowledge. She says she does it because he is so “funny,” i.e., eccentric, but I get the impression that she is laughing more at him than with him.  I find his conversations less humorous than distressing, since he is often, at the best of times, in a state of heightened psychological dysregulation and anxiety, and the pandemic has just made things worse.  Because of my sister’s behavior, my niece has grown up thinking there’s nothing wrong or unethical with recording conversations without the other person’s knowledge or consent and has herself started to do this.

When I found out what my sister was doing, I was uneasy and told her that it was illegal to record someone without their consent. Her rapid retort was, “It’s not in New York,” where she lives, as if that made it OK. more