"It's just a joke, bro!" is the new way to say horrible things.
I wrote about the Culture of Belligerence more than once. Basically, it is a whole subculture that has evolved and gone mainstream over the years, where everyone tries to be a tough guy and a general pain-in-the-ass to everyone else. It isn't just one thing you can put your finger on, but a host of smaller things that have come together. And yea, assholes have been with us since the dawn of time. But lately, well, it has amped up considerably.
It isn't just the loud mufflers on jacked-up pickups or tricked-out "hogs." It isn't just the aggressive driving and resulting road rage. It isn't just the tattoos and piercings designed to shock and intimidate - along with a wardrobe meant to make one look like a gang member. It is all these things but much more.
Actual violence is on the rise - not in actual crime statistics, but in the media. When I was a kid, we had professional wrestling and roller derby and we all knew they were fake as hell. Even then, though, only lower-class belligerent people followed these "sports." Today we have "unlimited" fighting where blood on the floor is the norm, not the exception. Even if fake, it panders to the blood lust of the audience.
Not to mention an entire generation has been imprinted on first-person-shooter games. Back in the 1960s we wrung our hands because the average 10-year-old had witnessed hundreds of (acted) murders on television. Today's youth have committed far more, virtually, via online games. But of course, there's no harm in that, right?
And thanks to smart phones and the Internet, we can all watch some angry Kevin or Karen beat the crap out of a fast-food worker (or vice-versa) because they got the wrong dippin' sauce. Taking offense over trivial matters is now seen as justified.
Right-wing humor (an oxymoron if there ever was one) has taken off, with "Clapter" replacing laughter as "comedians" give audiences licenses to indulge in their darkest fantasies. You hate minorities? That's OK now, for some reason, and seen as a rational political position, even held by some minorities themselves.
Yes, there has always been racist, antisemitic, and misogynist humor, usually told by junior high school students (in chronological age or mental status) which were a lame attempt at being edgy. I recall one such boorish person telling Hitler jokes and they all fell flat. Ditto for jokes about Jews, women, or even Polish people. Something about screen doors in submarines. These "jokes" - if you could call them that - were just regurgitations of racial stereotypes and not actual humor. No clever punchline or anything that makes you laugh out loud. They are a way of saying, "we are us, and they are them" - further separating people apart from one another.
This is not to say you can't do this kind of humor at all, only that if done properly, it is funny and no one is offended. The clever comedian dances close to the line, puts one foot over the edge and then quickly steps back before the audience notices. Such humor is kind and gentle, not harsh and abrasive.
For example, Jerry Seinfeld made a lucrative career out of humor that, for the most part, didn't attack other people. Seinfeld did his share of gay jokes, but in such a manner that everyone laughed, for the most part. "Not that there's anything wrong with that!" poked fun at gay stereotypes, not gay people, as well as gently prodding the burgeoning art of political correctness.
Perhaps less nuanced were the bits with Cedric and Bob, two gay characters who were bullies. Again, these skits were poking fun at political correctness and flipping the script on gay stereotypes by making the gay characters aggressive instead of passive. Not as funny as the other bits and perhaps a little hostile.
But nothing compared to conventional "gay" jokes, usually told by someone desperately trying to remain in the closet. Those "jokes" amount to little more than repetition of stereotypes, usually having the joke-teller mimic "gay" postures, such as limp-wrists and lispy speech.
Similarly, right-wing "humor" about Jews amounts to little more than mimicking Yiddish accents or making fun of stereotype appearances or actions. Oy! Ditto for blacks, where the "humor" amounts to characterizing blacks as dangerous criminals, or minstrel show clowns. With women, it is just objectifying them as sex objects, bad drivers, or blond-headed airheads. The list goes on - the common denominator is lack of laughter, other than a nervous guffaw or two.
The point of such "humor" is twofold, first to separate the "them" from "us" and make it clear that "we" are not "them" and of course, are so much better than them. The second part is to normalize hatred of "them" and give the audience permission to indulge in that hatred.
I've read stories online from people who are confused as to why a family member or loved one went off the deep end and embraced MAGA and Q-anon and other fringe beliefs, along with the usual racism and hatred that goes along with it. Did they change or were they always like this and now it's "mask off?" The consensus seems to be that they were always like this and the MAGA movement gives them "permission" to indulge in their darker side. In an era where "political correctness" tells people they are horrible for telling racist jokes, MAGA tells them they are just swell.
I mentioned this before - how PC will backfire. When you tell people they are worthless pieces of shit, they will turn away - and turn toward the first person who tells them they are "beautiful" - which Trump does. And that's all they hear - not his confused and contradictory policy initiatives or Project 2025. They are being "love-bombed" as they call it in cults - and it is a cult. Meanwhile, the opposing party tells them they are "deplorables." Gee, I wonder why they don't vote for that?
But that is water over the dam at this point. The culture of belligerence has won, or is at least normalized now. And it has progressed to the point where people are calling for - and promising- political violence. In fact, it has already started, mostly by Republicans (yes, even the attempted assassins of DJT!). Some guy in Arizona shoots up the Democratic party offices. People set fire to ballot boxes. Intimidating early voters in line. It's just the prelude.
I noted before that every few decades, it seems humanity goes into self-destruct mode and everyone just joins a killing orgy. We're kind of overdue - we've labored under this apparent illusion that we are modern and scientific and beyond all of that. Meanwhile, the forces of darkness work hard to discredit science and foment dissent. The world is flat! Vaccines are evil! Hate Kill your neighbor!
The election will not be over on November 5th. "JD" Vance has said he will accept the results of the election, provided that there is no fraud involved. Of course, MAGA Republicans don't need "evidence" or "facts" to claim fraud, so his reassurance rings hollow. It's gonna be a shitty Christmas for sure. Only this time, they have learned from their mistakes of January 6th.
"Don't be so negative, Bob!" some folks say. They want to bury their heads in the sand and hope it all goes away somehow and everything will be fine. But the far-right has promised a riot, promised dictatorship, promised revenge. Maybe it will work out all right in the end, but not before a lot of people get hurt.
Will we ever go back to the era of niceness? Where racists and bigots were at least ashamed of those instincts? I think not, because it is human nature in all of us to distrust the "them" and try to separate ourselves from the other. And we all do it, to some extent, too. The person who claims to never have had a racist or bigoted thought ever, is a damn liar.
So, if we are to make this work, it can't be by shaming people into silence and driving this sort of thing underground, but perhaps something else. Because PC and shaming have only lead to more of this lame right-wing "humor." Humor which violates the first law of comedy: be funny.
