I have seen a lot of blog posts and reddit threads about the Pycon incident, I assume that if you are reading this, you know about the incident and I can avoid the recap.
The more I think about this, the more I am conflicted.
I don't want to think that every spoken word needs to be filtered, especially in a joke between friends. What crazy 1984 world would we be living in if we need to self censor 24 hours a day or risk unemployment or worse.
On the other hand, if I was in her position and I heard a joke that mocked Atheists, I would perhaps take mild offense.
However, I have no idea what the joke even was.
Jokes are on a spectrum, at one end we get knock knock jokes and why did the chicken cross the road. At the other end of the spectrum, we have dead baby jokes and holocaust jokes.
Where on the spectrum did this joke lay?
Was the joke something like "wow that rep is hot, she gets my dongle hard and I would love to fork her"
Or was it closer to "check out that hot ass bitch, hope she likes a dongle up the ass while we rape her and pass her around for a good forking"
I think the distinction matters.
Was this joke that no normally prudent person would think was offensive, or was it the kind of joke you apologize for right after saying?
If the joke was truly offensive, then I can sympathize with her. Jewish people don't need to stand by and hear a holocaust joke and say nothing, black people don't need to hear nigger jokes and stay silent.
If the joke was just juvenile between friends, then I have no sympathy for her. Just because some people want to bubble wrap the world, doesn't mean we need to put up with it.
So in the end, I have no idea what to think.
Either 2 men told a horrible joke that would make george carlin blush and this brave woman stood up to these men, and now she is paying the price for her courage
Or 2 innocent men were telling an innocent joke and someone who sees offense in everything decided that her twitter followers would jump on the band wagon and be offended with her.
I can't tell who is right and who is wrong with this, so I use no names to help avoid slandering someone who does not deserve it.
In the end, all I can take from this is; be careful what you joke about, be careful of the pictures you tweet
So more self censorship... Great, just what the world needs.
- Sent From My Blackberry
