Hey Gandalf. By the way; what the hell kind of name is that? Is that one of them there new modern names like Moonbeam or Stephon? Anyway, my idiot neighbor is yelling at me through my screen door and he wants me to get you a message. Normally I’d just kick his sorry ass off my porch but I don’t want this bacon to burn so I’ll let him talk as long as it takes to fry up this meat candy. But as soon as I’m done eating it, I’m going to put my tire so far up his encyclopedia-reading ass he’ll be able to read my tire brand with his tongue.
Ok so he wants me to say something about him thinking you were old and wise enough to understand satire. He wants to know if you consider Saturday Night Live, South Park, and the works of Voltaire and Jonathan Swift “complaining”? (He’s a snippy little bitch.)
He also says something about satire being a way to get people’s attention and shine a light on something serious but in a funny and entertaining way. He said that maybe the thing you are talking about was actually a way to try to inform and unite people.
Now he’s rambling about some god damn Feudalism? What the hell is a feudalism? I’ve been in my share of feuds over the years but I’m not making it a full on belief system. Anyway, he’s saying that the system around here allows a few people with a lot of power to make decisions for everyone and that trying to go against the wishes of those big guys is nearly impossible. So maybe the thing you’re talking about was trying to get enough small voices together to make some noise.
I’m not sure if I’m understanding this right, but he seems to think someone may have been using humor to point out a possible problem that needs to be fixed (I know a lot about problems that need to be fixed). He said that it is really hard to unite thousands of voices who feel totally powerless against the few huge voices and that just saying “Hey guys, there is a problem and I have a solution.” May be ignored by all of those voices. He thinks that nobody has tried using humor so it was worth a try.
Now he’s asking why an opposition to all of those big voices is immediately silenced? Do the big voices have something to hide? Do they not want people thinking about problems and solutions? Do they want to keep all the power for themselves and they fear that if people listen to another point of view they may actually do something? And now he’s babbling about how he knows that on the blockchain (wtf is a blockchain?) No-one can really be silenced and it is all there on chain forever but he’s saying that when the big voices knock something down, it is harder for people to see that opposing message. He’s saying it also scares people away from speaking up or voting on the message they like or find funny because they fear the big voices will come after them.
Alright this asshat wants me to say something else but it’s just so fucking dumb. What the hell is this guy talking about? There is no way people with power are that thin skinned that they can’t handle a little satire? That’s ridiculous. Especially in a neighborhood that is supposed to be run by the community. I’m sure the big guys would give these voices a megaphone rather than shout them down. After all, things only get better when there are challenges that cause people to rethink an action and improve upon it. If the are just yes-men in the neighborhood, nothing will ever change for the better. And that is just stupid bullshit.
Okay. I’m just ignoring that word vomit he spewed. But he just said something interesting. Not that I care because I like my neighborhood nice and quiet, but he just pointed out that there is almost no humor in this neighborhood. It seems that no one is encouraged to be funny. He saying something about some summabitch numbers. Something about r/funny being the highest subscribed subreddit with 66 million members. And that 60% of social media users engage with funny content. He also said that 44% of internet users age 18 - 34 regularly share funny memes. So he thinks it might be better to encourage funny content instead of squashing it. He says that’s even the case if it is satire.
Alright I just finished the last of these sizzle strips. Time to go kick some dipshit ass.
By the way this kickass picture of me was taken by this photographer called ChatGPT
I understand the satire. I even tried the humor once: “What a joke”.
Humor can point at the fire. Voting is the extinguisher.
(Consider this a brief social-importance ad break during your stand-up.)
If we can write satire, we can also vote Return Proposal and vote witnesses.
Otherwise it’s just performance, not governance.
- Grumpy the Grey