Sad day for the forum

What's the world coming with the intolerance? A new "final solution".

The problem is because people want to be politicly correct...and this leads to intolerance - even towards harmless jokes.
If only we knew how to laugh at ourselves!!!!

the problem arises when posting jokes about peoples race, colour, creed sexuality etc what might be funny to one person may not be funny to others ...

i get people telling me gay jokes all the time that they think are hillarious now i can laugh at myself but sometimes its just not even funny yet when you try to tell people this they think its because you dont have a sense of humour or your being too pc ...

there was a joke posted on twitter last night about a certain south african court case and which was "gayer" the joke may have been amusing if not incredibly inaccurate and possibly biphobic but the point is what might be funny to one group of people isnt nesscarily funny to others ... and in my opinion a forum where the majority of people are expats etc its probably best not to make jokes that could be taken in the wrong way in an "open" thread ... however tearnet i dont think you set out to offend anyone and i certainly wouldnt object to recieveing such jokes by pm

Hi Terry,

I just came back home, but I'll personally review all this after dinner.

Just to let you know, the mod intervened after receiving reports (some people probably felt offended)

All the best,

Julien

Somehow I don't think it was an Englishman or Irishman that complained!

Hello tearnet,

You are not the first to have jokes (they thought innocent) moderated, not by a long shot. And you won't be the last either so don't get too upset about it.

You're operating on the assumption that your rights to the "freedom of speech" you may be used to from your homeland somehow apply on a public forum board that must comply with different laws all over the world in order to be able to continue operating in those countries. They don't, not for any of us...... Gosh even I've had postings moderated.

Topics and replies don't get moderated without there being complaints unless they're blatant violations of Terms & Conditions of Use. If somebody complained it is because they were offended. Perhaps you should ask yourself if you would be able to tell the same jokes in the workplace anywhere in the world. Use that as your barometer. If the joke could get you sacked or reprimanded at work, then it's not one that should be posted here either. Regarding it being permitted on other sites, that means absolutely nothing at all.

And yes, the British sense of humor is sometimes extremely difficult to fathom even for us in the "Colonies". I personally have never understood what you guys see as so funny in many things, others are roll on the floor and die over funny. That said, anything that ridicules anyone for nationality, race, color, religion, lifestyle, etc., is pretty much skating on thin ice anywhere in the world. Common sense is a great character trait to have.

Somebody here once told me that on forums you need to use the THINK rule as your guide:

T         Is it true?
H         Is it helpful?
I           Is it important?
N         Is it necessary?
K         Is it kind?

If you can't say YES to all of them, perhaps it's something that best not be posted. I couldn't agree more with that assessment.

Cheers,
James      Expat-blog Experts Team

BTW - I had no involvement at all in moderating your posting, just giving my considered opinion of the situation, for what it's worth.

coxf0001 wrote:

Somehow I don't think it was an Englishman or Irishman that complained!

It was a Scotsman in a pub.

I love jokes that kick PC right in the nuts (I have a nice Muslim paratrooper joke on youtube...and I'm a Muslim), but British humour can easily be taken badly, or used badly, so it doesn't really go well on a forum such as this.

I'm with robpw2 on this. What may be funny to one person may not be to another and may in fact be downright insulting.
These days we should be very careful. There's too much hate in this world and we should do our best not to feed it.
Jokes actually do not need to include references to race, gender, religion etc for them to be funny. For example instead of 'a blonde woman walks into a store' try 'a person walks into a store'. Why mention 'a blonde woman' if not to reinforce the wrong assumption that blonde women are stupid. Gay jokes are usually about their orientation and preferences somehow being contemptible or laughable, why should they be? Muslim jokes are usually to make fun of them, why? If not to promote the view that the joke teller is somehow superior to the subject?

redmik wrote:

For example instead of 'a blonde woman walks into a store' try 'a person walks into a store'.

You must be joking.....or blonde.
Blonde jokes don't work without a blonde; that's the whole point of the joke.

No, stuff PC and all the total rubbish that comes with it, but you have to pick your place to tell a joke.
This forum has many non native English speakers that don't have a full understanding of the subtle tones in English humour, nor might they always understand these things to be jokes, so this is a very bad place to post them.

In my humble opinion, all that PC rubbish causes far more problems that it'll ever solve, because it just makes people rebel against it, thus creating a larger problem.

PC rubbish is commonly used by the silly racist groups; a well known example being the loss of blackboards in schools, where they claim it be to a PC thing against racism.
Of course, we all know that's utter rubbish, and white boards are used because they work better and are easier to clean, but the racist types use the lie anyway.

No, to the devil with PC; it's crap.

mas fred wrote:

PC rubbish is commonly used by the silly racist groups; a well known example being the loss of blackboards in schools, where they claim it be to a PC thing against racism.

Actually it's the anti PC supporters who believe that rubbish and incorrectly use those fictitious and ridiculous examples  in their arguments. A bit like anti H&S (Health & Safety)people misuse, misquote or otherwise misinterpret H&S legislation. Some choose to misinterpret H&S Guidance etc. simply to avoid performing a task as it can be 'too much trouble' to them. I include Councils in that argument.

I agree that sometimes the term PC is incorrectly applied and not fully understood and incorrectly perpetuated by media in order to agitate certain groups of people. But one thing it does do, as exampled here, is to generate discussion and can raise awareness of other's disadvantage.

I agree with your comments......but you have to pick your place to tell a joke.
This forum has many non native English speakers that don't have a full understanding of the subtle tones in English humour, nor might they always understand these things to be jokes, so this is a very bad place to post them.

