Yes certain people will always be offended by comedy, but I think a lot of what has been said and done by Mike (after the comic, especially the transphobic stuff) has not been for the sake of comedy. Comedians are aware that their jokes will probably offend people, but they don't tell the jokes specifically to offend people. It's pretty clear Mike wants to offend people, which (as far as I'm concerned) isn't comedy.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Penny Arcade reopens the "dickwolves" controversy
- Thread starter darkpower
- Start date
- Status
Yes certain people will always be offended by comedy, but I think a lot of what has been said and done by Mike (after the comic, especially the transphobic stuff) has not been for the sake of comedy. Comedians are aware that their jokes will probably offend people, but they don't tell the jokes specifically to offend people. It's pretty clear Mike wants to offend people, which (as far as I'm concerned) isn't comedy.
lazorexplosion
Member
Again, you seem to be someone who is conceding that being offended by dickwolves is not actually justified. Which would mean the criticism they received was not justified. Which would mean being dismissive and ridiculing those critics is actually appropriate.
I guess PA should have known one does not dismiss and ridicule our Sensitive, Concerned, Politically Correct Betters, even if they are ridiculous.
KojiKnight
Member
I wasn't necessarily referring to this discussion, just freedom of speech in general which a lot of people don't seem to understand.
dollartaco
Member
It is thought policing though, and it's hard to take seriously because the objections are so trivial. There is no way to communicate with a person who believes that mentioning rape to /illustrate something horrible/ is wrong.
VGChampion
Member
I don't care what Gabe thinks and he's fine to have his opinions. What makes that PAX video cringeworthy is that horrible scream and then the applause in the audience after he says he regrets it. What the hell is wrong with those people? You take the initial comic out of the equation and throw away all the controversy around it. Just cheering for something like an owners regret is dumb.
This times 1000.
Every time I get into an argument with people over the whole pax dickwolves debacle , this is how I feel. Someone with an audience got offended and became vocal , Mike turned into a bullied 10 year old on the playground and yelled back, making things worse and it snowballed. To him it was about being bullied into censorship of his own ideas , to the offended parties it was about not realizing why it might be offensive. They were essentially screaming in opposing directions.
A thought experiment, had the line "raped to sleep by dickwolves" been changed to "fucked to sleep by dickwolves" there would never have been any controversy at all. It was the use of the word "rape" that triggered an emotional response with that initially offended woman, to her it recalled trauma she had suffered in the past. Sexual assault is indeed a real and terrible thing despite what some mens rights idiots think and she had every right to be disturbed. The problem here stemmed from the response by penny arcade much later. Things had escalated to the point of absurdity on both sides of the debate and penny arcade made a very poor decision making a dickwolves shirt. They could have simply apologized that someone disliked a joke they made and that perhaps they'd be more careful about how they went about executing a joke in the future. Mike in particular could have made headway in explaining that he did indeed understand what rape culture is by offering proof of some kind. He could have made a freindly t shirt that gave 50% of it's sales profits to womens shelters across north america as a peace gesture. There are many things that could have happened.
Instead he kept rallying his freedom of speech cry thinking this was still about the original strip in question. It was after a few months no longer about that, instead it was transformed into a certain gross subset of penny arcade fans who were also mens rights aficionados that basically didn't believe in rape or rape culture. Mike, in his ignorance of this , essentially made them an emblem of pro-rape culture shirts.
Thankfully his business partners caught on to this and decided it would be for the best if they didn't offer the shirt and banned it from being worn during pax east. Mike , still not being aware of the why , decided to go along with it , at least partially because of death threats being made towards him and his family on twitter and possibly elsewhere.
Throughout this whole mess , the issue was never about rape culture to Mike. It was always about "those idiots not getting the initial joke". He obviously still believes that the people who wanted the dickwolves shirt were supporting the original strip and it's joke rather then being anti-woman.
Having now watched the Q & A and seeing Mike and Robert talk about the current climate at penny arcade - not engaging in situations like this. I can see why that would be a policy. Mike tends to not understand why something he did is or was wrong or even be aware of what the actual issue is. It's simply better for him to keep his mouth shut. In every instance of PA controversy , someone pokes him like a beehive and then the swarm of stupidity is unleashed. Both sides get dumber looking eventually and no one wins outside of the 100's of editorials written about it and all their google ad sense paid for pageviews.
