[relevant]

I just saw this posted on lemmy a while back. It's so good. lol

Mean comedy and riling people up can be funny.

One in particular was about how the comedian would be disappointed if his son was gay because he couldn’t take him to the strip club with him.

The premise could have worked if he switched it around and said that he was going to have to go to gay strip club or Chippendale's or something instead of being a complaint about not being able to go to his usual clubs. That would have made it supportive and accepting of his son while also highlighting his personal hangups.

If your humor is based on punching down then fuck off, life is shitty enough as it is for most people without having a multi millionaire laughing at them.

Oh too bad their shows always sell out arenas. Perform to empty crowds? You people live in your heads.

Pretty sure Seth Myers caused Trump to run for President tho. Or maybe it was his opening act

Dark comedy still exists, but the lazy comedy stylings of my 50 yo homophobe, racist uncle seems to be out of fashion. These old guard stand up comics aren't funny anymore and no one is obligated to buy tickets to their shows.

"The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forego one's own." -The Satanic Temple's Fourth Tenet

However. I also believe the right to be offended is one of the freedoms we all have. There's a lot of discussion over what this tenet truly means. I believe it should work hand-in-hand with the other tenets, which include "one's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone," "one should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason," and "every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word."

I take it to mean that yes, you do have the right to offend, but also to be offended when someone violated your own personal freedoms. To say something that challenges someone's understanding of the world may offend them, but that doesn't mean its wrong. However, the use of the freedom to offend should be used sparingly, and with caution.

But if we start telling people they're not allowed to say things that are offensive to us, then that same logic can turn back on us later when we say something offensive to them. Pretty soon, nobody will be allowed to say anything. People should be free to express their opinions, so long as they abide by the rest of the tenets, in my opinion.

But, that doesn't mean we need to give people who are out to offend others bigger platforms to spread their messages. We don't even have to listen to them.

I'm reminded of the famous Voltaire quote, "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

This is a complex topic, and I'm worried I'm not making my message clear enough here. Let me try to boil it down to a more direct response.

I do not agree that people are "too easily offended nowadays," but I do agree that people have the right to say things that might offend. I think people have the right to be offended about whatever they want. But they do not have the right to impose their own beliefs on others. If you want to say something offensive that I don't agree with, knock yourself out. But if you want to try prohibit me from saying something offensive to you, you can fuck right off.

It's a fine line. Yes, you have the right to offend others, but not the right to control them.

I know, right? You never see anything like this in the mainstream any more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NE_kbJQ8r8

Does anything offend you?

Ricky Gervais. Period.