Bigotry, racism, and making fun of?

I guess intent matters. If I make fun of a friend of mine by saying “Man, you suck at life.” He knows I’m joking. But If you make fun of someone to hurt them then that is something else.

I didn’t go into that thread because I pretty much knew how it would break down. “Making fun” or any other kind of derision can be a symptom of immaturity and insecurity. Since Fluther has such a young demographic, I would expect a certain amout of that.

Also it can be a result of ignorance, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here except for the occasional fuzzy little 14 yo just hatched out of the egg, and that is easily rectified,

Saddest is just the deliberately hateful people who revel in cruelty. For example on a recent thread about what we do while waiting on line, a frequent and experienced poster blithely came right out and said she made fun of people. What’s with that?

Ooo Harp’s making a lo~~ng response…you write great replies :) Im waiting…

Bigotry and racism imply that the person is being treated badly because they belong to a certain group. It’s the preconceived notion that anyone belonging to that group is worthy of attack.

You can “make fun of” a person for plenty of other reasons unrelated to what group they belong to, e.g the car they drive, their style of dress, their eating habits, etc. This can still be extremely hurtful if done with malice, or if the intent is misconstrued, but only the one person is the target, not an entire group.

I think bigotry and racism is, not could be, malicious in almost every point of view… Making fun of could have good intentions and maybe even “make fun”

@Harp . Ok, I buy that. The end result of any is still the same, it just depends whether you want to alienate an entire group or just an individual? Making fun of an individual can easily overlap to a group, you are just targeting an individual rather than a collective.

I fail to understand how “Making fun” of anyone can be construed as harmless, when you give someone a load of crap about something, that’s fun, making fun of someone’s fault or action is malicious, the intensity of the maliciousness varies if you are attempting to have “fun”.

@pekenoe you know, say something like, “Hey, gotta watch where your driving or you might hit drive on the sidewalk” Very VERY playfully

@pekenoe Yes, absolutely, there’s huge potential for harm and “making fun of” should never be used just for one’s own entertainment. But I think that there are rare circumstances when “making fun of” can be healthy.

It can be judiciously used as a teaching tool to modify undesirable behaviors that are within a person’s power to change. If I tell my kid that I have to put on my hazmat suit before entering his room, that gets my message across less aggressively than a straightforward command to clean the damned room. My wife and I make fun of each other all the time for the same reason: it’s a gentler way of pointing out needed changes. This is constructive intent; the motive is to help, not damage.

People are way too sensitive. To me, making fun of someone is teasing them, and helping them to laugh at themselves. I’m not descriminating, I’m not being childish (I’m almost 35), I’m not implying that something is wrong with the person I am “making fun” of, I just love to laugh.

Having worked with adolescents with pshychological, behavioral and developmental problems, many with combined problems, I learned that laughing with them, as they laugh at themselves, and pointing out the humor of certain situations actually HELPS these kids to take a step back from their emotions and impulses, and it allows them to see things from others perspectives. All the kids loved me because they said I always made them laugh, and I showed them how to see their problems and situations from a different perspective.

Making fun/light of someone and their situation is in no way equivalent to racism. That’s ridiculous.

This coming from a guy whose own profile shows him to be intolerant to others. Lovely.

@asmonet : so? I hate people making fun of other people.

You’re holier than thou evidently, at least I’m honest.

There are nicer way to say “gay “sex” makes me puke”.

Being nice about gay sex is not on my list of things to do.

Exactly.

@pekenoe Why do you have to be anything (nice or not) about gay sex? If you are not involved what’s your stake. I’m not into professional sports so I don’t have any judgements to make about it. Take a hint Que sera, sera

Pro sports is not an unnatural perversion, is it?
I don’t stand on a pulpit shouting my disgust, it’s on my bio because it’s important to know where someone stands.
I only respond when someone tries to convince me that having a b*** buddy is a natural and perfectly acceptable practice.
Two people of the same sex want to live together, that’s fine, I don’t care. But lecture me that what happens in the bedroom should be private when its perverted. If you want it private, don’t shout it out to the world that you are gay and do perverted crap in the privacy of your bedroom.

Unnatural perversion is in the eye of the beholder I guess, but my point is if it has nothing to do with you, why do you care? Of course, there is a school of thought that people who overreact to things that they ostensibly have no stake in are in fact suppressing similar desires. The over-the-top response is in reality fear and self-hatred. Hmmmmm?

@pekenoe: Unnatural you say?

“No species has been found in which homosexual behaviour has not been shown to exist, with the exception of species that never have sex at all, such as sea urchins and aphids. Moreover, a part of the animal kingdom is hermaphroditic, truly bisexual. For them, homosexuality is not an issue.”
—Petter Bøckman

you all are really reaching… I know it’s been pretty boring in Flutherville

Maybe I’ll ask a question soon….

By the way, some males kill their young, dogs lick their balls, comparing animal to human behavior is a really really long reach and lacks any credibility.

Men would soo lick their balls if they could.

^And many do.

@pekenoe: How in holy fuck is comparing animal to human animal behavior a reach? Humans are animals, just like all the other ones.

@pekenoe human males DO kill their young, but it is my understanding that nonhuman male mammals only kill the young of other males, which human males do too, by the thousands every year

I guess he has no response for us?

For the best I suppose.