I tweaked Gandhi's words a bit for my title which seems fitting. One of the most peaceful protestors in humanity's history, who fought for independence, women's equality, religious tolerance, and poverty as a Human Rights issue, should by all accounts be canceled today. Did you know that a 77 year old Gandhi used to sleep naked with his 18 year old niece for "purity's sake"?
Why does Gandhi so often get a pass? Is it because he was born in the 1800s? Or that he was married away by his family at the age of 13? Do his good deeds outweigh his sexual exploitations? Why does piggy Gandhi get a pass for real life actions while others are being canceled over jokes that they Tweeted years ago? It's a rapid change in social norms and a slow burn in accepting other's growth.
We now live in an instant world where we can view and debate issues even while they're still happening. We've become accustomed to immediate outrage and thus impatient with gradual growth. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing either, some things are blatantly immoral and warrant an expedited response. Which is why I can't understand how people can chant "We want change now!" and then say "We don't believe you've changed!" after digging up a four year old Tweet or video.
Jokes to me are sacred. I understand that may not be the opinion of others, but for me they help relieve the harsh realities of the world in the comfort of humor. Some people find that comfort in religion, my refuge is in comedy. To me, jokes have a way of reflecting ugliness in a light that takes the sting out of an issue. If you can laugh at something, then you can change it.
Suppressing jokes is suppressing expression is suppressing change. The best jokes are fueled by the attitudes and feelings of that point in time. If our attitudes and feelings now have a shelf life of a couple years, then yes, a lot of jokes won't age well. That doesn't make the creator a bad person, it just makes them human. Capable of development.
With everyone constantly displaying how good of a person they are on social media, we're quick to point out other's imperfections for our own scorekeeping. But we've seen it time and time again where the canceler becomes the canceled. And round and round we go.
I hope we accept that people are adjusting to being better. I hope we give them time to do so. I hope that we recognize jokes for what they are, a human attempt to make someone else laugh.
I'm sorry for my serious tone. To better explain how I feel, here's a Patrice O'Neal clip on canceling jokes to play us out....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjIuPSuYSOY
We now live in an instant world where we can view and debate issues even while they're still happening. We've become accustomed to immediate outrage and thus impatient with gradual growth. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing either, some things are blatantly immoral and warrant an expedited response. Which is why I can't understand how people can chant "We want change now!" and then say "We don't believe you've changed!" after digging up a four year old Tweet or video.
Jokes to me are sacred. I understand that may not be the opinion of others, but for me they help relieve the harsh realities of the world in the comfort of humor. Some people find that comfort in religion, my refuge is in comedy. To me, jokes have a way of reflecting ugliness in a light that takes the sting out of an issue. If you can laugh at something, then you can change it.
Suppressing jokes is suppressing expression is suppressing change. The best jokes are fueled by the attitudes and feelings of that point in time. If our attitudes and feelings now have a shelf life of a couple years, then yes, a lot of jokes won't age well. That doesn't make the creator a bad person, it just makes them human. Capable of development.
With everyone constantly displaying how good of a person they are on social media, we're quick to point out other's imperfections for our own scorekeeping. But we've seen it time and time again where the canceler becomes the canceled. And round and round we go.
I hope we accept that people are adjusting to being better. I hope we give them time to do so. I hope that we recognize jokes for what they are, a human attempt to make someone else laugh.
I'm sorry for my serious tone. To better explain how I feel, here's a Patrice O'Neal clip on canceling jokes to play us out....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjIuPSuYSOY
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