Thought For the Day

[chunkygull]

Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.

Abraham Lincoln

[chunkygull]

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?

Groucho Marx

[Gullscorer]

Nope, won't have this. We're down to such diminishing returns and such slim margins of chance that, despite my comment meaning just about as little to me as is possible, the trade off between the effect on my wellbeing from not making the joke and the realistic chances of the effect it would have on anyone else actually works out in favour of my making the comment.

If I must stop and think before posting this, I must stop and think before I post anything and if I stop to think about everything I post, I have to stop and think about everything I say and if I have to stop and think about everything I say, I have to stop and think about everything I do. That simply renders life not worth living. If someone is offended by something I do or say, that's their choice and their character flaw, not mine. I can't live my life according to the sensibilities of everyone else, because someone is offended by everything. Have a look at some of the arseholes who write in to Points Of View, offended because a woman on Blue Peter wore a white blouse, indicating, obviously, that she hates all things black.
If someone takes meaningful action based on something some random loser on the Internet has posted in jest, then we must wonder whether they might have done humanity a favour by removing themselves from the gene pool.

The law allows for this, we have rules of reasonable fortitude and that is what I'm really invoking here.

Matt.

Sorry Matt, but you're wrong. Your argument is like comparing the effects on a robber's wellbeing from not robbing a bank with the effects of the robbery on the bank. It's a nonsense. Practically all that everybody says and does is preceded by their thoughts about what they say and do, even if those thoughts are only fleeting ones, so your stop-and-think argument won't wash either. It's not about living your life according to the sensibilities of everyone who might be offended by anything you do or say. It's simply about having the common courtesy and consideration and compassion and decency and humanity not to mock those who are suffering from life's more serious and potentially fatal afflictions. Your jocular remark in the Happiness and Suicide thread was not addressed to the world at large. It was directed specifically and derisively at those who are depressed and suicidal. I cannot believe that you are so intellectually challenged that you cannot see the difference.

[ferrarilover]

That's not true either. My remark was for the amusement of the public at large. The thread is just as open to those who are not depressed as those who are and, in fact, it is likely to be read my many thousands of times as many normal people as it is depressed ones. What you are suggesting is that I should deprive those thousands of normal people the benefit of my humour (the actual level of benefit is irrelevant) for the sake of protecting the one potentially suicidal chap who happens to stumble in and kill himself because of it. That person would have to be of such weak constitution (whether that be through mental illness or not is also immaterial) that in order to avoid offending him and those of similarly unreasonably insubstantial fortitude, I would have to remain mute for the rest of my days. Until we start walking around with signs above our heads declaring the specifics of any subject matter we consider to be distasteful, then the best way forward is for those who wish to comment to comment and those who wish to be outraged or afflicted to continue writing in to the Jeremy Vine show and Points of View. Any other solution is unreasonably restrictive upon those of us who enjoy a gag or two.

If I can't poke fun at the expense of the depressed, can I poke fun at gingers? People in wheelchairs? Black people? Short people? Tall people? Fat people? Where is the line and,more importantly, how do I know who is fair game. Depression is invisible, so I'm forced to temper my humour in all circumstances, for fear that a depressed person may be in earshot. This applies also to any other category of people I may wish to target. It will come to the point where, to make a joke or pass comment on any subject, one must first undertake a ritual akin to the one seen in the cafe in 'Allo 'Allo. The characters must all look around them before speaking in a conspiratorial tone. That, I'm afraid, is not something to which I am willing to be party and those offended by my statements are faced with the choice of either ignoring me, or growing a pair and taking it in the spirit in which it is so obviously meant.

Deliberate and malicious posting is hateful sentiments is one thing, but a throw away gag is something entirely else.

Matt.

[Gullscorer]

Matt you’re still completely missing the point. Your remark was intended for the amusement of the public at large? Obviously it was not intended for the amusement of the depressed and suicidal (“Or just hang yourself, you f**k ing losers...”)! It may have been an attempt at humour, but how many people actually thought it funny? I venture to suggest very few.

Poking fun? The spirit in which it is so ‘obviously’ meant? I put it to you that, far from being an enjoyable throwaway gag, most people would say it really comes across as a malicious and hateful posting, a deliberately callous, sadistic targeting of those who are mentally and emotionally suffering a serious condition which is truly deserving of sympathy and compassion rather than cruel and inanely juvenile mockery.

To a great extent, who actually reads the remark and the effects of it upon the depressed and suicidal are irrelevant. This is really about where one draws the line. Most people make judgements about this, taking a number of different factors into account, every time they make a joke or pass a comment. Specifically, it’s about where you draw the line. Are you seriously saying that anyone depressed or suicidal is no more likely to read a thread entitled ‘Happiness and Suicide’ than they are to look at other posts? As you yourself inferred, your remark was indeed targeted. But you are unable or unwilling to make a judgement as to where the line is? If a poll were to be taken, I suggest the overwhelming result would be that you have gone way beyond and below that line.

If this is your level of humour, if this is the degree of contempt in which you hold fellow human beings who are less fortunate than yourself, then I pity you. But I prefer to think that you are not so heartless, that your ego is not such that you cannot acknowledge your thoughtless error and move on..

[Gullscorer]

In affairs of the heart, even the greatest hero can be a consummate idiot.

(Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)

[Gullscorer]

Basically, to make wine, beer and cider, a sugary environment is required, to which yeast is added. The yeast eats the sugar and the 'waste' is carbon dioxide and alcohol. Yes folks, you’re drinking yeast excrement...

[Gullscorer]

When people fear the government, there is tyranny. When government fears the people, there is liberty.

(Thomas Paine)

[Gullscorer]

Smiling really is infectious,
You can catch it like the flu.
Someone smiled at me today,
And I started smiling too.

[Gullscorer]

The biggest example of sex discrimination in the world is the ridiculous notion that only one sex has ever been the victim of it.

[Gullscorer]

Enjoy the journey, for you may never reach your destination.

[chunkygull]

People can be more forgiving than you can imagine. But you have to forgive yourself. Let go of what's bitter and move on.

Bill Cosby

[chunkygull]

Parenting is an impossible job at any age.

Harrison Ford

[AustrianAndyGull]

Parenting is an impossible job at any age.

Harrison Ford

NO SH*T!!

[AustrianAndyGull]

People can be more forgiving than you can imagine. But you have to forgive yourself. Let go of what's bitter and move on.

Bill Cosby

100% agree although in practice it is so difficult.