Banhammer Coming Out

Before I begin banning people, for real and not by error, I will once again state the caution that a lot of people ignore:

If you have a racial axe to grind, if you are kind of pissed off about minorities, stop posting on the subject. You are embarrassing yourselves, you are embarrassing me, you are embarrassing everyone else here.

If you think that I am secretly winking at you telling you I just hit the Racism Button and it's okay to start with the racial jibes, you are wrong.

If you think I am your secret racist buddy, who speaks in "code" but you "get" what I'm really saying, you are wrong. I hate you. I despise you.

I am tired of the people who whoop it up saying "Yeah, Ace, go get 'em! Tell those liberals that racism is a myth perpetrated by the liberal establishment media!" right before deciding it's the perfect time to compose a post in stupid ebonics, or to denigrate black people's looks, or the rest of it.

I am tired of people joining my tirade against Eugene Robinson for seeing everything through the prism of race right before themselves posting completely through the prism of race.

I'm tired of it. I won't be having it.

The banhammer is coming out, because I am tired of a few nasty racists making life unpleasant for everyone else.

Just another note of when the banhammer is coming: Knock it off on the gay "jokes" that contain no joke except for laughing at people for being gay. What I mean is: When any post goes up about, say, Andrew Sulllivan, "jokes" begin that aren't really jokes at all; it's just speaking nastily and in a demeaning way about gays.

There are gay jokes I don't mind. But they are, in fact, jokes, and not merely resentments and anger vented in a supposedly "amusing" fashion.

This fashion is never actually amusing; people just say nasty things and say "But I was joking!"

Well, no you weren't, you were perfectly serious, you were expressing your actual feelings with perfect accuracy. Your intent wasn't really to spread mirth, except for the lowest kind.

I know I've allowed a lot of this, and actually, let's be fair, encouraged it, so on this one, I take a lot of the blame, myself, and I can't really point fingers. But while I am to blame, I still want it cleaned up.

A "joke" is a joke when it's intent is to actually amuse. A safe joke about either homosexuality or race is safe when the object of the joke is not the age-old stereotypical resentments about such people, but some other target.

For example, when I am always saying I'm afraid of brown people, and I'm afraid of vaginas, I'm not actually making jokes about either target; I'm spoofing those who assert I have those fears. See? The target of the joke is not, in fact, the same old dreary targets from old racists and gay haters.

Now I alway carve out an exception for either. You can't fight the funny, I always say, and I do mean that: A "forbidden" joke I might let slide because even though it's forbidden, it's a damn fine joke.

All I can say about this last category is this: If no one is routinely complimenting you on your wit and humor, I can guarantee you with well-night 100% confidence that you are not, in fact, capable of crafting a joke so surprising and funny that is is acceptable despite being offensive and borderline edgy and homophobic.

You are almost certainly just trotting out the same old dreary, unfunny, insulting, hateful, unnecessarily offensive crap we've all heard a billion times before, the same ignorant crap that was funny in second grade because we didn't know any better.

As I have said before; Categorize yourself appropriately. If you are a genuine wit, okay, maybe you can afford to take some chances.

On the other hand, if you are just trotting out the same crap about gays having sex with other men (snicker, snicker!) and black people being this or that, you know what? Please save your "jokes." We have some funny people here and you are not counted in your number. Your "jokes" aren't jokes, they are angry and offensive statements you are smuggling in through the disguise of supposed levity, and they are not provoking grins and smiles, but grimaces.

For you guys, I will remind you: There are gays and blacks "on our side." They are your allies. They are, in a fake-pretend internet way, even your friends.

I am tired of seeing stuff that makes my friends cringe. I like my friends. I would like them not to cringe.

Stop it.

You're not funny, and you're not fooling anyone. And if this doesn't stop, you're also not posting here.

Here's a Test: Evaluate the two following statements in terms of humorousness.

1) Obama is the first president to turn the Rose Garden into the Watermelon Patch.

2) Andrew Sullivan probably can't think straight because his head is filled with semen.

Which one was funny?

Here's the answer: Neither was. If you found that either one had a certain humorous je ne sai qua, you are pitching extraordinarily low into the comedy strike zone; you are going into the dirt.

Now, save your "jokes" for some other sites, or some other friends who "get" your sense of humor, and leave the comedy to people with better appreciation of the strike zone and better control over their pitches.

Furthermore, if you really want to say this sort of thing, I really would appreciate it more if you stated it as a serious proposition. If you do this, it has two advantages:

1) You yourself will be confronted with what you're really saying, and may choose that perhaps it does not accurately reflect your thinking on the subject.

2) It spares me from having to go through this ridiculous "It was just a joke" crap.

I will not ban people -- promise -- for stating their anti-black and anti-gay resentments in a *serious* fashion. So long as they at least make the most basic efforts not to be utterly offensive in how they express it. Rather, I will take that as the opportunity for serious argument and discussion.

But I'm not going to put up with unfunny nastiness being smuggled in dishonestly in the form of alleged jokes.

If you want to peddle your grievances, then collect your thoughts, compose them, and express them in a serious fashion, so that you are aware of precisely what you are saying, and everyone else gets that you are quite serious.

Enough of this cowardly, chickenshit hiding behind "jokes." If you have something to say, say it proudly. And say it seriously.

Not to Embarass Anyone... Not to bring up anyone by name, but I have black in real life friends posting here.

I have gay real in life friends posting here.

Please compose your posts on these matters realizing that my friends include blacks and include gays. Ask "How would they react to this particular post? Would they be legitimately offended?"

If they would: Do not post it.

I do not want a site where I have to worry constantly about my real in life friends being disgusted or insulted by the comments.

posted by Ace at 04:32 PM

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