ElectroYoshi wrote:You said not to be all "people get offended at anything these days", but I'm saying that anyway, because... well, in all honesty, yeah, they do.
Actual, real, legit quote from Jerry Seinfeld:
My daughter's 14. My wife says to her, 'Well, you know, in the next couple years, I think maybe you’re going to want to be hanging around the city more on the weekends, so you can see boys.' You know what my daughter says? She says, ‘That’s sexist.’
Sooooo it's sexist to suggest that a girl might be interested in going out to see boys? A teenage girl who is most likely pubescent no less?
yes? absolutely? if your parents suggested that you might want to go somewhere
only because you'd want to see girls, would you not be at least a little bit taken aback? There's arguments for and against it being legitimately sexist, but its still not something you should really be saying to anyone.
There's a lot to be said about the quote itself, too. Jerry says it in such a way that makes it sound bizarre and unusual, even if it really isnt. That little "you know what my daughter says?" makes it so that whatever she does say is supposed to be taken as weird. If it was the other way round:
My mum told me I might want to be going into the city more on weekends, and when I asked why, you know what she said? She said I would only want to so that I can "see boys"!
the effect is lost because you know the original quote, but you see how its perfectly reasonable that she was offended at that.
ElectroYoshi wrote:If you want a more personal example, I hate rap music, and I once got accused of being racist because of that. What this guy completely (and quite honestly, very conveniently) ignored is that a) I can't stand Eminem either, b) there are plenty of black people who don't like rap, and c) there are plenty of white people who do.
you're not racist for not liking rap music but there certainly are racist reasons for not liking rap music, especially because of the language used or the culture surrounding it. I'm not saying those are your reasons for not liking rap music, but there absolutely is reason to assume someone who doesn't like rap music could not like rap music for racist reasons.
ElectroYoshi wrote:Generally speaking, the issue with political correctness is not that people call others out on their racism, sexism, homophobia or whatever. It's that they point out discrimination in areas where it does not exist. They twist issues to be about women's rights or black rights when that's really not the core of the problem at all.
Why am I saying all this? Because I don't think comedians should have to go out of their way to minimize potential lynching. It's a good idea to make sure your gay joke or your Asian joke isn't going to offend anyone in those groups (Hell, I hear gay people making gay jokes all the time), but at the same time, a comedian shouldn't have to fear getting lynched because they said the word "Asian" or "gay" in their routine and "discrimination" was the very first thing to pop into a person's head.
Bottom line, if you're going to accuse someone of discriminating, understand what you're actually accusing them of.
if you
watched the video, you'd understand that, especially in the world of comedy, calling someone racist, sexist, whatever is simply saying that what they said wasn't funny. The correct thing to do should be an opportunity for the accused to do some introspection, like "huh, maybe they're right, maybe I was a bit racist/sexist". After all, if you're a comedian and you're not being funny, you're out of a job.
The WRONG thing to do is to go "blimey, this is political correctness gone mad! Why should I have to not be racist/sexist/whatever". Whether or not
YOU think it's racist
DOESN'T MATTER, the audience is saying that THEY think it is. There is no strict definition for what is and isn't offensive, but if people are telling you it is, you probably shouldn't be saying it.
here is a quote from the video that you didn't watch:
But there’s some people who do feign outrage at this or they’re genuinely feeling like how dare you tell me what I can and cannot joke about. But I would say in most cases audiences are not telling them you can’t joke about this. What they’re saying is that wasn’t funny. And that’s a different thing. I think you can talk about any topic and I think you can make any topic funny. It depends on what your point is and where you’re coming from. Audiences always know. They always know. And if you have a sound point that you’re making and it’s well thought out and it’s well-crafted you can make me laugh at a thing that I think is tragic. You can make me laugh at a thing that I think is horrific. You can make me laugh at a thing that affects me personally. But if you’ve done your homework and you’ve gone about it the right way it will still be funny.
You CAN make funnies about offensive things IF you do it the right way. Someone calling you out on it means you've gone about it the wrong way,
and you need to change. You shouldn't be going "but that wasn't offensive (because I, someone who wouldn't be the victim if that was offensive, didn't find it offensive)!", you should be asking yourself "why was that offensive, what did I do wrong?"
That really is the key thing here: people are deathly afraid of having to change. They'll stick their tongue out, pout and go "no, I'm not changing" before they'd consider the feelings of other people. It's like when someone calls you racist, the first response is to go "no im not". The ACTUAL first response should be "maybe I am; how can I change that?" There's gotta be a reason why you were called that, and if you can't identify it then
don't assume there isn't a reason. People don't call out discrimination where there isn't any, EVER.
There was an incident in the discord which I'm loathed to bring up because the argument is sorted but it's a fine example, someone used the phrase "Triggers my OCD" when they themselves didn't have OCD. I, kinda brashly, asked them not to do that if they didn't have OCD, because it's kinda frustrating to hear someone use your condition as a joke. Their response was something along the lines of "this isn't tumblr" as if the concept of just accomodating people and respecting their requests is something that should only happen on sites like Tumblr, as if the incredibly basic idea of taking on board someones request to not say something is WRONG.