With this lie escalating to violent threats against the Haitian community, we perhaps need to put a pause on joking about this insidious hoax. They are trying to start a race war, and memes likely aren’t helping.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    2 months ago

    The person who kills a Haitian person in Springfield isn’t going to do it because we made fun of JD and the orange bad for saying it. They’re going to kill them because JD and the orange bad and about a thousand other serious people in their echo-chamber said it.

    • enkers@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      Right? I don’t think satire pointing out how utterly fucking ridiculous the cat eating allegations are is being part of the problem. This almost seems like “won’t someone appease the racists by not making fun of them?”

      • JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        The point of the post is that if Trump had said that he wanted to kill every immigrant at gun point, there wouldn’t be any jokes or memes about it, because it’s a dangerous statement that would be taken seriously by anyone.

        By making memes about him saying immigrants are eating dogs and cats, then we are “signaling” that what he said isn’t terrifyingly dangerous, we’re taking it as ridiculous and funny and not to be worried about. And that plays a role in normalizing all the stupid shit he has been saying.

        As a disclaimer, Trump is a piece of shit and I am DEFINITELY NOT saying both sides are bad (I fucking hate that argument). But the argument in the post is a valid one. Of course there are also some upsides to the memes. First they are funny but they also cause those words to reach out to more people which hopefully has an effect in terms of voting against him

        • Clent@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Making fun of what Trump says signals that what he says it stupid and anyone who acts on it is even stupider.

    • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
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      2 months ago

      Right, and ridicule is an effective way to shut down fascists. Its why calling them weird is so effective.

      In saying that, mocking them does give fuel to the fire. Its a necessary evil.

      • Geobloke@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Firstly they don’t hear your ridicule, but if they do they’ve been trained to believe that you’re punching down on them

        • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
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          2 months ago

          They do, which is why they push back against being called weird.

          Also, its about ridicule of the leaders not the followers. The followers then abandon them rather than double down as they dont want to be weird by association.

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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      2 months ago

      Yep!

      The person who starts a terrorist attack was looking for a reason. And last I checked, jokes aren’t what’s setting them off.

    • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      How fucking arrogant do you have to be? You have no idea what sets off someone deranged enough to go on a killing spree. It could be anything, from prodding by asshats like Trump, to the “evil far-left” making fun of their demigod.

      And to suggest that you know better because it sounds ludicrous to you is just as bad, because you aren’t taking them seriously and they will hate that even more.

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        You might have just triggered someone to kill someone. How dare you say those aggressive triggering words.

        You see how dumb that sounds?

          • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            One of the cool things about being on the spectrum is that we sometimes can be pattern matching savants.

            It doesn’t make up for the shit parts, but it does end up being really useful in finding the fascist.

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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        2 months ago

        You have no idea what sets off someone deranged enough to go on a killing spree.

        I’m kinda curious if you have access to rifles and/or clock towers…