Twenty-two years ago Mark Bosnich did an alleged Basil Fawlty impression (you know the episode I’m talking about) to Tottenham Hotspur’s fans.
It did not go down well anywhere.
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It’s interesting to me how the normalization of antisocial behavior is almost always framed by apologists and enablers as being “no big deal,” or “just jokes…” as if words have never planted any seeds that became conscious action.
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Your idealism is adorable. Cling to it. I hope it keeps you warm at night.
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The “just a joke” thing gets me the most. Don’t people realize that most of the time jokes are also the truth of the person telling the joke?
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Clearly, many people don’t. Just as many don’t seem to understand the difference between ‘punching up’ and ‘punching down.’
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Thank fuck comedy is subjective.
Apparently they’re going to put the dog down too.
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I thought “Hate Crime” was a modifier to a sentencing. You kill your brother out of rage you get a specific sentence but you go out killing a black man they add hate crime as you are likely to do it again as it was motivated by race.
Did I miss something from this?
Is this animal endangerment with a side of dickishness?
Edit: Never mind, Not the United States so different laws.
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And yet, I know some folk who are about as hardcore lefty as you can get, and they are notorious for pretending to be ultra-Tory types for their own amusement. It’s hilarious, and it most certainly isn’t their ‘truth’.
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Which is exactly the problem with criminalizing a form of speech- That those laws will be used by the people they were intended to restrict, that they will be used to oppress the people they were intended to protect.
There is a frighteningly large segment of the population who believes that BLM is a hate group on par with the KKK- and their people, Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions, are the ones who currently have the final word on which of those two groups gets prosecuted and which gets excused. How much do you trust them?
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Sometimes it really is dank humour, deeply offensive to people who have suffered greatly.
Note: This guy is no Swift.
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And in Saudi Arabia you can’t insult the prophet. Is that just a different kind of law, or does Saudi Arabia not have free speech?
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centrists: i don’t believe in genocide, but i’ll defend to the death your right to organize, recruit, distribute propaganda, and make clear statements saying that you are about to commit genocide. i don’t believe in it though and i don’t understand how it happens
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I would say so considering the man actually trained his dog to give a nazi salute on hearing “sieg heil”.
I like to be an easy-going guy and can tolerate bad jokes, but this to me transcends just “joking around.”
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EDIT:
@MalevolentPixy already posted the link, so I’ll repost the ‘meat and potatoes’ for anyone who doesn’t feel like clicking an external link:
You’re never “just joking.” Nobody is ever “just joking.” Humor is a social act that performs a social function (always).
To say humor is social act is to say it is always in social context; we don’t joke alone. Humor is a way we relate/interact with others.
Which is to say, humor is a way we construct identity - who we are in relation to others. We use humor to form groups and to find our individual place in or out of those groups.
In short, joking/humor is one tool by which we assimilate or alienate.In other words we use humor to bring people into - or keep them out of - our social groups. This is what humor does. What it’s for.
Consequently, how we use humor is tied up with ethics - who do we embrace, who do we shun, and how/why?
And the assimilating/alienating function of humor works not only only people but also on ideas. This is important.
This is why, e.g., racist “jokes” are bad. Not just because they serve to alienate certain people, but also because they serve to assimilate the idea of racism (the idea of alienating people based on their race). […]
A racist joke sends a message to the in-group that racism is acceptable.
(If you don’t find it acceptable, you’re in the out-group.)The racist joke teller might say “just joking” - but this is a defense to the out-group. He doesn’t have to say this to the in-group.
This is why we’re never “just joking.” To the in-group, no defense of the joke is needed; the idea conveyed is accepted/acceptable.
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My comment was not in reply to one about Count Dankula, but one about how censorship of any sort is the same as facism of all sorts.
I think people speaking and listening irresponsibly, even cynically, get other people killed all the time.
Good thing there aren’t any provocative cynics here, moving goalposts and picking nits.
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Speaking of Nazi Pug antics…
Absolutist?
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I think the guy’s dog should be replaced with a Service Animal trained to bite him if he ever attempts any humour ever again, in order to prevent self-harm.
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Piotr Rasputin speaks at length to Christina and Cameron Pryde, his children with Kitty Pryde in X-Men: Years of Future Past.
“It always begins as a joke. Listen to me, both of you.
“One sees a father or mother of whom they do not approve – and their brats won’t shut up, and the parents are so exhausted that they just let their children scream, all sticky and crying and hitting and wild.
“And you say to your friends, ‘You should have to pass a test to breed.’ Do you understand? ‘You should have to get licensed to have kids.’
“It starts as a joke.
“Then perhaps there is a tragedy. A postpartum who should’ve gotten help, but her insurance did not cover the therapy. A father who erred, because he was raised believing men are pathetic if they are caregivers.
“The first tests are drafted. And you think, ‘Good.’ You think, ‘Those children will be safe now.’
“The test comes out, and yes, there’re some problems, but nothing that cannot be ironed out, yes?
“But now anyone with a mental illness, with a criminal record, is barred from becoming a parent, and you think, ‘Well, that is sensible, yes?’ Because you’ve never known anyone like that, so who is to tell you they are not like they are portrayed in stories?
“Sick, dangerous, criminal – these words expand.
“Suddenly it is anyone with diabetes, anyone with cancer, because they could die and leave their children orphaned, so how dare they ever try to have children?
“It is deaf couples, disabled couples, interracial couples, gay couples – because don’t they know how hard they’re making it for their children?
“Then it is whoever they want.
“You think you are working for the greater good. You can’t even fathom the life of someone who isn’t exactly like you.
“Then one day – it is you. Some gene, some history, some past behavior – and suddenly, you are too sick, dangerous, criminal.
“Because the truth is this: human hate can adapt to anything.
“You think you are safe. But if someone hates you, they will come up with the reason after the fact.
“Only then do you realize what you put in power. Only then do you realize what you stripped away.
“There is terrible power in a joke, in a story, in taking the truth and making it ugly.
“Do you understand, children?”
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