The same can be said for a lot of people who complain about lots of things being offensive.
In reality you should seek a middle ground, don’t take everything so seriously that it ruins the joy in life… but also don’t treat everything (and everyone) as a joke.
To me, the biggest danger is people being “scared to talk about” a subject. This applies both to the comedian thinking of making a joke about X demographic, and also the member of X demographic unsure whether to voice how bad the joke made them feel.
Say the second guy condemns the comedian with an ultimate mic drop moment, so the comedian just shuts up and only talks the subject with an echo chamber of bigots who’ve had similar experiences.
Or, the second guy shuts up forever, and when the first guy runs for president on a platform of stopping the orphan crushing machine, the second guy thinks “Man, fuck that guy” and votes against him.
There’s definitely a much better median where they bring up the discontent in a gentle prompt - only escalating if they’re ignored. It takes two though, and the comedian would have to be okay with saying “Okay, I apologize.” That part is hard; with so much anonymous interaction now it feels rare for anyone to humbly admit fault.
Eh. People should take things as seriously as they feel they should. A lot of actually important shit, that challenges real and significant injustices, gets shut down with “don’t take things so seriously”. We don’t need to turn discussing our feelings about the world into an “I’m so chill” competition.
But also, people need to understand - on both sides of the utterance - that “I find this offensive” is an informational statement, not a demand for action. If I find something you’ve said offensive, that’s information that is now yours to weigh as you please. If you don’t care to understand why, or decide that my feelings don’t outweigh whatever else you’re trying to do, then you’re now making that decision with a little bit of extra feedback.
Getting defensive about someone not liking what you’ve done is on you.
And a lot of unimportant shit that shouldn’t really be a factor gets brought up because some people just don’t like it.
Trans people in women’s bathrooms, or even something as simple as gay marriage, for example. Should we spend time and energy on that because it hurts peoples feelings?
Like I said, it’s not a matter of all one thing or all another. It’s about finding a middle ground.
The same can be said for a lot of people who complain about lots of things being offensive.
In reality you should seek a middle ground, don’t take everything so seriously that it ruins the joy in life… but also don’t treat everything (and everyone) as a joke.
To me, the biggest danger is people being “scared to talk about” a subject. This applies both to the comedian thinking of making a joke about X demographic, and also the member of X demographic unsure whether to voice how bad the joke made them feel.
Say the second guy condemns the comedian with an ultimate mic drop moment, so the comedian just shuts up and only talks the subject with an echo chamber of bigots who’ve had similar experiences.
Or, the second guy shuts up forever, and when the first guy runs for president on a platform of stopping the orphan crushing machine, the second guy thinks “Man, fuck that guy” and votes against him.
There’s definitely a much better median where they bring up the discontent in a gentle prompt - only escalating if they’re ignored. It takes two though, and the comedian would have to be okay with saying “Okay, I apologize.” That part is hard; with so much anonymous interaction now it feels rare for anyone to humbly admit fault.
Eh. People should take things as seriously as they feel they should. A lot of actually important shit, that challenges real and significant injustices, gets shut down with “don’t take things so seriously”. We don’t need to turn discussing our feelings about the world into an “I’m so chill” competition.
But also, people need to understand - on both sides of the utterance - that “I find this offensive” is an informational statement, not a demand for action. If I find something you’ve said offensive, that’s information that is now yours to weigh as you please. If you don’t care to understand why, or decide that my feelings don’t outweigh whatever else you’re trying to do, then you’re now making that decision with a little bit of extra feedback.
Getting defensive about someone not liking what you’ve done is on you.
And a lot of unimportant shit that shouldn’t really be a factor gets brought up because some people just don’t like it.
Trans people in women’s bathrooms, or even something as simple as gay marriage, for example. Should we spend time and energy on that because it hurts peoples feelings?
Like I said, it’s not a matter of all one thing or all another. It’s about finding a middle ground.
My butt hurts!