• galanthus@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    I feel like the “/s” thing always ruins the joke. For me, it’s the ambiguity that makes it funny, if sarcasm is stated explicitly it just doesn’t work that well.

    I see it a lot nowadays, so my comment is not targeted at you, do not take it personally. Just a thought I had.

    • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      Sarcasm without tags on 4chan gave safe harbor to neonazis. I think a slightly tarnished joke is worth it to keep out nazis.

      That, plus sarcasm really only works if people know who you are, and thus can know you’re being sarcastic. It doesn’t reliably come across when you’re talking to strangers.

      • galanthus@lemmy.world
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        20 days ago

        I partly agree with your second point, but the thing is that you have to figure out the person does not mean what they say - that’s the point. If you state the sarcasm explicitly it is not really sarcasm. And while in some contexts it can be hard to know for sure whether something is sarcasm, I do not think this is a problem, and it is more often than not, like in this case, rather obvious.

        Also, for the “antifascist” thing to work you would have to take everything everyone says at face value to make sure there are no ambiguities. So if made a joke withut the “/s” or “/j” or whatever you would assume I am being serious? Honestly, making our communication more primitive just so that fascists are marginally easier to spot(I mean you can probably figure it out without the “/s” anyway) is, in my opinion, absurd.

      • galanthus@lemmy.world
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        20 days ago

        Is this an actual reason for why people do that, an ad hoc explanation, or a view that just a few people hold?

        • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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          20 days ago

          People are lazy. But, yes, many people who do write “/s” do it so that fascists know we’re making fun of them, not reinforcing their beliefs.

          It’s the same reason Mein Kampf requires footnotes in Germany, by law

          • galanthus@lemmy.world
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            20 days ago

            Ok fine, I can accept this can be used SOMETIMES when you need to make something completely unambiguous, but more often than not you want the opposite - amd most things don’t have anything to do with nazism, and sarcasm can be picked up easily usually as well.

            • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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              20 days ago

              Starship Troopers. American Psycho. Taxi Driver. Joker. South Park.

              All of these are celebrated by the right because they failed to understand that I was actually a criticism of them.

              • galanthus@lemmy.world
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                20 days ago

                I understand that idiots can misunderstand something if it is ambiguous, but that does not mean that ambiguity should be forbidden. If at the end of “American Psycho” there was a title saying “this film is a criticism of capitalist culture and its effect on people”, it would be worse as a film, a work of art and a statement than it is now. It would be ridiculous and disrespectful towards the audience.

                It’s literally in the name, “american psycho”, it is almost stated explicitly, but they STILL do not get it. What is it that you want exactly? Our media and discourse to be made with only unintelligent people in mind?