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Comment by batista | Hacker News Reader

TL;DR; A guy made some jokes anybody would fine perfectly acceptable (if not ho-hum), and a few tight-arsed politically correct prudes walked out as if he was citing from the Main Kampf, in order to show how anti-sexist they are.

Political correctness: or why should the far right monopolize all the moralizing, fear of sexual references and plain old dirty jokes? Progressive people can be prudish squares too.

Oh: and those kind of jokes can be blamed for not many women pursuing a programming career. Like, you know, how video games make kids violent, and lawyer jokes make people not follow a lawyer career...

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Probably a dozen people walked out of this SXSW presentation before I did (no more than 15 minutes in), I assure you they didn't find it acceptable.

"A guy made some jokes anybody would fine perfectly acceptable" I don't find those jokes "perfectly acceptable", not even close.

Yes, I can see how a joking mention that "I secured a position in a company buy sending the cofounders nude pictures" can be considered controversial and unacceptable...

in rural Utah, that is. Comedians, from Lenny Bruce to Carlin have used far more controversial stuff --are we, tech people as a group more backwards than the 60's and 70's people that persecuted them?

(That he wasn't a comedian is not a reason to not allow the guy his joke. Or, are there levels of humor only allowable to comedians? I'd take my conferences with any grain of humor one would like to put in them, thank you).

Seriously (or maybe not), humor has to be judged for what it is, not as a manifesto or an agenda.

For example, your "Proposal to make unittest2 more accurate". People could take offense to that, especially if it was presented at a conference "what's with the profanity", "where's his professionalism" etc. You would consider that justified?

Sorry didn't see this got a reply until now. I hear what you're saying and being a big Carlin fan I agree that "any subject" can be made funny, it's the intentions behind the words, etc.

Perhaps it's a double standard on my part, but the sexism in our industry is poisonous to our future and I think we would all be better off if we considered these topics to simply be off limits.

As for PEP712, while I wouldn't present it at a conference, I would be ok with whatever flack I received due to using the first two letters of a profane word.

However, I would also expect to be spit roasted online and hopefully in person if the proposal was to pop up a nude porn pic if all of the tests passed.

a) These "jokes" are beyond unacceptable.

b) Violent video games do increase aggression in kids, it took less than 2 seconds to find dozens of journal articles on the subject.

>a) These "jokes" are beyond unacceptable.

Well, I accept them 100%. And millions of people too, if I judge from every comedy show, comedy movie, joke book, etc.

> Well, I accept them 100%.

I think that says more about you than it does the jokes.

Yes, it says a lot. For example that I can take a joke, that I don't agree with the PC hysteria, that I am not a prude, that I like free speech to remain so even if its my opponent that's doing the talking, etc.

It also says that I don't like progressive squares and prudes as much as I don't like far-right nuts and prudes.

It also says that I'm not for censorship and hypocrisy.

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