That's about consideration for others rather than what some would describe as PC.

chseychell wrote:

The problem is because people want to be politicly correct...and this leads to intolerance - even towards harmless jokes.
If only we knew how to laugh at ourselves!!!!

What may seem to be 'harmless' to some may in fact be insulting to another. Now, after reading your CV on your website I would have thought that you would understand that. Particularly given the range of professionals and other groups that you have worked with. Or are Social Studies taught differently here on Malta compared with UK, America and many other countries?

I agree with laughing at ourselves but not laughing at others' expense simply because they are not the same as us.

tearnet wrote:

It could not have been  racist because we all know that Muslim is not a race but a religion!  Terry

Muslim is not a religion, Islam is. A Muslim is a person who may live their life according to Islam and that person can be of any race; some Muslims do not follow Islam. There are distinct and subtle  differences between race, religion and ethnicity and ethnicity is self defined.

OK, I think this will be my last post on this subject.
Thanks to all who replied and the wide range and diverse thinking on the subject of jokes.

I will not post any more jokes, although the " nothing specific" thread is still available and contains a lot of my type of Jokes?

It still seems like censorship and intolerance (if you don't like those sort of jokes, don't read)  and they make me laugh at the joke not at the race, religion or culture.


" people who place security above freedom  deserve neither "


Terry

The quote, in its original form, before becoming mutated is:

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

I understand it was written in a letter by Benjamin Franklin to a Governor and was regarding provision of funding through unfair taxation to secure against attack from the French and Native Americans.

MAYBE THE TITLE OF THE THREAD COULD BE REWORDED TO INCLUDE  - IF EASILY OFFENDED DONT READ

We are so unhappy because we've lost our sense of humour. We fight because we are so unhappy. Funny is funny no matter what forum. Bigotry is not joked about, its practiced. Personally I like African jokes best. Lighten up people. Life is already hard enough without you looking for matters  to be offended by.

chseychell wrote:

The problem is because people want to be politicly correct...and this leads to intolerance - even towards harmless jokes.
If only we knew how to laugh at ourselves!!!!

The problem is however that somewhere along our journey throught the years, we are no longer laughing at OURSELVES. We are, in most cases, poking fun at and ridiculing OTHERS now, and what might "give me a giggle" will seriously offend someone else. Nowadays there aren't a lot of jokes floating around out there that are truly "harmless" anymore.

I still think my point was valid, if you can't get away with telling the joke in the workplace without it creating waves, then here on a public forum is no place for it either. What do jokes have to do with expat life and the expat experience in the first place?

The problem with "joke threads" is not new here, they've been posted to numerous forums and always digress into something offensive and ugly - ALWAYS. They've all been moderated at one point or another as a result. Why, because we don't seem to know where to draw the line when we start telling jokes.

redmik wrote:

......but you have to pick your place to tell a joke.
This forum has many non native English speakers that don't have a full understanding of the subtle tones in English humour, nor might they always understand these things to be jokes, so this is a very bad place to post them.

That's about consideration for others rather than what some would describe as PC.

Bravo redmik, very well said. I agree with you 100%

James wrote:

chseychell wrote:

The problem is because people want to be politicly correct...and this leads to intolerance - even towards harmless jokes.
If only we knew how to laugh at ourselves!!!!

The problem is however that somewhere along our journey throught the years, we are no longer laughing at OURSELVES. We are, in most cases, poking fun at and ridiculing OTHERS now, and what might "give me a giggle" will seriously offend someone else. Nowadays there aren't a lot of jokes floating around out there that are truly "harmless" anymore.

However, an 'Englishman, Irishman, whoeverman' is poking fun at ourselves and the whole point of the joke.

put the title:

Some Jokes... topic without PC rules

and problem solved

btw. today you can't say a joke about anyone that at least one group of people wont attack you, the only jokes that get trough are on... plain white people 

I'm also guilty of making bad jokes that have offended others so, after much prayer, and consideration....

there was an Englishman, Irishman and a Scotsman on a forum, but they ended up fighting over a silly joke.
Since we've already seen a little disagreement over the very idea of posting naughty jokes, it bodes very badly for the actual jokes.

mas fred wrote:

I'm also guilty of making bad jokes that have offended others so, after much prayer, and consideration....

there was an Englishman, Irishman and a Scotsman on a forum, but they ended up fighting over a silly joke.
Since we've already seen a little disagreement over the very idea of posting naughty jokes, it bodes very badly for the actual jokes.

AND THE AFRICAN DIED LAUGHING!!!!

I agree with admins and moderators vetting the posts. But they should be more considerate before deleting posts and advices users leave for other members. Yesterday I posted some information in another thread about Maltese language courses for foreigners.

Stupidly enough, one of the moderators deleted it, mistaking the information for a free advert.

Users post questions, hoping that other members offer solutions or advices. On the other hand, helpful members bend backwards to dig useful information and share it here. Admins and moderators should be intelligent enough to know difference between information and advertising.

Yesterday was another sad day for the forum.

Regards,
Charlo

To insinuate that a moderator is stupid openly on this forum, is beyond the pale. Even by my standards!!! This could and should have been dealt with by PM. Sad day indeed when you did this.

chseychell wrote:

Stupidly enough, one of the moderators deleted it, mistaking the information for a free advert.

Admins and moderators should be intelligent enough to know difference between information and advertising.

Yesterday was another sad day for the forum.

Regards,
Charlo

And there goes another sad day for the forum.
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