Octopus, voice of reason, must chime in. Distasteful attempts at humor don’t make BrainGlutton despicable. It just makes him distasteful at that point in time. Is s/he(it) consistently distasteful I don’t know.
Personally I don’t find rape to be funny. Not even prison rape jokes.
Here’s something that may be useful as an example of effective communication.
Note the stuff when talking about fat people. Or the retarded. Note how this guide illustrates the proper way of expression. Same can be said about those who tell tasteless jokes. Attack the joke you don’t have to tear down the person.
I can’t offhand think of a single sacrosanct topic or single taboo phrasing, including your examples and the ones in your cite, that I would consider comedy-immune, and sometimes tearing down the person is the perfectly appropriate course of action.
I’m skimming over octopus’ cite and it’s like every cliché university level politically correct writing guide condensed into one. They have “African American” as a preferred form but “Africa” itself is problematic if it fails to recognize that the continent of Africa consists of many distinct countries. Personally, I think “black” is a perfectly good adjective, in circumstances where such is needed. It at least has the virtue of brevity.
No, it’s real. Conservative-ish websites are currently falling over themselves to pan its usage guide because it recently decided that “American” is offensive because it should refer to denizens of the American continents rather than just USA people, or something. I can’t say I disagree (with those panning this idea).
I meant that it was so bad it could be a parody–Poe’s Law. Alas, I know it’s all too real.
(North American–for all the term’s inaccuracies–can come in handy in some conversations, just as cis-gender does in others. Most people don’t have those conversations.)
Yes. Apparently it was created by some “community commissions” without the university administration’s knowledge (though presumably with their funds). It had no actual authority; it was just a “resource”.