I don’t mean the comments left by the creator of the page: I
mean comments left by people upset by the page. Their comments, I think, are of
equal, and sometimes greater, controversy than the page itself. It seems the
mantra for the Facebook community of the ‘offended’ is as follows: “Mis-report and petition against pages we don’t
like to get them banned because freedom of speech is just something that none
of us have ever needed to fight for”.
Now, as a promulgator of reason you may be surprised by my
slag of the petitioners here, but let’s look deeper into what is happening.
First and foremost, the defence of the Facebook page:
The Facebook page, “[Controversial
Humour] Cancer is Funny Cause People Die” completely, so far as I can read a
Community Standards and Terms of Agreements page, adheres to Facebook’s standards.
The warning, which is not required of pages, but is often found on them,
[Controversial Humour] is a fairly decent giveaway that, if you’re easily
offended, you should probably stay out, and Facebook makes this quite easy by
providing, as a footnote on reporting abuse on its Community Standards page,
this statement:
“If you see something on Facebook
that you believe violates our terms, you should report it to us. Please keep in
mind that reporting a piece of content does not guarantee that it will be
removed from the site.
Because of the diversity of our community, it's possible that something could be disagreeable or disturbing to you without meeting the criteria for being removed or blocked. For this reason, we also offer personal controls over what you see, such as the ability to hide or quietly cut ties with people, Pages, or applications that offend you.”
Because of the diversity of our community, it's possible that something could be disagreeable or disturbing to you without meeting the criteria for being removed or blocked. For this reason, we also offer personal controls over what you see, such as the ability to hide or quietly cut ties with people, Pages, or applications that offend you.”
One would think that, given how clear the above statement
is, people would simply send their reports and block content from their viewing,
but apparently this is not enough. Regarding the cancer page there are, at
present, at least twenty five pages of an approximately accumulated 350, 000
petitioners (I’ve rounded up) devoted to banning it from Facebook completely. I
did a sampling of a number of these petitioners/commentators to see just how
well-founded and unwavering they were when it came to controversial humour and
their being offended by it. Well, imagine what I found…
The first commentator I stopped at was Mr. Johnson, who
says:
“Hey guys just so you know I'll be more than happy to join your cause
because hateful stuff like that page can't go on unsaid plus I lost my uncle to
cancer and that's an insult to me and my family. I was also on that page
earlier and let those guys how I really felt but my post was deleted anyway I'm
with you all the way to put an end to that degrading page.”
“…hateful stuff like that page can’t go on unsaid..” I
assume he means unchallenged or something to that effect, but I did some
research into Mr. Johnson’s interests (which for the record were completely
public). It turns out that Mr. Johnson is a fan of Ice Cube. Have you ever read
the lyrics to “The Nigga Ya Love to Hate”? Allow me to give you a sample:
“…I never tell you to get down
it's all about coming up, So what they do go and ban the AK?
My shit wasn't registered any fucking way, So you better duck away run and hide out
When I'm rolling real slow and the lights out, Cause I'm about to fuck up the program
Shooting out the window of a drop-top Brougham, When I'm shooting let's see who drop
The police the media and suckers that went pop…”
My shit wasn't registered any fucking way, So you better duck away run and hide out
When I'm rolling real slow and the lights out, Cause I'm about to fuck up the program
Shooting out the window of a drop-top Brougham, When I'm shooting let's see who drop
The police the media and suckers that went pop…”
I feel, personally, that drive-by shootings aren’t a source
for entertainment…but his interest in such terror doesn’t stop there: he also
happens to be a fan of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony whose lyrics for Me Killa go like
this:
“Me killa, mi killa/ Drug dealer,
scandalous nigga/ Lous nigga, -lous nigga
Come again me say, me killa, me killa, me killa/ Gravedigger, scandalous nigga
Lous nigga, -lous nigga, -lous nigga./ Caught ya slippin' so I had to put a slug up in your chest
Should've wore that vest/ Talkin' shit'll only get that ass put to rest
A nigga, come, come flex/ Hey, get the llello, don't fuck with the Bone
When I'm hangin' and bangin' and slangin'/ Swangin' blows to the dome
Nigga, watch that chrome/ Bodybag that ass on, home/ Me killa, me killa, me killa”
Come again me say, me killa, me killa, me killa/ Gravedigger, scandalous nigga
Lous nigga, -lous nigga, -lous nigga./ Caught ya slippin' so I had to put a slug up in your chest
Should've wore that vest/ Talkin' shit'll only get that ass put to rest
A nigga, come, come flex/ Hey, get the llello, don't fuck with the Bone
When I'm hangin' and bangin' and slangin'/ Swangin' blows to the dome
Nigga, watch that chrome/ Bodybag that ass on, home/ Me killa, me killa, me killa”
Apparently something as simple as “talkin’ shit” will get
you killed today. I worry now more than ever for the purveyors of controversial
humour.
In another sampling of commentators, I found Ms. Ellis, who
had this to say about the cancer page:
“Thanks Tegen ♥. I guess
people like this should be shot making pages like these! How Fucked up is it”
It doesn’t end there with Ms. Ellis either. Perusing her
interests, I found myself on www.cheerupemokid.net,
which is, in some ways, an amusing site, but given Ms. Ellis’ vehemence toward
the cancer page I would think that the Emo Kid comics on the site featuring:
·
Abuse
·
Assault
·
Chauvinism
·
Graphic Violence
·
Suicide
·
Murder
·
Adultery
·
Robbery
·
Racism
·
Bestiality
In a humourous light would not peak Ms. Ellis’ interest at
all.
There are hundreds of comments that follow very close to
these, by people who allow and indeed find entertainment in far more disturbing
subject matter.
I want to make clear that, while I don’t think cancer is
funny, apparently there at least ten thousand people on Facebook who do, and it
is not my business to tell them what is and isn’t funny to them or what they
can and cannot do, so long as they do not continually harass me about it or
attempt to, somehow, promote and spread cancer.
I don’t think that it is right, or moral to partake in
ritualistic cannibalism every Sunday, but at least one billion catholics think
it is. I’m not going to utter threats and suggest that they should all be shot
for wanting to indulge in the yummy body of Christ, but if they begin to
actually ritualistically eat people, then there will be a problem.
One can take offense to what someone says, but someone has
the right to say anything. It’s when they begin to act on the terrible thing
they speak about that they need to be dealt with. Finding humour in cancer,
while not a particularly nice thing to me, does no direct harm to anyone,
especially when the ability to block the page from your own Facebook account is
there. In fact, this cancer page does less harm than the catholics’ ritualistic
cannibalism because cancer humour isn’t said to be the one true humour and does
not try to convert people to its humour.
Like it or not, controversial humour has and will continue
to exist. But it is something that you can simply pay no attention to. That
being said, if you wish to continue the crusade (I use the term advisedly)
against controversial humour, I suggest you try these Facebook pages as well:
With over 230, 000 likes collectively (I neglect to round
up) I’m sure one of these pages deserves more vitriol than finding cancer funny…maybe
Slapping Bitches? Abuse of women is a constant lag on the progression of civilization
and time is being wasted on people who haven’t visibly, in at least the past
month, in anything other than the title of the page, made any crack about
cancer.
Let me end with a quotation from the “Slapping Bitches”
page. Maybe it will wake you up to the insignificance of the cancer humour.
Here is what Mr. Marquez wrote in jest about the abuse of women:
“if a bitch ever fucks you over
just remember it takes 42 muscles to frown but only 4 to pull back your hand
and SLAP THAT BITCH”
Does anyone think that perhaps priorities are in the wrong
place when it comes to upset over controversial humour?
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