I'm personally sick of being politically correct and the current culture we live in this days of constantly having to worry about someone being offended by anything we say and do has long been passed the point of absurdity. On the flipside I'm just a 30 year old nerd in canada with no fame or fortune or most importantly - a following of nerds that look up to me.
Mike IS in a situation where his fanbase can be used based on his own opinions. Tens of thousands , possibly even hundreds of thousands of fans around the world now. So when he disregards a move they made in the past that even the naysayers agreed was the right one , it's going to make him, his brand and everyone that enjoys that brand look worse.
What will happen now ? who knows really. The people crying for his public lynching or pulling support from the PA sponsored trade shows don't realize that you can't simply get rid of Mike. PA is 50% him, 30% Jerry and 20% Robert. The business literally wouldn't exist without mikes art.
So the smart move would be to make a single posting about this on the PA main page, clarifying why he would ever want to go back on selling those shirts. Possibly even have a video where the 3 of them clarify that 1 issue for once and all. Make it clear they realize why people might hate them for it.
DeviantBoi
Member
Jim Sterling mentioned on Twitter that this would be his last PAX... something about people not feeling safe.
Not sure if it's because of this or some other controversy/
Not sure if it's because of this or some other controversy/
Aw man I wanted to be the person who mentioned that Dick Wolf was a guy in here.
iz the horrible humanz gathered in one place
Warm Machine
Member
The comic is such a non issue. The intent of the comic is basically that the person is suffering through the worst of all things and is and can be ignored to be saved from it simply due to a numerical requirement. If anything it highlights peoples apathy against any abuse.
Waylon Drums
Member
So people aren't allowed to voice their displeasure at a specific thing that was said/written because it threatens to censor the speaker/writer in the future. Sounds totally legit. Good work.
Anoregon
The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
"Feeling safe?" Really? What, is he worried dickwolves are a real thing and will be there?
I don't think Gabe has so much as sneezed without starting (or unnecessarily extending) a petty argument.
Dude badly needs to learn to let things die. This is regardless of your opinion on the 'dickwolves' controversy.
"Oh, some people are mad at me. Better stew in my own anger for a while then release some merchandise out of spite."
Dude badly needs to learn to let things die. This is regardless of your opinion on the 'dickwolves' controversy.
"Oh, some people are mad at me. Better stew in my own anger for a while then release some merchandise out of spite."
Vigilant Gambit
Member
This essentially mirrors my take on the whole thing. After the controversy, I stopped eagerly reading PA articles that showed up in my RSS feed. After the trans controversy, I went ahead and finally removed PA and PAR from my feeds.
CambriaRising
Member
This is probably more about the Transphobic remarks made recently, not necessarily about "dickwolves" and the attitude towards rape.
RockTurtle
Member
and people are allowed to defend themselves against what is perceived as "promotion of X culture".
i keep mentioning the Killer Instinct reveal during the microsoft conference as the tipping point where i found the whole rape issue being carried in the wrong direction!
I will agree that Gabe is an idiot who just doesn't understand the concept of subtlety or letting go.
But how much comedy is being laughed at by literally no one? As long as we live in a world where Family Guy has an audience, I can't believe that there is any.
Just because a joke is controversial doesn't mean that it didn't go down well with the audience. The audience is not a monolithic entity, so it is hard if not altogether impossible to offend them all.
In this particular instance, just as there are some people who got worked into a lather over the dickwolves joke, there are others who understood that it was a joke about MMOs (and not rape) and found it hilarious. In fact, many (perhaps even most) of the people jumping on the anti-dickwolves bandwagon were not even part of Penny Arcade's target audience and only found out about it through feminist blogs in the first place. I don't think it makes sense for PA to weigh the opinions of those people as heavily as they do the opinions of their actual fans.
yah im feeling this, especially the whole Mike lashing out thing which is really awful since his actions have so many viewers, and the screaming in opposite directions. Also didn't know about him getting death threats which really really really sucks, like this whole situation seems prtty ridiculous. Dude needs to learn how to back down, on some real god shit.
R
Retro_
Unconfirmed Member
I'm.....pretty impressed with how your twisted my words to reach this conclusion.
I, keyword, I, personally, as in my own personal perspective, is that I don't think the comic was making light of rape. (The use of it is a bit unnecessary and questionable, but it's still presented as a bad thing in the context of the comic)
but that does not mean that I don't think being offended at the comic isn't "justified". I'm just not offended by it from my perspective as an african american male. The same way I wouldn't expect a white female to be as offended by the use of the "nigger" as I would be.
