re: #258 Charles Johnson

Are you aware that Stephen Colbert didn’t post that tweet?

To me it doesn’t much matter. Sure, by itself, divorced from all context the Tweet was offensive, like most satire is. People have a right to get offended, to not find it funny, but the entire #CancelColbert trend is built on not caring what the context and intent was. And that’s a problem, intent always matters, it may not excuse everything, obviously, but goddamn if knowing it isn’t important.

Crucial actually, you can’t fight racism with reductivism. Strict attention to terms instead of meaning actually undermines communication, tolerance, and multi-culturalism. Humorlessness is excusable, deliberate ignorance isn’t.