Xref: utzoo news.misc:1952 soc.culture.jewish:8142
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: news.misc,soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: RACIST JOKES
Message-ID: <2361@looking.UUCP>
Date: 20 Nov 88 07:03:47 GMT
References: <8030@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <1058@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu> <1223@fig.bbn.com> <179@loci.UUCP>
Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 38

I'm a tad tired of getting lectures on politeness from people who have
never met me, yet call me "racist," "unfeeling" and "an ignoramus."

I will admit that we ought to send these ideas off to George Miller,
"The Comedian in Search of a Gimmick."

He could be "The Polite Comic."  He can tell any joke he wants, as long as
it doesn't make fun of anything or anybody.  Should be a big hit.

I *know* the jokes I post offend some people, and a few very sensitive
people are offended deeply.  (Why they read the group, or the jokes I
classify as offensive -- that's one thing I don't know.)

I also *know* that If I rejected every category of joke that offended some
of the 30,000 readers, there would not be much of a group, if any at all.

And I have made the following decision:

	I would rather have a world where people can laugh at the
	nasty things that reside in it, than a world where nobody
	can be offended.

If this attitude is evil, so be it.  Fortunately, my right to hold this
attitude is protected in the American & Canadian bills of rights.
I have already explained the other motivations behind the posting of
the various controversial jokes.

I understand and respect the calls for politeness that have gone out to
me.  It is through knowledge, not ignorance, that I have decided that
politeness is not the most important thing in the world.

To those of you who would still attack me, please take your own lessons
in politeness and debate my ideas, don't libel my person.

(And please make up your minds.  Are the jokes bad because they are racist,
because they are rude, or because you don't think they're funny?)
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd.  --  Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473