There have been studies done on the effect of denigrating humor. The effects that it has on the groups being denigrated are real and by no means hyperbole:
"Most of the time prejudiced people conceal their true beliefs and attitudes because they fear others’ criticism. They express prejudice only when the norms in a given context clearly communicate approval to do so. They need something in the immediate environment to signal that it is safe to freely express their prejudice.
Disparagement humor appears to do just that by affecting people’s understanding of the social norms – implicit rules of acceptable conduct – in the immediate context. And in a variety of experiments, my colleagues and I have found support for this idea, which we call prejudiced norm theory.
For instance, in studies, men higher in hostile sexism – antagonism against women – reported greater tolerance of gender harassment in the workplace upon exposure to sexist versus neutral (nonsexist) jokes. Men higher in hostile sexism also recommended greater funding cuts to a women’s organization at their university after watching sexist versus neutral comedy skits. Even more disturbing, other researchers found that men higher in hostile sexism expressed greater willingness to rape a woman upon exposure to sexist versus nonsexist humor.
Sexist humor can expand the bounds of what’s an acceptable way to treat women. How did sexist humor make the sexist men in these studies feel freer to express their sexist attitudes? Imagine that the social norms about acceptable and unacceptable ways of treating women are represented by a rubber band. Everything on the inside of the rubber band is socially acceptable; everything on the outside is unacceptable.
Sexist humor essentially stretched the rubber band; it expanded the bounds of acceptable behavior to include responses that would otherwise be considered wrong or inappropriate. So, in this context of expanded acceptability, sexist men felt free to express their antagonism without the risk of violating social norms and facing disapproval from others. Sexist humor signaled that it’s safe to express sexist attitudes.
Some groups occupy a unique social position of what social psychologists call “shifting acceptability.” For these groups, the overall culture is changing from considering prejudice and discrimination against them completely justified to considering them completely unjustified. But even as society as a whole becomes increasingly accepting of them, many individuals still harbor mixed feelings.
For instance, over the past 60 years or so, the United States has seen a dramatic decline in overt and institutional racism. Public opinion polls over the same period have shown whites holding progressively less prejudiced views of minorities, particularly blacks. At the same time, however, many whites still covertly have negative associations with and feelings toward blacks – feelings they largely don’t acknowledge because they conflict with their ideas about themselves being egalitarian.
Disparagement humor fosters discrimination against social groups – like black Americans – that occupy this kind of shifting ground. "
I have often felt the need for a church based on the teachings of Pratchett and Vonnegut. Perhaps Heller, too.
Basic rule: it doesn’t matter what you use to draw faith and inspiration from, or whether it’s true; what matters is if it helps you be a better person and make sense of this crazy world.
He also said he believed Meechan - who was supported at court by Tommy Robinson, former leader of far-right group the English Defence League (EDL) - left the video on YouTube to drive traffic to other material he had on there.
The dude was a Nazi posting a meme to bring traffic to his Nazi propaganda, not just making a joke. That is the metric used convicting him.
Also, free speech is not the first target of most dictatorships. They establish political power by the time they criminalize speech, normally through control of the court system or military/police.
Nobody intends to follow their “joke” with “hey, it was just a joke”.
That excuse only comes out when the expected racist solidarity fails to appear. The “just a joke” line functions to provide a space for racists to identify each other.
In Italy Lazio and Inter Milan are notoriously antisemitic; fans regularly unfurl banners or chant slogans with jokes about Auschwitz or Hitler. As recently as last October Lazio “pranked” Roma this way:
Personally, I’d agree, but as long as we allow the red states to be part of the union, things like Trump are just going to happen. That’s the price we pay for reassimilating the Confederacy.
As the great Loriot said: Ein Leben ohne Möpse ist möglich, aber sinnlos.
Also, fuck this Nazi shit. And yo, defenders of the Gefrierpfirsich, please note that the last paper of Stephen Hawking gives you hope: somewhere in the multiverse there exists a place where your arguments make sense.
Personally, I would never date anyone who thought such ‘pranks’ were “funny” in the first place. I also assiduously endeavor to avoid people who ‘get off’ on annoying others.
Piss poor excuse for someone making dumbass, life-altering choices is still PISS POOR.