The strong language is a cumulative result of other people who have made similar dismissive arguments in the past, so I can see why my response might seem disproportionate if you were just commenting off the cuff. I stand by it though. And your point about your politics is pretty relevant to this whole sordid thread: it’s not just the political right who thinks it’s acceptable (or even to be celebrated) that some people are subjected to rape, torture, or other grotesque violations of human dignity so long as they’re “Bad People”. It’s a true bipartisan issue, and it’s precisely the flaw in human thinking that enables people like Trump to label certain groups “Bad People” and then use the justification of “punishing the Bad People” to seize control and entrench their faction in power. Nobody ever thinks of themselves as “Bad People” so they are often on board, or at least indifferent, because 1) they are not Bad People themselves and 2) after hearing about it for so long, they’ve internalized that the Bad People probably deserve it.
One of the problems with downplaying or questioning “jokes” in this vein is that it pivots the conversation from “is it cool to ‘joke’ about someone being raped” to “was this person even really making a joke in the first place?”, which allows the joke itself a pass, which normalizes the idea behind the joke because the debate itself is stifled.
This is not a joke: I and a lot of my friends and family are in considerable danger right now as a result of years of “jokes” about trans people, immigrants, “radical leftists”, etc. normalizing violence. So please don’t condescend to me about touching fucking grass.
This is apparently a hot take with this crowd but I think you are entitled to basic human rights even if you’ve committed a crime.