Paolo Diavolo wrote:
i don't understand the image, but im not offended.
Cats are funny.

Heh...have you seen Grumpy Cat before?  It's just basically a cat that looks perpetually grumpy so they put him in situations where his grumpiness is amusing.  To me it's just hah people/personified animals that are always grumpy are funny...plus he's cute as hell.  Granted I'm not particularly religious and definitely not Christian so I don't necessarily see it the same way as someone who is...but unless they are taking it at entirely face value and reading it as "haha someone (whether it he be divine or not) died...good" I can't see how it's offensive.  If they are taking it like that...well...to me that's kind of silly because if they meant it to be literal then it wouldn't be funny and the whole thing would be pointless so clearly that wasn't the intent.

Idk maybe I and the majority of the people I talk to are just hard to offend (including you guys, I would think) so I don't think about things that way...I just don't get it.

Sha-Lynne wrote:

Heh...have you seen Grumpy Cat before?  It's just basically a cat that looks perpetually grumpy so they put him in situations where his grumpiness is amusing.  To me it's just hah people/personified animals that are always grumpy are funny...plus he's cute as hell.  Granted I'm not particularly religious and definitely not Christian so I don't necessarily see it the same way as someone who is...but unless they are taking it at entirely face value and reading it as "haha someone (whether it he be divine or not) died...good" I can't see how it's offensive.  If they are taking it like that...well...to me that's kind of silly because if they meant it to be literal then it wouldn't be funny and the whole thing would be pointless so clearly that wasn't the intent.

Idk maybe I and the majority of the people I talk to are just hard to offend (including you guys, I would think) so I don't think about things that way...I just don't get it.

i havent seen grumpy cat before. i will have to educate myself.
if i was religious enough to get pissed about people putting different faces on things, i'd be pissed that some european painter in the 6th century depicted jesus as a white guy with a beard, and everyone else just went with it.
if theyre ok with that being wrong, then a cat head thats clearly a joke shouldnt be something to get pissy over.

R_Marquez wrote:
If I went to a chanukah celebration and I made a joke about why Hitler killed himself (because he saw the gas bill), I wouldn't be offended, but I'm sure other people would.

I know it's the cool thing to bash on religion/christianity/christmas, but it doesn't mean that there aren't people that aren't offended.

It's all relative. If people get uptight in SF3 about anything negative regarding cats, then I'm sure you're intelligent enough to see why people would be offended by that image.

It doesn't matter if it's some made up person, story, myth, or unicorn that poops donuts; you know that people are offended if you insult it, but you still do it.

I'm not Jewish but I would consider that joke offensive.

Sha-Lynne wrote:
I guess I have to stick to Jew jokes...Jay and I shared this on fb and a friend got upset:

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos- … 6220_n.jpg  (linking for the easily offended)

I just can't imagine being offended by a joke...am I alone here?

Before saying that the problem is theirs, consider a few things. 

The image, posted during this particular season, depicts the full grown Jesus.  Effectively that's the Easter/post-Easter Jesus.  The Christians are (presumably; consumerization aside) celebrating this new-born Jesus in a manger surrounded by barn livestock who has yet to go on and be a quasi-political rabbi, rebel-rouser.  So posting a joke about the death of the figure who defines Christianity at the seasonal celebration of his birth could make you look cluelessly insensitive at best or intentionally offensive at worse.  Again, that is the possible range by those who might have an awareness of the dynamics. 

The next is, obviously, the content of the image which is obviously this play on words and faces between whether or not the cat is saying “Good, you're dead.” or “Good that you died for my sins.” Or whatever the gag is.  Posting that image during this time of year, people assume that because you posted a joke about Jesus during a time generally known to be the season where people of the Christian faith celebrates it… well it comes across like “Yeah, you guys are all happy about the alleged birth of this guy but nobody really cares.”  Not saying that was your intention but it can certainly be read as such.  I can see how people would find that intentionally incendiary. 

Perhaps, you simply thought it was amusing.  Perhaps you though other people were going to simply find it amusing as well.  Perhaps you aren't being hurtful.  Eventhough I'm not the least bit offended by it I can see how people of the Christian faith could be.  Had I seen it on your timeline without an explanation, I would have assumed you were intentionally attempting to get a rise out of people.  And whether or not that is out of character for you or whatever is beside the point.  It can come across that way to rational people, Christian and non.

