Madison Cawthorne won't read your "haha he's in a wheelchair" joke.
Donald Trump will never see your fat joke.
Joe Biden will never hear your jokes about his stutter.
Your friends will. Your friends with mobility aids. Your friends who aren't a size 0. Your friend with a speech impediment they've worked relentlessly to overcome.
If you want to make a joke about a politician/public figure, find something worth joking about. Ableism ain't it. Weight ain't it.
Examine the engine of your humor.
@voice_of_reason Can we move past the joke phase? It’s the purview of 11 year olds. Just make a valid criticism about something the person you are criticizing can control or have an impact on. So this excludes skin color, native language/country, disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, family members not involved with their sphere of influence, and their physical appearance. We can do this. There’s plenty to criticisze even when you exclude these things.
@vaweisman @voice_of_reason You can make wonderful jokes about someone without attacking them. You can put valid criticism in jokes. That's the job of satirist.
@elshid @voice_of_reason This is such a disingenuous response. Most of the jokes are not coming from professional satirists. They are from Joe/Joanne Public and they are designed to attack not criticize. They cause the discussion to devolve into name calling & ad hominem attacks, thus ensuring the issues are forgotten. Which is the point of those attacks sometimes. I believe we can do better if we are aware of how ubiquitous this is in our society and actively avoid it.
@vaweisman @voice_of_reason On the other hand, jokes and especially humour in general is a very important coping mechanism for us humans. Actually, jokes brought the people freedom: The French & the German Revolution were the times when many jokes were invented, the Nazis did try to eliminate comedians, as they saw a danger in them. Even Plato knew about the power of jokes, as jokes take the power away from the people with power.