That doesn't mean I don't respect their right to be offended and voice their opinion.
I mean isn't the idea of thinking that being offended is something that has to be logically justified to all people equally regardless of perspective, censorship and thought policing in another form? I mean basically you're dismissing their thoughts because you personally don't feel the same.
That's what I think Penny Arcade is doing and what people should be talking about, not debating the comic and the rights of each side to make the jokes/be offended at them.
Version 3.0
Member
Just to be clear - are you saying that Mike is NOT an asshole?
Speaking for myself, as a gentleman, if I say something that offends someone - even if they misunderstood me - I'm happy to say "sorry, I didn't mean to offend you" and then let it go, even if they won't.
And I don't think "insufficiently sensitive response" is remotely accurate. It looks more like he's gone out of his way to say "fuck you" to anyone who thinks he's in the wrong.
I'm not offended by the comic, by the way.
Hell, I can add me getting banned on NeoGAF for doing a rape joke (a prison sex rape joke against a child molester). People are rather sensitive about that sort of thing. Some people don't think it's funny in ANY context! PERIOD! Of course I think context is always important when dealing with these things, but the line is VERY thin on certain things.
I was listening to Howard Stern one day where they were talking about epithets that were just funny and what you had to make funny. Artie Lang was still a member of the show, and he was saying how "f*gg*t" could be naturally funny to use in a routine, but you had to make the "N" word funny (he actually said the full word on the show, by the way). Same thing here: you have to make certain things funny if it's a horrible thing to bring up as a joke. You have to find the right ways, and sometimes, it can be extremely tough, especially when you don't know what you're doing with delivery and timing.
People like Louis CK and George Carlin knew all about how to get you to laugh because they weren't trying to be douchebags about it or be insensitive. Plus, you know what you're getting with them, and you know what they're trying to do. Mike (and Gabe, for that matter), aren't billed as comedians, or have any training on how to be such. They came off as just utter douchebags that didn't give a shit if you were offended by their comic, and they were going to shove it down your throat of how MUCH they didn't give a shit what you thought. Comedians also know when to bail on a failing joke. Obviously, PA does not.
And then they want to somehow be so inconsistent and tell me they are suddenly being moral by singling out an attractive female cosplayer that knows more about gaming than they EVER will when they have males running around the exact same place with less clothing than she had on? PLEASE, spare me the melodrama!
mentallyinept
Banned
The part in bold is what you missed:
Claiming you don't like something is one thing, saying that thing should never be said is a whole different ballgame.
The appropriate cliche is:
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" -Evelyn Patrice Hall
*Edit* The quote is used often in the USA, your mileage may vary in other cultures */EDIT*
Schnozberry
Member
I think we're just coming at it from different angles. Someone very close to me was raped within the last two years. It was a terrifying experience for her. It was someone she knew, as it often is. I have a wife and a three year old daughter. When I'm out of town for work, the thought enters my mind that something terrible could happen to them. Sometimes I panic and pick up the phone to call them, just to make sure everything is ok. Personally, I'm not a victim of rape, and I could never pretend to know what it feels like, but I have seen what it can do to people mentally and physically and it's absolutely horrifying.
That being said, I'm not going to tell Mike he can't make a rape joke. I didn't even think the dickwolves thing was that bad, given how ridiculous the context was. I think the people criticizing the art were doing so for the wrong reasons. Mike's response to the criticism was childish and sad, and I don't think anybody who took sides in that internet crusade came out of it looking particularly good.
I don't play online much these days due to my family and job, so I'm not really aware of the rape culture problem to the extent that you seem to be, and I'm sorry if I came across poorly because that's my ignorance showing and not my intent. I'm not defending Mike's behavior either. I just think he should be free to express himself through his art, whether or not it offends people. He should also be prepared to take shit for it. That's the purpose of free speech and the marketplace of ideas.
radios shipping overview
Member
I always figured there was a reason Mike drew the comic and Jerry wrote it.
It's difficult for me to reconcile PA's philanthropic efforts, and ostensibly unifying, community-based events like PAX, with Mike's attitude. And I wasn't aware until now that they made dickwolves shirts - that's pretty surprising.
More and more, PA is a commercial entity, and the antics of its management are a commercial liability.
It's difficult for me to reconcile PA's philanthropic efforts, and ostensibly unifying, community-based events like PAX, with Mike's attitude. And I wasn't aware until now that they made dickwolves shirts - that's pretty surprising.
More and more, PA is a commercial entity, and the antics of its management are a commercial liability.