Kincaid Blackwood wrote:

Before saying that the problem is theirs, consider a few things. 

The image, posted during this particular season, depicts the full grown Jesus.  Effectively that's the Easter/post-Easter Jesus.  The Christians are (presumably; consumerization aside) celebrating this new-born Jesus in a manger surrounded by barn livestock who has yet to go on and be a quasi-political rabbi, rebel-rouser.  So posting a joke about the death of the figure who defines Christianity at the seasonal celebration of his birth could make you look cluelessly insensitive at best or intentionally offensive at worse.  Again, that is the possible range by those who might have an awareness of the dynamics. 

The next is, obviously, the content of the image which is obviously this play on words and faces between whether or not the cat is saying “Good, you're dead.” or “Good that you died for my sins.” Or whatever the gag is.  Posting that image during this time of year, people assume that because you posted a joke about Jesus during a time generally known to be the season where people of the Christian faith celebrates it… well it comes across like “Yeah, you guys are all happy about the alleged birth of this guy but nobody really cares.”  Not saying that was your intention but it can certainly be read as such.  I can see how people would find that intentionally incendiary. 

Perhaps, you simply thought it was amusing.  Perhaps you though other people were going to simply find it amusing as well.  Perhaps you aren't being hurtful.  Eventhough I'm not the least bit offended by it I can see how people of the Christian faith could be.  Had I seen it on your timeline without an explanation, I would have assumed you were intentionally attempting to get a rise out of people.  And whether or not that is out of character for you or whatever is beside the point.  It can come across that way to rational people, Christian and non.

Whatever, go back to watching Fox News, you redneck!

ASYLUM - Photo wrote:
Whatever, go back to watching Fox News, you redneck!

Excuse you but we no longer refer to it as Fox News but instead as "The Way, the Truth and the Light."  Get with it and get'r done.

DivaEroticus wrote:
I didn't post it myself, because some of MY friends would get offended, but I "liked" it and totally guffawed at it! 

Lol yep, same here.

I try not to be too offensive on Facebook, or at least not on my page.  I belong to a private group on FB though that aims to specifically be offensive, and none of us are religious, so I post all the funny offensive stuff in there.

Kincaid Blackwood wrote:
Excuse you but we no longer refer to it as Fox News but instead as "The Way, the Truth and the Light."  Get with it and get'r done.

Zaychik  wrote:
omglol That is one of my favorite grumpy cat memes.

But then again, I'm Jewish and killed Jesus, so what do I know?

+100

Jerry Nemeth wrote:
I'm not Jewish but I would consider that joke offensive.

Why would you get offended about a joke? According to this thread's logic, if it's funny for some, it can't be offensive for anyone.

Jerry Nemeth wrote:

I'm not Jewish but I would consider that joke offensive.

Yeah, that joke was in an entirely different league.

In situations like this I like to ask - What Would Jesus Do?

I don't think he would have been offended.

Kincaid Blackwood wrote:

Before saying that the problem is theirs, consider a few things. 

The image, posted during this particular season, depicts the full grown Jesus.  Effectively that's the Easter/post-Easter Jesus.  The Christians are (presumably; consumerization aside) celebrating this new-born Jesus in a manger surrounded by barn livestock who has yet to go on and be a quasi-political rabbi, rebel-rouser.  So posting a joke about the death of the figure who defines Christianity at the seasonal celebration of his birth could make you look cluelessly insensitive at best or intentionally offensive at worse.  Again, that is the possible range by those who might have an awareness of the dynamics. 

The next is, obviously, the content of the image which is obviously this play on words and faces between whether or not the cat is saying “Good, you're dead.” or “Good that you died for my sins.” Or whatever the gag is.  Posting that image during this time of year, people assume that because you posted a joke about Jesus during a time generally known to be the season where people of the Christian faith celebrates it… well it comes across like “Yeah, you guys are all happy about the alleged birth of this guy but nobody really cares.”  Not saying that was your intention but it can certainly be read as such.  I can see how people would find that intentionally incendiary. 

