Thanks to political humor, and programs like "The Daily Show," I have to believe people's awareness and desire to be informed is greater than it would be if people were not allowed to find the humor out of political discussion.
I believe the political meme is one of the greatest leaps forward in political discussion to happen in this latest generation. Think about it. With meme's, you can quickly disseminate an idea or fact in a humorous and entertaining way. How can that be interpreted as a negative?
When discussing social or political humor, I think there are certain rules of conduct people should respect.
Let's start with self-deprecating humor. Without it, there can be no ball-busting. When you make fun of yourself you show that you are open and able to deal with your own flaws AND strengths. But if all you ever do is criticize other people and can take no criticism of your own, that makes you a bully. Ball-busting is great for camaraderie and boosting social interaction, and being a bully is social poison.
If some one tells you, "Your criticisms of me are not welcome," I think you have to respect that and discontinue immediately. That's how you be a decent, sensitive human being, and offering an apology for crossing the line is how you be respectful.
When you "double-down" on your comments by continuing your criticisms because you are so certain you can never be wrong, that's stubborn, insensitive, and selfish, and not funny. That's being a bully, no matter how many of your friends egg you on. That does not seem like a reasonable way to conduct oneself in a public forum.
Now let's consider people on the public stage, the politician. I think they are open for ridicule. I don't think you can tell someone, "Please stop making fun of Donald Trump's hair, you are hurting my feelings." That's ridiculous.
When a politician says something that is too incredible to believe, it should be illuminated, ridiculed, and discussed, and doing so in a humorous way is totally reasonable, as far as I see. They put themselves and their opinions on the public stage. There is no way why you should take criticisms of another persons views as a direct insult to you.
When a politician is exposed by great journalism, again reasonably, that should be open for criticism and ridicule. We've got this little thing called freedom of speech. We've got this other thing that should go without saying about rules of conduct. And sometimes we have rules of a website like this;
I'm going to ask people to please be nice and respectful to everyone, and I really shouldn't have to because it is stated in the rules already."Political discussion here. Any reasonable opinion is welcome, but due to the sensitive nature of the topic area, please be nice and respectful to others. No flaming or trolling, please. And please keep political commentary out of the other board areas and confine it to this area. Thanks!"
If you would like to continue this discussion about what is acceptable speech politically, please feel free to do it here.
I would suggest to you that maybe, just maybe, the idea of "reasonable opinion" might differ from person to person.
Just because one person may conduct themselves differently than you do does not make them wrong and you right.
Lastly, I think it is reasonable to ask that your personal criticisms are kept out of the other threads, as I believe they detract from the topics of the other stories. If you simply have to criticize me because you don't accept something about me, please do it here instead.
Thanks everybody, hope you considered some of my opinions, and let the bloodletting begin!
