I was sitting at home relaxing and watching some old reruns today. All in the Family, Married: With Children, and what have you, and I was hit with a sudden realization... People who openly take offense to this type of material are generally the very same people who scream about racism, misogyny, sexism and overall bigotry... Why is that? Well probably because they aren't willing to acknowledge their own shortcomings... their own faults... They instead project them onto others so that they don't have to deal with them themselves... Let me elaborate.
There's something that I've become increasingly more aware of as of late. Certain people who have had a tendency to take the moral high ground over certain social issues, are now being exposed for doing the very same things that they've adamantly railed against in the past. People like Cenk Uyger, Bill O'Reilly, Matt Lauer, the list is endless.
Almost always, people like to go after entertainment for corrupting the sensibilities of our society. Why is that? Well probably because certain forms of entertainment are simply a reflection of ourselves. Some of us recognize it and can laugh at the absurdity of it. While others recognize it, but don't like to acknowledge what it is they see. For example, when you see Archie Bunker make an ignorant statement about race, culture, or politics, it's so absurd that you find it funny. That doesn't mean that you agree with it. It just means that you understand where the character is coming from. And that's why you can laugh at it. Because to a certain degree, that character resonates with you. On the flip side, if the same comment is made and you get offended by it, it's because you understand where the character is coming from, but you don't want to acknowledge that it resonates with you. You'd rather take the moral high ground and shift your acknowledgment onto someone else. Because you'd rather feel shame than self-reflect...
Here's the thing. Certain forms of humor and ideas are meant to shock us because we are all flawed. Part of developing into a better person is recognizing and dealing with those flaws. It doesn't mean that you should embrace them, but simply acknowledge them. When you can do that, you become a better person. When you refuse to accept that you are flawed, you dye your hair green, change your gender at a whim, raise a hammer and sickle, and scream about white privilege on a college campus. Because it's easier to shift blame onto someone else than it is to accept the fact that you have many of the same qualities as other people. It's easier to think you're better than the rest. Especially when you surround yourself with people who also want to bury their head in the sand rather than look in the mirror.
That's why you get hypocrites like Cenk Uyger, Bill O'Reilly, Matt Lauer. They've spent so much time trying to hide their shortcomings, that they've come to believe that they are better. Oblivious to their dark side, they act out because they think that if they openly rail against racism, sexism and misogyny, they have license to engage in it. It's subconscious, but it's there nonetheless.
When Dave Chappelle does a comedy show poking fun at transgenderism, people become outraged. They become outraged because, "How dare he!". Well, he "dare" because it's fucking funny. It's funny because you can relate whether you want to or not. You see a little of what he's talking about in yourself. You don't have to like it, but you do relate to it. If you didn't, you'd at the very least be apathetic about it. Humor is that sugar that helps the medicine go down. If you refuse to take the sugar because you don't want the medicine. You're just going to get sicker. Take the medicine and shut the fuck up. Enjoy the ride, and save yourself an ulcer or two over nothing.
In a hundred years we're all going to be in the same place anyway. That's a very short period of time to waste being morally outraged about everything...