Perhaps, you simply thought it was amusing.  Perhaps you though other people were going to simply find it amusing as well.  Perhaps you aren't being hurtful.  Eventhough I'm not the least bit offended by it I can see how people of the Christian faith could be.  Had I seen it on your timeline without an explanation, I would have assumed you were intentionally attempting to get a rise out of people.  And whether or not that is out of character for you or whatever is beside the point.  It can come across that way to rational people, Christian and non.

I've always felt that if someone is secure in their beliefs, they have no reason to find offense with someone else's lack of belief up to and including ridicule of their own belief.  Some people can't help but find offense at things and I really believe that is their own problem.  I mean, I love Led Zeppelin and if someone joked mercilessly about John Bonham's death, I certainly wouldn't get upset enough to even mention it to someone...  Especially if the subject being joked about was more akin to Spiderman than a real person like Bonham.

Sha-Lynne wrote:
I guess I have to stick to Jew jokes...Jay and I shared this on fb and a friend got upset:

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos- … 6220_n.jpg  (linking for the easily offended)

I just can't imagine being offended by a joke...am I alone here?

AWESOME   No, you're not alone in this regard, by any means.

Svend wrote:
I've always felt that if someone is secure in their beliefs, they have no reason to find offense with someone else's lack of belief up to and including ridicule of their own belief.  Some people can't help but find offense at things and I really believe that is their own problem.  I mean, I love Led Zeppelin and if someone joked mercilessly about John Bonham's death, I certainly wouldn't get upset enough to even mention it to someone...  Especially if the subject being joked about was more akin to Spiderman than a real person like Bonham.

::shrug::


You say that Jesus was more akin to Spider-Man and that may be, but for people of the Christian faith, whether he is more akin to Spider-Man or whoever is beside the point: people are passionate creatures and some people get passionate about religion.  And taking offense to something is not always a choice, some thing do get under your skin.  Some things will piss you off.  Some things will rub you the wrong way.  And you may or may not agree with the beliefs of Christian people but we all understand the feeling of when someone strikes a nerve.  It happens to all of us.  I find the stance of “I don't see how anyone can be offended by that.” to be about as distanced from reality as being moved to irrational anger over it. 

The joke may not have been intended to offend but surely one can see how it might.  You don't have to be offended by it to understand how it might rub someone the wrong way.

Kincaid Blackwood wrote:

::shrug::


You say that Jesus was more akin to Spider-Man and that may be, but for people of the Christian faith, whether he is more akin to Spider-Man or whoever is beside the point: people are passionate creatures and some people get passionate about religion.  And taking offense to something is not always a choice, some thing do get under your skin.  Some things will piss you off.  Some things will rub you the wrong way.  And you may or may not agree with the beliefs of Christian people but we all understand the feeling of when someone strikes a nerve.  It happens to all of us.  I find the stance of “I don't see how anyone can be offended by that.” to be about as distanced from reality as being moved to irrational anger over it. 

The joke may not have been intended to offend but surely one can see how it might.  You don't have to be offended by it to understand how it might rub someone the wrong way.

Well, what I mean really is that I am unable to empathize with anyone that can hold something like that so tightly as to make them fragile to the ridicule of it. I simply can't relate.  And I mean that I can't relate in any sense... not just to the religious particularity of this subject specifically, but to the notion of finding offense from jest at an ideology of any kind.  That's all.

Kincaid Blackwood wrote:
::shrug::


You say that Jesus was more akin to Spider-Man and that may be, but for people of the Christian faith, whether he is more akin to Spider-Man or whoever is beside the point: people are passionate creatures and some people get passionate about religion.  And taking offense to something is not always a choice, some thing do get under your skin.  Some things will piss you off.  Some things will rub you the wrong way.  And you may or may not agree with the beliefs of Christian people but we all understand the feeling of when someone strikes a nerve.  It happens to all of us.  I find the stance of “I don't see how anyone can be offended by that.” to be about as distanced from reality as being moved to irrational anger over it. 

The joke may not have been intended to offend but surely one can see how it might.  You don't have to be offended by it to understand how it might rub someone the wrong way.

