You'd think some mods could take a joke, considering some of their own crass comments. Family-friendly and "G" rated, indeed. And on the Interwebs forever.Can we still tell mod jokes?
I hope I don't offend any farmers...
What did the farmer say when he lost his tractor?
"Where's my tractor?"
Three mods walked into a bar...
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You'd think the second two would have ducked!!!Three mods walked into a bar...
You'd think the second two would have ducked!!!
With or without pants?
Honestly, the gummy bear joke is PURE GOLD. Wow!
This isn't a slippery slope. The jokes G told were pretty edgy. But this isn't a binary. And it didn't start with "Polacks" it started with Belgians. And it was pretty even handed. And the point of it wasn't even the jokes themselves, at least what I got out of it.Yes, Mod jokes are still fine...
In GPI's post, he starts with "Polacks", moves to other nationalities, heads into "religion" territory (Not the reason I spoke up)... is it really that big of a stretch to think the next step is n****r "jokes" or if not the next step, that it's that far off?
We are better than that.
It's not a line, it's a range, and the precise placement of the point that goes too far is too diverse to pinpoint. It's so diverse that it seems like a better way of handling the collision of sensibilities, is to apply principle rather than figuring out line placements.I recognize well that any joke is going to have someone at the butt end of it. That's a given. There's also a line that's too far, and the trouble is that you don't know you've gone too far with someone until you've already done it.
Story time:
One place I used to work, before INGO existed, I was not nearly so restrained in my "humor", and yeah, I told some pretty bad jokes. I don't mean bad as in not funny, I mean bad as in the subject matter. And then one day, I happened to look at the locker of one of my charge nurses, and saw her husband and children were all Black/mixed race. I thought back over the last several months, most of my comments coming back and smacking me upside the head. With a sledgehammer.
I felt terrible. She had never said a single word, but here was a coworker I respected, someone with whom I thought I worked well.. and I'd been deriding her family the whole time.
She was the epitome of professionalism. I couldn't look her in the face for a month, even though the "jokes" stopped instantly. I would like to say I was mature enough to stand up and take my lumps, but I was not. I just let the subject sit there, an elephant in the room as far as I was concerned, and said nothing. No apology. No admission that I had seen the error. I am embarrassed still that I never rectified this.
I don't have any way of fixing that now. I don't know where she's working or even where she's living today.
Maybe there are some of you who would not have cared, either in her position or in mine. Sure, they're only jokes, until they hit a little too close to home.
Maybe she or I need to HTFU. Yeah. I'm sure that's it. What I posted before, that was just an overreaction. I shouldn't enforce any rules here, just let people post whatever the hell they want to.
After all, it's your board, too, right?
Yeah, it IS your board, too, and mine as well.
I notice that there are lots of people quick to yank on my chain and gripe or poke fun at the position I took. I don't think anyone has yet gone to texkev to overrule me. Maybe you all realize what that's going to sound like and how it's going to go if you try:
"Uh yeah, Bill said we can't make Polack and Jew jokes on INGO. That's really OK for us to do, right? You'll overrule him, right?"
Let me know how that works out for you. or maybe, just maybe, realize what an indefensible position that is. We've gone 10 years without that kind of joke being needed to have a good time. Why is it different now?
Blessings,
Bill