ethics https://godammit.com And I'm getting madder. Mon, 20 Sep 2010 09:54:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 https://i0.wp.com/godammit.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-13-at-7.18.14-AM-1.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 ethics https://godammit.com 32 32 110361536 Meet Monique https://godammit.com/meet-monique/ https://godammit.com/meet-monique/#comments Fri, 17 Sep 2010 11:06:30 +0000 http://www.godammit.com/?p=5849 Continue reading ]]>

Remember an avid troll commenter called Monique, who returned again and again to let me know what a stupid and pathetic untalented jealous loser I am? Remember when   she passed on a message from her friend Gretchen that “my cunt is full of sand?”

Well, now it is my privilege to introduce the camera shy Monique R, pictured above sharing a toast with her friends Sea, Platinum-Hair Girl and a young man named Fred who favors wacky hats.

When she isn’t flaming bloggers who make fun of Sea, Monique likes to take photos and hang out at bars to watch guys dancing in their underwear.   She protects her tweets, perhaps because she knows that people could come along and join a malicious hatemail campaign against her, AT ANY MOMENT!

Look how happy Monique is, dining with her idol, rubbing elbows with the social gentry, perhaps comparing funny hats with that guy Fred.   What made Monique go all rabid and ballistic when I teased Sea? Why was Monique so relentless and below the belt?

People are so fucking weird. They are truly unfathomable. I am learning this every day. Some of them need to be kept safely at a distance. Some will come at you only when they smell blood. The new Gentler Sister Wolf does not advocate any nasty comments designed to upset Monique. Instead, maybe we can help her explore her fanatical fealty to Sea, or her delusion that she “knows” me from looking back through the archives here.

I know you are an aspirational type, Monique. Screeching online about a strangers vag is not the way to social success, unless Dallas is much weirder than I imagined.

But I forgive you. You’re just out of your element.

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The Sarah Silverman Problem https://godammit.com/the-sarah-silverman-problem/ https://godammit.com/the-sarah-silverman-problem/#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 05:23:41 +0000 http://www.godammit.com/?p=4955 Continue reading ]]>

Few things are more compelling to me than a heated debate over What Constitutes Art.   A recent controversy surrounding Sarah Silverman also offers a quandary about ethics.

Ms. Silverman was invited to speak at the prestigious TED conference this year. Her “presentation” was so offensive to the man who curates the event (Chris Anderson) that he tweeted an apology for her “godawful” material and has since elected not to post her presentation online. Co-founder of AOL Steve Chase also tweeted that Silverman was an inappropriate choice for TED. Silverman came back with some tweeted insults of her own.

At issue, apparently, is Ms. Silverman’s repeated use of the word “retarded.” However, according to reports, she also sang a song about penises.

If only we could see a video of the actual performance! But since we can’t, we are left with some hypothetical questions.

First, I must admit that I fucking hate Sarah Silverman. Hate as in HATE. I don’t think it’s because she’s shocking. I think it’s her delivery, along with her face and mannerisms. I have laughed my head off to Larry David‘s comedic take on incest, racism, and the Holocaust. He has made fun of every disability I can think of, and I laughed because he’s so funny. Therefore, I can’t pretend that some subjects are sacrosanct.

Should Chris Anderson apologize to Ms. Silverman for publicly denouncing her performance? Should he post it online even if he finds it offensive? Does TED have an obligation to post it if it posts other speakers who appeared at the conference?

Should Ms. Silverman take into consideration the type of audience she is addressing, i.e. people who are gathered to hear about ideas? Or should she be applauded for daring to shock them? Is something Art because it is shocking? Is it always laudable to challenge taboos? If not, why not?

You can go here to watch Ms Silverman defend herself to Bill Maher.

I don’t know why anyone wants to hear Ms. Silverman say penis, vagina, and asshole with the smugness of a six year old who has just learned the power of swearing. If you think she’s a comic genius, you are certainly in good company. To my ears, she is nails on a chalkboard.

Here’s another question I just thought of: Would Silverman be funny if she couldn’t rely on “bad” words for effect?

Jump right in!

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