IMO, the most significant difference between the situation he describes and the one he’s trying to compare it to is that the only other person involved is in on the joke…he’s not actively trying to actually make people think he’s the Grand Dragon of his local Klan chapter.
And I think the target of these jokers are people who actually think an okay sign is a white power symbol.
It’s the usual gutless wonder build the deniability in up front thing that the assholes do.
Even if that is the case (which I do not concede), virtually EVERY person who uses it to target those people is a fucking asshole who is morally unfit to hold any position of responsibility in what is SUPPOSED to be a society of decent human beings.
Trolling dumb people makes someone morally unfit to hold any position of responsibility? That seems quite harsh, especially since morals may be different from person to person.
Trolling people by publicly pretending to advocate horrifically immoral views definitely calls into question one’s fitness for responsible positions. If you’re obviously exaggeratedly joking about the horrifically immoral views, that’s another matter; but then, if you’re obviously exaggeratedly joking, you’re not trolling.
Trolling people makes people doubt your sincerity generally. Trolling people about being a racist cunt makes people wonder whether or not you might be a racist cunt. Which is not something we generally want in disaster first responders who’ll perforce deal with racist cunt targets at their most vulnerable. There is literally no outcome in which this “trolling” was a smart thing to do (and for the record, I’m still 100% sure he was sincere - if he’d been trolling for outrage/to own the libs he would have been more brazen about it, not surreptitious).
Also, whether one is in it for the lulz of upsetting people or the sheer joy of white powering, here’s the thing : YOU’RE AN ASSHOLE. Trolling is not clever, it’s not even difficult. Pushing peoples’ buttons is easy. Being disingenuous is easy. Hiding behind a mask is easy. And getting one’s jollies out of generating negative feelings in others (no matter the cause or way) is at best antisocial, at worst being a sociopath.
And I say this as somebody who used to revel in deliberately causing unease and/or outrage wherever I went, as a coping mechanism for my own social insecurities. Hell, I still do it sometimes (although not nearly to the extent I used to).
This is only true if you believe the okay sign advocates horrifically immoral views. And if you do, you are the one being trolled.
Again, if a person is pretending to believe something morally repugnant in order to troll and shock people, that doesn’t let them off the “immoral asshole” hook.
Everybody knows that “the OK sign as a white-power sign” was originated by alt-righters to troll and shock opponents of white-power ideology. That, in case you need it spelled out for you, was an immoral-asshole thing to do. And the people who continue to deliberately use the sign as an ambiguous signifier in order to troll and shock are also immoral assholes.
Part of the damage the alt-right has done to our culture is encouraging this attitude that trolling people by pretending to endorse repugnant ideas is morally neutral, while being one of the people trolled by the pretense is morally contemptible. It’s actually the other way around.
DeSantis ally tweeted about Obama: “Fuck that Muslim N*****” (without the censoring)
Wow, you must think Sacha Baron Cohen is the biggest immoral asshole on the planet.
He’s not a racist, he was just angry when he wrote that :rolleyes:
Not to speak for Kimstu, but there’s a much more likely candidate for that, posting on this very board.
Really? You think SBC is trolling and shocking more people than anybody else on the planet?
Oh wait, no he isn’t: he’s trolling a small number of people in elaborate hoaxes which he then publicly reveals as hoaxes.
I definitely agree that there are morally questionable aspects to SBC’s pretense of adopting morally repugnant views in these elaborate hoaxes. But it’s very obviously not as immoral as assholes deliberately trolling the general public without making it publicly clear that it’s a hoax.
SBC trolls his victims in order to get the general public to laugh at how repugnant the expressed views are. Alt-right assholes troll the general public in order to mock them for getting upset at the apparent expression of repugnant views. The latter definitely scores higher on the immoral-asshole-meter than the former.
If white supremacists have adopted the symbol, and you, knowing that, replicate the symbol, then you are making a white power symbol.
That it is made up and has little history doesn’t mean anything. Everything was made up once, and had little history at the time.
Or he was just trolling the dumb libs for the lulz. What’s wrong with that? Why’s everybody so upset about it? :rolleyes:
Beautiful description of his self-own in the linked article, though:
“HOW DARE ANYBODY DEFAME US AS BEING DIVISIVE AND RESENTFUL?! F— THE MUSLIM N----- WHO SLANDERED US THAT WAY!”
Yeah, can’t imagine why anybody would call you divisive and resentful.
Stupid of Hatch and Grassley to outright lie about the FBI never doing investigations in matters such as the Christine Blasey Ford matter. Maddow pointed out last night how Hatch praised the FBI for investigating the Anita Hill charges back in 1991.
Of course the GOP (and Kavanaugh under oath) feel perfectly free to lie about anything, anyway, and any time.
GOP Congressman jokes about Ruth Bader Ginsburg getting groped by Abe Lincoln.
I guess that shows how seriously Republicans take allegations of sexual abuse. As if we didn’t already know that. :rolleyes:
Have white supremacists adopted the symbol? How do you know they have? Didn’t come up at any of my meetings.
Sorry, but here is what you said:
That is exactly what SBC does. Pretends to believe something morally repugnant in order to troll and shock people. So do you feel that SBC is an immoral asshole or not? He meets the exact definition that you gave.