Post by Peter T. DanielsPost by Richard TobinPost by Peter T. DanielsPost by Richard TobinPost by Peter T. DanielsAthel, by claiming that was a joke, seems to think that rape is funny.
Telling a joke about X does not imply that X is funny.
It does not imply, it states, that it is something to be joked about.
Which is a completely separate question from whether it is funny.
Why would someone make a joke about something they didn't think was
funny, or trivially funnable?
Post by Richard TobinYou, in the statement quoted above, make the logical error of
inferring that because something is claimed to be a joke, the
subject of it must be claimed to be funny.
Post by Peter T. DanielsOf course you removed the alleged "joke" so that no one would
know what you were referring to.
I did not refer to the joke. I have nothing to say about it. I
referred to your logical error, which is a common one made by
people who object to a joke for moral or political reasons.
Are you saying those are not valid reasons for objecting to a joke?
In what year did it become acceptable to say, "Other than that, Mrs.
Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?" I don't think anyone has yet
tried "Other than that, Mrs. Kennedy, how did you enjoy the
motorcade?" "Other than that, Survivor, are you pleased that the
tattoo on your wrist anticipated a fashion trend?"
I heard the first one in the late '50s, when "sick" jokes were a new thing.
Your invented examples resemble it in that, in all three,
great tragedy, personal and societal, is dismissed as a minor
distraction. I don't know about objecting, but I don't suppose I would
laugh.
Athel's joke (if his brief mention of Harvey Weinstein is the one you
meant) referred to an outrage, but hardly one of such proportions. It
pointed out the ambiguity of "lie on", which seems appropriate for this
group. I pointed it out meself, in fact.
I listened the other day to a brief discussion of "sexual addiction" by
two psychologists who had studied the alleged phenomenon. They agreed
that it wasn't in the diagnostic manual for good reasons, and said that
Weinstein was simply a pushy asshole, in his behaviour with women as in
other aspects of his life.
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Having read ahead, I see that that is the joke you meant. It may be
worth noting that Weinstein has only been accused of rape by one woman,
(the other complaints being about disgraceful behaviour of varying
degrees of seriousness) and that that one seems to be being taken seriously.