Conor Never Went to Jr. High School in America?

Conor Friedersdorf@conor64

One irony of the current debate about speech and harm: it's far easier to find cases of people committing suicide after online pile-ons against them than it is to find cases of comedy leading to physical harm. *

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Kids take their cues from the culture, then pile on, Conor.

 

It's why we -- as adults -- eventually grow past the Beavis and Butthead, "that's so gay" stage... Not because we are humorless, but because our tastes develop...

As we grow, our palates become more refined.  With humor too.  Tired stale old nourishment, that might have fed our bodies and our culture in past decades, makes us wrinkle our noses now...  It just old, past its sell date.  Not nourishing or fresh.

True humor is natural and spontaneous.  It's a body's way of reacting, sometimes defensively, to changes that can endanger him in his environment.  Or her.  Or they/them, but I'm not talking humor as a group, but survival humor...

If they're laughing at you -- or better yet, with you, it's less likely they'll be focused exclusively on killing you or taking you down.  Free speech means we tolerate an awful lot in our own physical spaces, even as we can verbally push back to set our own boundaries and limitations to protect ourselves from encroachment.

You can assault my ears at an intersection with your loud music, but I'm allowed to holler back, "Hey -- turn down that nigger music!" if indeed, that's what the singer is barking about.  That, and his "bitches".

That's not funny, that's aggression, and eventually we learn too, to tolerate the cultures of others, and avoid -- roll up the windows, turn up more inspirational sounds, or simply outwait the violators.

Or, we poke fun at them. 

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*  Dave Chapelle is making a lot of money right now, cashing in on stale material.  I think he knows what he is doing, and will be able to live with himself, off the proceeds of what he is doing.  Don't worry about Dave, Conor.  Place your pity elsewhere. If he cashes in his chips, it's his choice. Watch the special again, and tell me that's not the moral of the story of the jokes he is telling?