Pleasant Politics

More than likely. Sarcasm is becoming a dead art form on social media.

I used to enjoy sarcasm until I realized how many people don't recognize the sarcasm and take it as genuine support for whatever vile cause someone is being sarcastic about.

It's like the old Stephen Colbert show, where he kept having conservatives on who didn't realize Colbert was a satire of conservatism and thought he was genuinely on their side.

And I get it's funny when people don't get the joke.

But, see, this is bad. Because people are emboldened when they see vile rhetoric they agree with being posted, unchallenged. It makes them think that more people agree with them and gives them courage to keep spewing vile rhetoric. So when, for instance, a racist sees something racist being posted sarcastically, and sees a bunch of upvotes and "agreeing" comments, and doesn't get the sarcasm, he reads it as support for his racist beliefs, he feels his racism validated, and he gets more committed to racism.

Lack of reading comprehension literally gives these people superpowers.

And repeating vile ideas, and racist memes, and other garbage that has no place in a civilized society - even if you're doing it sarcastically, or ironically, or in order to debunk it or criticize it - just shares that vile garbage further and emboldens the people who believe it.

Which is why I downvoted that sarcastic comment. If you want to contribute to discussion, contribute positively and say what you actually believe. We're all better off that way.

It could be because it's the same kind of sarcasm that tends to be repeated in most threads of this nature. It's tired and it adds nothing to the conversation.

No, it's obvious that it's sarcasm. I just don't want to read shitty opinions, it's bad enough hearing it from the assholes that actually believe it, why add another round of people repeating those shitty opinions as a joke. Not everything needs to be joked about. I understand some of you don't mind, but many more apparently do.