Should comedians have boundaries?

[DarthMetalliCube]

the-pi-guy said:

shavenferret said:

I still disagree with the premise that runa and the pink dog had, that words hurt us so much that they should be illegal or at the very least are deplorable. I mean, how can you let the opinion of someone who means nothing to you affect you that much? You'll never meet any of these people, but yet their words tear you apart. I don't get it, I guess because I think that the real tragedies in life are much worse than some comic talking shit .
For example:
-getting a positive hiv test
-getting addicted to anything
- idd people( formerly called retarded) that live their lives in some house and can't make their own decisions, will never have any challenges and little hope for a wife or husband of their own
-homelessness
-poverty
-being crippled after an accident or incident
-dealing with mental illness
etc.


These are the real tragedies and that's why liberals can seem really shallow, it's like they just care about being politically correct, when there are more important things that we aren't taking care of in America.

Because you're missing the critical point that ideas people have, affect how other people get treated.

Most of the tragedies in your list were and are still to this day made worse by people having poor ideas.

HIV affected the wrong group, and society collectively decided not to do anything about it. 

People to this day are still struggling to get help with their mental health, because of poor ideas.

Homeless people/people in poverty get ostracized and blamed for their own misfortune.

If enough people think black people should be brought into slavery, that's not good (to put it lightly).

If enough people think that Jews should be exterminated, that's not good (to put it lightly).

Historically and to this day, billions of people have been mistreated or actively murdered because of ideas that other people put into their heads. 

How do those horrific ideas get propagated? Through propaganda, through news media, through comedians, through governments, through social media. All kinds of different avenues.

shavenferret said:

These are the real tragedies and that's why liberals can seem really shallow, it's like they just care about being politically correct, when there are more important things that we aren't taking care of in America.

It's why conservatives seem really shallow. Because they do not understand how ideas shape society. 

But here's the thing - if an idea is awful or holds no water, it will NEVER gain enough popularity to gain much traction or shape society in the first place. Or if the rare time it does, it will not last long and the pendulum will swing back to sanity and truth, overwhelming it. The truth always wins out in the end. Comedy that bases its humor off lies is never going to be funny on the same level of comedy that draws from truth (or at least a grain of truth). I never understood why people have so much fear of ideas that are false or without merit. If this is the case - if they ARE in fact so false and unpopular, why worry about them, or the effect they'll have? At the end of the day isn't this just another form of "Democracy"?

Again, at the end of the day, if you hate the stuff, just don't watch it. Let society and capitalism sort if all out. It's why I steer clear of people like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel. I may not like them and find them to be more unfunny propagandists than comedians, but I absolutely think they get to have a voice, even if that voice is reaching a dwindling number of people :P