There's no subject that should be off limits to comedians, but, these guys are fucking dickheads with the way they react to any of these controversies.
I hope Jerry Holkin's daughter never has to deal with this issue.
If people don't understand the difference between this and murder, there it is right there. There's a 1 in 6 chance that his daughter may be the victim attempted or completed sexual assault in her life, and as such it is essentially guaranteed that many people reading this thread have had to deal with this issue. No one in this thread has been murdered, and few have had to deal with their close friends (or sisters, or mothers, or girlfriends) being murdered.
It's a painful issue that a lot of people have to deal with, and jokes like these bring it back to the forefront of their minds. That doesn't mean they're not allowed to make jokes about it, but hopefully a) the joke is really worth it, and not just a lazy attempt at shock value and b) afterwards all they have to do is say a simple, "oh shit, sorry, we really didn't mean to hurt anyone" and leave the strip up and be done with it.
I hope Jerry Holkin's daughter never has to deal with this issue.
If people don't understand the difference between this and murder, there it is right there. There's a 1 in 6 chance that his daughter may be the victim attempted or completed sexual assault in her life, and as such it is essentially guaranteed that many people reading this thread have had to deal with this issue. No one in this thread has been murdered, and few have had to deal with their close friends (or sisters, or mothers, or girlfriends) being murdered.
It's a painful issue that a lot of people have to deal with, and jokes like these bring it back to the forefront of their minds. That doesn't mean they're not allowed to make jokes about it, but hopefully a) the joke is really worth it, and not just a lazy attempt at shock value and b) afterwards all they have to do is say a simple, "oh shit, sorry, we really didn't mean to hurt anyone" and leave the strip up and be done with it.
Exactly this.
"I'm sorry, offending people wasn't my intent, but I refuse to change my comic"
That's all it would've taken. Would people have been angry for a little while? Yes, but the controversy would've been over, and Mike's stance on the matter would've been obvious.
Releasing "team dickwolves" shirts is just unnecessary and childish. It's like he goes out of his way to bully and insult people whenever something doesn't go his way.
I have extremely mixed feelings on this. I think the original comic was funny, but I think the idea of Dickwolves in isolation is not. I think people who were offended by the comic were looking for reasons to be offended.
However, I think the PA response to the controversy was handled nearly as badly as it could have been. I took Robert's response on stage as saying that pulling the merch was just throwing gasoline on the fire.
As for this latest flare up, I think that social crusaders have now zeroed in on PA and are ready to pounce and denounce them for anything. I think the crusaders don't like a lot of the PA audience, who admittedly are probably generally white male teens/early 20-somethings with a tendency to say offensive things, and attacking PA allows people to chastise the larger group.
At the same time Mike should realize that he needs to just shut the fuck up about this and the transgender stuff, because he's not tactful. The irony is that if you watched the entire panel Mike acknowledges that the most likely source of future conflict for PA is him saying something stupid.
So basically I think both sides come off looking terrible. But I'm still happily going to go to PAX East next year, because this is all really, really stupid.
However, I think the PA response to the controversy was handled nearly as badly as it could have been. I took Robert's response on stage as saying that pulling the merch was just throwing gasoline on the fire.
As for this latest flare up, I think that social crusaders have now zeroed in on PA and are ready to pounce and denounce them for anything. I think the crusaders don't like a lot of the PA audience, who admittedly are probably generally white male teens/early 20-somethings with a tendency to say offensive things, and attacking PA allows people to chastise the larger group.
At the same time Mike should realize that he needs to just shut the fuck up about this and the transgender stuff, because he's not tactful. The irony is that if you watched the entire panel Mike acknowledges that the most likely source of future conflict for PA is him saying something stupid.
So basically I think both sides come off looking terrible. But I'm still happily going to go to PAX East next year, because this is all really, really stupid.
Well, I might want to alienate part of my audience. That's something I as an artist get to decide. Lenny Bruce knew he'd alienate certain people when he stood on stage saying "nigger" over and over again. Andres Serrano knew he'd piss off an enormous number of people when he painted "Piss Christ." Robert Maplethorpe knew some folks were going to have a problem with his beautiful pictures of a bullwhip inserted in a guy's ass.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with creating works that upset people. It's one of the functions of art, even comic art. If Mike (or Jerry) had a problem alienating people who were upset about Dickwolves, they wouldn't have reacted as they did. In short, they didn't much care that people got offended, because they disagreed with the opinions of those people over the offensiveness of the strip. Mike's general reaction to people not liking some aspect of the strip is "Fine, don't fucking read it, then" not "Gee, I'm sorry." This has been true since the inception of PA.