One might not be aware of why something strikes a nerve at the time, but it is a choice every single time.  Even though we all might do it from time to time, I defy anyone to show one example of a time where the thought sponsoring the event of being offended is not a phantom.  Your beliefs are not you - regardless of how deeply ingrained they are, they are merely a learned thought pattern that you identify with.

That's not to say that it's uncommon, but the fact that anyone can take offense to something doesn't change the fact that at any time, there is a choice not to.  The reason why it doesn't seem controllable at times is that it might require a keen level of awareness in the moment of being triggered in order to see it.  It's practically impossible for an untrained mind to follow such a pattern of thought, and most of us are not that disciplined.

Given that understanding, though, you're correct.  It's not necessarily unreasonable for someone to take offense to something, especially if they don't (or never learned how to) see what triggered those feelings.  Still, while it's understandable and common, it's still bullshit (as in: a made-up story in the mind of the offended person).

In the same vein, the joke may very well be offensive to some since they take it that way, while the person making it may not have been offensive in their intent.  In that case, though, transferring the value "offensive" from the joke to the person would be wrong.

R_Marquez wrote:
If I went to a chanukah celebration and I made a joke about why Hitler killed himself (because he saw the gas bill), I wouldn't be offended, but I'm sure other people would.

I know it's the cool thing to bash on religion/christianity/christmas, but it doesn't mean that there aren't people that aren't offended.

It's all relative. If people get uptight in SF3 about anything negative regarding cats, then I'm sure you're intelligent enough to see why people would be offended by that image.

It doesn't matter if it's some made up person, story, myth, or unicorn that poops donuts; you know that people are offended if you insult it, but you still do it.

If you said it out of nowhere, I'd think it was an odd place to bring it up.  If it were a crowd that was cool with Jew jokes then whatever hahaha.  When saying jokes in person, you have to judge the crowd.  Unfortunately, on FB it's impossible to know who's going to read it and if no one posted anything that had any possibility of offending anyone, there wouldn't be much posting going on.  I'm sure I could scroll through my news feed and find about a million things that *could* be offensive if people chose to see them that way.

I didn't think it was funny because of the Christianity bashing...I thought it was funny because of the grumpy cat.  If there was no grumpy cat and it were just a regular person, baby, etc saying "good" it just wouldn't be funny, I'd pass it right by.  As a side-note, if I wanted I could have been offended by your implication but I don't think that was your intent so I will choose not to be.  To me, choosing to be offended over what is clearly a joke is silly.  And it is clearly a joke because there are other non-Christianity grumpy cat memes allllll over the internet.

No idea what you're referring to about people getting uptight about cats so...yea. 

Like I said, people can choose to be insulted by anything.  After she told me that she found it offensive, I took it down (despite her being notorious for being easily offended).  It's funny, I have plenty of Jewish friends on my FB page but when I post Jew jokes not a single one has ever been offended.  So it's not a given that if you make a joke someone will be insulted.

Kincaid Blackwood wrote:

Sha-Lynne wrote:
I guess I have to stick to Jew jokes...Jay and I shared this on fb and a friend got upset:

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos- … 6220_n.jpg  (linking for the easily offended)

I just can't imagine being offended by a joke...am I alone here?

Before saying that the problem is theirs, consider a few things.

I assume nothing, I posted this to see if the joke wasn't as obvious as I think it is.  As it stands, I took it down, explained that the intent wasn't to offend but did not apologize.  If people were like yea, that's clearly not a joke, etc I would have gone back and apologized

Kincaid Blackwood wrote:
The image, posted during this particular season, depicts the full grown Jesus.  Effectively that's the Easter/post-Easter Jesus.  The Christians are (presumably; consumerization aside) celebrating this new-born Jesus in a manger surrounded by barn livestock who has yet to go on and be a quasi-political rabbi, rebel-rouser.  So posting a joke about the death of the figure who defines Christianity at the seasonal celebration of his birth could make you look cluelessly insensitive at best or intentionally offensive at worse.  Again, that is the possible range by those who might have an awareness of the dynamics.

The next is, obviously, the content of the image which is obviously this play on words and faces between whether or not the cat is saying “Good, you're dead.” or “Good that you died for my sins.” Or whatever the gag is.  Posting that image during this time of year, people assume that because you posted a joke about Jesus during a time generally known to be the season where people of the Christian faith celebrates it… well it comes across like “Yeah, you guys are all happy about the alleged birth of this guy but nobody really cares.”  Not saying that was your intention but it can certainly be read as such.  I can see how people would find that intentionally incendiary. 

