Quote From: thallyCyber-bullying aside, I had a comment about Councillor Sandy and her joke. I found myself siding with her.
It's true - in North America, we have lost the ability to laugh at ourselves, although I'm not sure this problem originated with the Government telling us what's funny. When is it going to come to the point where there is no act that any comedian can present which doesn't offend someone, ANYONE, out there and is therefore censored?
And some people "feign" offence just for an opportunity to show off moral superiority in a group setting ... especially at someone else's expense, in the hopes of impressing others. Often, feigning offence is an act by what psychology calls "mind guards" who are the weasels, the lowest common denominator in a group setting, an office, etc., who need to point the morally superior finger, feigning offence, at someone else in order to show off moral superiority in the hopes of increasing their own standing in the group. Beware of these kinds of bullying people, the melodramatic actors in the group, with nothing of their own to contribute to any light-hearted conversation, other than correcting the word usage of those people contributing to the chat.
In a former job, I worked with managers where sexual harassment in the workplace was a problem. The male manager who called me a "Gyno-American" was, in fact, the least trustworthy. The one who would joke with me, even with politically incorrect humor, in the workplace was one of the few male managers I could actually trust to give me a fair chance.
Maybe instead of painting everything with a blind, self-righteous politically correct brush, we should all take a step back and use our "critical thinking" skills to ascertain whether the personality and disposition of the person speaking (especially someone we've known for a while, and we should therefore know better) truly reflects a malignant racist. In most cases, it's likely not true.
As an example, we had a birthday celebration at work to celebrate the birthdays for the month. Two managers, self-appointed "mind guards" in the group, feigned offence when I served someone a piece of birthday cake and happily sang, "Here's a piece of cake for the birthday girl!!" They were offended that I used the word "girl" and, in unison, self-righteously yelled "WOMAN !!!!"
I'm not a malignant person in the workplace, or elsewhere, and can laugh at myself, but it seems when people do that, they are saying that they think I am the type of malignant person who would mean harm on someone else. By saying "girl" in "birthday girl," those 2 managers (who actually are the true bullies in the workplace, unfortunately) were saying to me that I would have meant that term in a derogatory, chauvinistic, insulting manner, which I didn't, and anyone who truly knows me would not have thought that. I'm a woman who does not have my grandmother's life, wouldn't wish the
old ways on any woman and sure didn't mean that remark in an insulting,
chauvinistic way, but when are we going to lighten up?
I have to wonder about the "name-callers" who came out of the woodwork who called Sandy all sorts of names, including Dr. Phil who referred to her actions as "idiotic" and THAT'S OK?! Postings such as, "Your [sic - should be 'you're' an idiot" show the nature, and ignorance, of the name-calling poster, not the nature of Sandy.
I also have to wonder about Holly, who looked like the kind of self-righteous "mind guard" we've all seen in the workplace and elsewhere, and prefer to avoid as a killjoy, if the truth was really known. Did she get a feather in her cap at someone else's expense? For her television appearance, with her perfectly coifed hair and make-up, and an expression of the requisite amount of self-righteous finger-pointing indignation on her face, Holly said she's "shocked ... blown away ... disgusted" ... by a joke. Oh, please! Didn't Dr. Phil have a show some time ago about melodramatic people who overuse superlatives?
And all of the YEARS of work of Sandy are "all for naught"?! YEARS of hard work removed , forgotten, wiped out by one mere joke for which some may choose to feign offence. Wow! This feels like the 1950's and Sandy is about to get blacklisted as a
communist except her crime is a "joke" presented with no ill-will (or
guilty mind as the law would state). That's some level of judgmental self-righteousness from likely a high-maintenance "mind guard" type of person!
Maybe I didn't like the joke posted by Councillor Sandy either, but she does have a point. We paint everything with the same blind "politically correct" brush that we've forgotten to look at events below the surface and see the true nature and history of the person doing the speaking, and it's often not presented with the level of malignancy that certain people (mind guards) would like to assume there is, for self-serving reasons of their own.
