Shh, Don’t Think That Out Loud
Posted by Scott BannonThe blogosphere was abuzz over the past 2 weeks with discussions on comedy, satire, racism and stupidity all thanks to a single video skit about a supposed lack of Black bloggers on the Internet titled “TechNigga”, and Verizon’s decision to dump the media content provider from their service as a result.
Now, I’m not going to rehash too many specifics of this video and the surrounding debates any further, there is a decent wrap-up available at TechCrunch for anyone interested.
I just thought this was a great opportunity to talk about one of my favorite subjects, the softening of society through political correctness. And for the overly sensitive who might take objection to my opinions on political correctness or feel aggrieved by my words, don’t bother wasting your time contacting me to tell me how rude or harsh you may think I am. Trust me, I don’t care. Just ask any of the corn-squatters who contacted me after my last posting on PC stupidity.
Look, I grew up in an Irish family, and while I may know a good bit about a lot of subjects the 2 topics I’m most intimately familiar with are alcoholism and drunks.
Alcoholism is a terrible and ravaging disease that can destroy the life of the afflicted, as well as the lives of everyone around them. Drunks are often funny people to watch and be around. The problem with political correctness is it assumes we’re all too dumb to appreciate the distinctions between the two.
Those who know me know my positions on ignorance and prejudices, I don’t need or intend to explain myself on either for anyone else.
And that’s sort of my issue with people who got their panties in a bunch over the satirical video I mentioned earlier. Why would the thoughts, opinions or skit of some comedian you’ve never met matter so much when the context within which the video was made was an obvious attempt at satire. A joke. Whether funny or not is purely subjective, but it’s pretty clear the intention wasn’t to specifically offend, so why would it impact so many so deeply?
I could understand the uproar if it was broadcast as something… anything other than a satire. But it wasn’t, it was created and released by a court jester, period.
I just find it amazing that in this world, at this time, so many people would have so little real drama and worries of importance in their lives that they would actually want to care about the attempt at humor from some class clown they don’t even know.
If, instead of climbing right up on the PC-mob bandwagon more people would actually take a moment of pause to consider just how important some of these incidents really are to them, I bet there would be a lot less sillyness wasting all of our time.
Then again, maybe I’m wrong and everything is just peachy for everyone right now and there’s a void we all need to fill with meaningless battles over our far too sensitive sensibilities?
buxtohispano.com 