Well, this is just not true at all. There have been plenty of comedians who have offended simply to offend. It's funny to some people when other people get offended over what they perceive as non-offensive, and shock comics have traditionally played with that, making their work intentionally offensive, because the humor can also come from the ridiculousness of the offense.
As for Mike wanting to offend people, generally speaking his reactions have less to do with being mean and more to do with having the psyche of a twelve-year old bullied child. When he feels attacked, he over-responds. This is known. He generally comes down a few weeks later and feels bad about it...so long as the attacks stop. Keep attacking him, and he keeps swinging. Certainly a non-optimal way to live ones life, but I think it's less about wanting to hurt people than it is about not wanting to be hurt by other people.
This is a pretty common line of argument, but I've never really understood it. We shouldn't be as considerate of the feelings of people who have had loved ones murdered as we are of the feelings of rape victims and their loved ones because there aren't as many of them?
plagiarize
Banned
No topic should be off limits to comedy, but that doesn't mean that we completely ignore the manner in which said thing is used and give everyone a free pass to be assholes. I'd stand by PA's original comic, because the only thing people are taking offense at is that it's a joke about rape.
If no offense was intended and your joke was misunderstood, you shrug and carry on. If you start selling T-shirts with it on out of spite... then you're a dick.
Chris Morris level satire of a difficult issue this was not. Awful tasteless jokes should be discouraged... but nothing should be off topic for comedy.
If no offense was intended and your joke was misunderstood, you shrug and carry on. If you start selling T-shirts with it on out of spite... then you're a dick.
Chris Morris level satire of a difficult issue this was not. Awful tasteless jokes should be discouraged... but nothing should be off topic for comedy.
Waylon Drums
Member
Of course people can defend themselves if they feel that they've done nothing wrong. The problem, however, is when that defense amounts to "your criticism is invalid because of free speech and no censorship the end."
I actually laughed out loud to this comic, which is becoming more and more of a rarity for me with PA. The resulting controversy was a surprise to me but it would have definitely blown over if they just ignored the backlash, because to start it was pretty minor.
I like the comic for the line and for the point it was making about writing/quest reqs.
I like the comic for the line and for the point it was making about writing/quest reqs.
plagiarize
Banned
Right. 'It's just a joke' should not be used as a firewall to deflect criticism of hateful, ignorant, stupid speech. To put it kindly, it's an insubstantial defense.
Freedom of speech only works if we can criticize the shit out of people for saying horrible hateful stuff.
And, the original comic is not horrible hateful stuff... but PA's reaction to criticism is really really poorly handled.
Ah jeez...
Call me an asshole, but I don't care about the comic itself or the controversy it initially brought up. It's their comic, their site, they're entitled to put whatever they feel like on it. If you're offended, don't pay them any mind and stop interacting with them. Seems awfully simple.
That being said, the controversy as far as Mike's continued comments on this and other things is the core issue to me. When someone first brought it up, a bit of tact could have gone a long way, but that clearly isn't his deal. I can understand him being offended if people rally against something you made, but shit, it's the internet so it goes both ways. No need to put your foot in your mouth so often though, not sure why he continues to do so.
Call me an asshole, but I don't care about the comic itself or the controversy it initially brought up. It's their comic, their site, they're entitled to put whatever they feel like on it. If you're offended, don't pay them any mind and stop interacting with them. Seems awfully simple.
That being said, the controversy as far as Mike's continued comments on this and other things is the core issue to me. When someone first brought it up, a bit of tact could have gone a long way, but that clearly isn't his deal. I can understand him being offended if people rally against something you made, but shit, it's the internet so it goes both ways. No need to put your foot in your mouth so often though, not sure why he continues to do so.
Mr.Monitor
Member
Honestly, what they're saying sounds logical. Don't engage with people who complain about them in petty arguments. That'll keep them from acting like children and getting into more trouble. They keep doing what they do, those who like it like it, those that don't, don't. Sounds like what they should've done in the first place. Even though I think PA kinda sucks and shouldn't be acting like children either way, they don't have any obligation to get in discussions with these people, and should probably avoid it if it's just going to get them in trouble anyways.
mentallyinept
Banned
In my opinion, if your criticism involves advocating never saying something, or that something is inappropriate in any/all situations, then saying "your criticism is invalid because of free speech and no censorship the end" is all that needs to be said.
