ziggysak

This is simply incorrect. /pol/ has never attempted to be "ironically" fascist. Its memes have always been a true reflection of sincere fascism and racism.

/r/dankmemes has similar subject matter but it's clear that it's ironic and it's black humor.

They are two fundamentally different things. Nobody is being indoctrinated into being a fascist from the latter. The former is actively attempting indoctrination.

I used to be there too, and still am so I can observe how it's evolving. I'm not necessarily even disagreeing with you, but what I am arguing for is not normalizing the bigotry, it's to go back to not even considering their views. The issues arise when we give the alt-right names like "alt-right". It makes them sound powerful and organized.

They're not "literal fascists". Literal fascists were in Italy overthrowing the government 70 years ago. All these people have is the ability to create chaos. When we give them coverage and attention, we feed them. What you're advocating for is what we're doing right now - trying to shut off these toxic wells. But what it's simply doing is adding fuel to the fire.

I think we just have different views on how to approach bigotry. We both can agree that it is a black mark on our society and we should overcome it as a culture.

However, where we disagree is how to do it. I see the current climate of "preventing the spread of bigoted ideas" as creating what we know as the alt-right. If you check 4chan's /pol/, you will see an incredible amount of people admit to becoming alt-right because "so many snowflakes are always so offended and call me names". If, however, we as a society can more tolerate dark humor and bigoted comments, the bigots either stop talking or evolve to accept more tolerant views. This article as whole is perfect fuel for the alt-right to say "liberals are trying to control everything, even jokes".

To your second point: Pepe wearing a Nazi uniform is not dark comedy. It's racism. They're using memes to further their own ideology, as opposed to the Harvard students who were simply making fun of the offensive nature of the jokes.

Thirdly, I truly don't care for whether or not it's high or low humor. All I'm looking at is intent and whether or not an individual is actively desiring to inflict damage on another group of people. Alt-right memes do this, while the Harvard kids would be the first to admit they were simply making jokes who were not hurting anyone other than the people who decided to be offended by them.

To your first point: It's certainly immoral to be a true bigot, but it's more immoral to silence dark humor simply because of the one individual who believes it. In fact, I would argue that attempting to stifle these individuals is what amplifies their tendency to hold bigoted views. For example, if you're in an in-real-life group conversation and you're all friends and you're roasting another friend for something he did, it's completely fine. But once someone goes too far and begins insulting him sincerely, you punish the person who made the insult, not the group.

As to your second point, I don't know why you think people who enjoy memes are somehow intellectually lazy. I don't really see how your logic works here as memes are simply jokes transmitted via the internet. Are you implying that anyone who makes jokes or enjoys dark comedy has to be intellectually lazy?

That's a very fair point. I've made plenty of these jokes before to my friends and sent memes that are blatantly offensive because of the taboo factor. It's black comedy. Similarly to how Aristophanes made fun of Socrates and basically created the genre of dark humor.

I wouldn't consider that equivalent at all. This was an invite-only private chat between students. So in other words, it would be like they were playing CAH in a dorm room and somebody in the group decided to tell on them to administration.

Antagonism is hostility. You're actually the one who even mentioned this being black humor, so this can't be antagonism if we both agree these are jokes. Trying to make people laugh using taboo subjects is not antagonism.

As for prison, I'm implying what consequences you would assume for individuals who would be so vocal about what you would call their racist acts.

Black comedy or dark comedy is a comic style that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo.

So no, if you define a joke as 'black humor', the taboo IS the joke. If the intent of the joke is sincere racism, it's not black humor.

So should black comedians be jailed for their jokes when they generalize about other groups? Should Dave Chapelle be in prison for making jokes about white people, since that's what you're implying?

Racism is defined as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.

What these kids did was not racist.

Actually, it isn't. Racism is based in the belief that one group is superior to the other. If one is making an ironic joke, it does not imply any intent of racism on their part.

I agree, but what is new is that suddenly kids are having their college acceptances revoked for dead baby jokes that the administrators probably also joked about 30 years ago, when they were 18.

I think an article such as this one is a clear example of the generational differences between older and younger people. I'm fairly close to these kids' age and I've browsed memes from /r/dankmemes and enjoyed them.

The thing is, is that these memes are supposed to be self-aware of how offensive they are. That's the joke. They're meant to be so offensive and ridiculous that reactions can be drawn from outside spectators so they can get offended and you can laugh at them for being a "normie".

I have no issue with these jokes unless they've been made in a sincere attempt at racism or sexism, and knowing my experience with the internet, I don't believe this is the case.

Can we all be friends together?

I tried calm and it was okay. I actually read the book 'Mindfulness in Plain English' and worked from there. I use no technology in my sessions - I feel like it helps when I'm completely disconnected. As a tip, remember this: Most of the time the greatest benefit from meditation is the act of trying to meditate. You can fail miserably and it still can work wonders on your mental health.

I try to practice mindfulness on a daily basis. I do find that it's very useful when you want to separate your emotions from your self, like during periods of anger or anxiety. I haven't done it long enough to be able to talk about long term results, but it's proving to be integral to my goal of heavily increasing productivity throughout the day.