Thanks for the post Perma.

Seeing the images of this fire is really jarring.
Its like some apocalyptic scene from a movie or horror game.

You guys that brave this, to keep people safe, do a amazing thing.

I didn't say anything about this being taken seriously. 

For a lot of people it doesn't matter. If a coworker makes a threat towards you, it doesn't matter if it was intended to be a joke or not. For a lot of people, that's just not something to joke about. 

The whole "he's just joking" argument is just garbage. You can throw it at literally anything. You can argue literally anything is a joke until something actually materializes. That lonely guy at school was just kidding about shooting up the school. You can dismiss anything bad.

Personally I would happily give someone more leniency if they were deserving of that. If my best friend who would never hurt a fly made a terrible joke, I can understand it was intended as a joke. Trump has lost any kind of leniency he would have had. You can't keep dismissing the things that he's said, while he's literally doing a lot of these things. 

In a lot of cases, one person's joke is someone else's reality. There are evil politicians out there. Just like I am not going to give leniency to a bully who makes more threats, I am not giving politicians that level of trust. Even if they have no intent on acting out those deeds, someone else very well might think it's an idea. 

Frankly, I'm exhausted at people treating politics like a joke. These things affect people's livelihoods, and their actual lives.

I don't view Elon Musk as a potential violent threat, the way I view Donald Trump. But I still want him to shut up; this rhetoric is still hurting people. 

The "It was just a joke" line is the shield of the cowards who aren't brave enough to sustain their statement. That in fact is something that can be said in the "should comedy have boundaries?" thread

Can i make fun about any of the following?  

-Squatting slavs in track suits

-Furries

-Donald Trump  

-Doomsday survivalists

I know which point you are trying to make, and that's not what I was talking about

 I really don't have a point.  

Well, scratch that.  perhaps my only point is that i'm a bit of a rebel and enjoy making jokes.  I realize that it can be hurtful to do this though, so i try not to be mean about that.  Hopefully though, beneath my humor, is a broader message and can at least show how parts of our world can be really weird but we just take these things for granted without realizing that.  

If you want to be mean to Furries, Donald Trump or whatever thing you said and make fun of them, do it. Just be brave enough to assume that you were intentionally being mean when making fun of them, when confronted about it. Don't be mean and escape from the consequences of it saying "I was just joking". That's what I meant

Is the fire in LA crazy situation or something?

So.....

Mayer she cut budgets for the fire department by over $17m.

Several of your claims are just culture war nonsense, and I won't tolerate your claims in this thread, particularly without a single actual source backing them up. 

And I cant find any evidence for several other claims. 

On this note in particular, I want to add some context. 

The budget for their fire department is $820 million after the cuts. If you want to argue that a 2% change made a drastic difference, whatever. But that context is necessary to understand what that $17 million means.