RockTurtle
Member
no one is saying that the complainers don't have a valid reason. a joke that involves rape is a trigger for some. some people find it offensive. to deny this is absolute bigotry.
then you have people in this very thread "you laughed at a joke that had some off the kilter comment about rape: thus you are an insensitive dickwad".
you are putting a label on someone. you are insinuating your view is correct above all because your thoughts are not in MY moral point of view.
acceptance and tolerance are NOT a one way street.
i.e.
blitzcloud
Banned
Im picturing you as the one winged angel sephiroth as you say this.
Moral of the story: No matter what you do, someone somewhere will have enough free time to spin it and demonize you. Unless you do sterile stuff.
Using a Macintosh and looking hipster? STEREOTYPES! Let's make a 10 thousand word article and tumblr/reddit it for hits!
And for god's sake, if people attack you from all sides, it's hard to be polite. Like some comes out of the blue and asks you about how you feel for promoting rape culture. Dafuq.
PS: They do have a poor way of receiving criticism, and I don't even like them. But some of the controversy is completely unwarranted. While other things, such as the kickstarter they made, barely raise any (outside of GAF) despite being an exercise of hypocrisy.
Spring-Loaded
Member
They should've used "fucked to sleep."
i agree with your position generally, and i think the comic itself was never that big of an issue. it was a bad joke, and people can certainly be offended by the rape reference (especially since it was completely unnecessary as it wasn't the crux of the comic but was thrown in anyway) but they can throw shit up against the wall and see what sticks.
the problem is that when it didn't stick for some people gabe reacted horribly and has since outed himself as enormously insensitive and a person who will go out of his way to rub deliberately offensive shit in everyone's face.
in other words, it's one thing for a stand up comic to make a tasteless joke that falls flat, it's another thing for him to get a bad reaction and spend the next few weeks bellowing further rape jokes outside the houses of people who criticized him.
If they don't have the obligation, why the hell did they open their mouths about it to begin with? If they really don't want the controversy, then why go out of their way to be dicks about it?
Sounds to me like you're making an apology and/or an excuse for their behavior! They could've just said "hey, you misunderstood it, you should read it next time, we didn't mean any ill will by it" then shut up about it and moved on with life without bringing it back up. But they went out of their way to do that shit, and they're basking in the infamy.
Open Source
Banned
Where should the line be drawn when it comes to comedy?
Where I say.
Where I say.
Waylon Drums
Member
Steve Youngblood
Member
I think the issue here is that there was a time when this would have been controversial, but that time has come and gone. People may not remember -- and there was no internet comparable to what's out there today -- but there was a time when games like Mortal Kombat and Doom were controversial entities. And to that end, I do think that there are people still out there concerned with potential effects of violence, or at least about desensitization to violence.
Mind you, it may not create the controversy of something like a rape joke, but I think it's (perhaps unfortunately depending on your own mindset) understandable just given that the usage of violence in both narrative and mechanics permeates the medium. Whether it's a fight worth having or not, you'd look like someone stepping out of time machine from the early 90s to come out now and rally against how abhorrent violent content is, because people have just stopped caring about that save for a mass shooting wherein it's noted that the assailant was a video game player.
Given that, I don't think it's hypocritical when people react more to something potentially offensive that isn't commonplace. Regardless of the merit of the conversation, there's also going to be a certain novelty in regards to the conversation that I think will result in the rhetoric being amplified just a tad. None of this is an indicator that you can't be uneasy about a rape joke if you are not also up in arms about any and all violence.
Waylon Drums
Member
It should be drawn just BEFORE I become offended. Obvi.
Im picturing you as the one winged angel sephiroth as you say this.
Moral of the story: No matter what you do, someone somewhere will have enough free time to spin it and demonize you. Unless you do sterile stuff.
Using a Macintosh and looking hipster? STEREOTYPES! Let's make a 10 thousand word article and tumblr/reddit it for hits!
And for god's sake, if people attack you from all sides, it's hard to be polite. Like some comes out of the blue and asks you about how you feel for promoting rape culture. Dafuq.
Anyone else have the feeling the whole "complaining about the comic" thing the PA defenders are doing is not because they misunderstand what the problem is (because I think they actually do know what the argument really is), but because they can't meaningfully defend PA's douchebaggery over the controversy of said comic strip episode, and this is them trying to redirect the point of the argument? Anyone else see this happening?
- Status