Perhaps, you simply thought it was amusing.  Perhaps you though other people were going to simply find it amusing as well.  Perhaps you aren't being hurtful.  Eventhough I'm not the least bit offended by it I can see how people of the Christian faith could be.  Had I seen it on your timeline without an explanation, I would have assumed you were intentionally attempting to get a rise out of people.  And whether or not that is out of character for you or whatever is beside the point.  It can come across that way to rational people, Christian and non.

I know that it *could* and obviously it has...doesn't mean that I think it *should*.  Despite the confirmation that it *could* offend people, this thread has more affirmed that it probably shouldn't.  (I went into further detail about this in a previous post)

Also, the person that was offended should know me better than that.  Heck she's made Jew jokes in front of me and I've laughed.  I could have just as easily been offended.  I just don't get being offended by jokes in general.  People can choose how they take it.  She wanted to be offended because she wouldn't be a good Christian otherwise (in her eyes, not mine) so she chose to be.  She just as easily could have said "meh, it may not go along with my beliefs but it's clearly and joke and wasn't intended to be hurtful"

twoharts wrote:
lol. i just sent that to my wife.

it's good to be concerned about the feelings of others but some people just need to lighten up already!

Yar

Calli Pygian wrote:

Lol yep, same here.

I try not to be too offensive on Facebook, or at least not on my page.  I belong to a private group on FB though that aims to specifically be offensive, and none of us are religious, so I post all the funny offensive stuff in there.

I guess since moving to Vegas I've added more sensitive people...before that I could have posted that no problemo.

R_Marquez wrote:

Why would you get offended about a joke? According to this thread's logic, if it's funny for some, it can't be offensive for anyone.

No...but if it's an obvious joke, it's more energy than it's worth to be offended.  Doesn't mean they can't be.  People are free to be offended by anything they want.

Lawrence Guy wrote:

Yeah, that joke was in an entirely different league.

In situations like this I like to ask - What Would Jesus Do?

I don't think he would have been offended.

This is a little bit outside of my realm of knowledge but...wasn't he supposed to be mellow and all-accepting.  Didn't he even forgive the people that were killing him and say it was okay?  From what I understand his general stance was that people will do what they will do.  Help where you can and accept it when you can't.

Lumatic wrote:
Probably the same sort of situation as Muslim extremists calling for the head of anyone who makes a joke about Muhammed, or someone who's lost a loved one to cancer bitching about cancer jokes.  Even though the joke has nothing to do with them, they identify with the subject and take it personally.  That's all ego.  Taking offense is a choice.

Maybe if you posted that with the intent to offend people, you could be thought of as offensive.  This is someone responding to their own bullshit and blaming you for triggering it.

Well making a cancer joke in front of a person that lost someone due to cancer is just tacky and cruel.  That's kind of on a different level.  Granted, if they didn't know the person lost someone, the person telling the joke wouldn't be at fault and the person can choose whether or not to be offended by it.  Unfortunately, they can't control where their thoughts go and if they get sad, etc.

Other than that, totally agree.

Kincaid Blackwood wrote:

::shrug::


You say that Jesus was more akin to Spider-Man and that may be, but for people of the Christian faith, whether he is more akin to Spider-Man or whoever is beside the point: people are passionate creatures and some people get passionate about religion.  And taking offense to something is not always a choice, some thing do get under your skin.  Some things will piss you off.  Some things will rub you the wrong way.  And you may or may not agree with the beliefs of Christian people but we all understand the feeling of when someone strikes a nerve.  It happens to all of us.  I find the stance of “I don't see how anyone can be offended by that.” to be about as distanced from reality as being moved to irrational anger over it. 

The joke may not have been intended to offend but surely one can see how it might.  You don't have to be offended by it to understand how it might rub someone the wrong way.

To me, being offended is different from just experiencing feelings, it's directly related to the person/statement being offensive.  It's not just "this subject makes me angry/sad/etc".

Svend wrote:

Well, what I mean really is that I am unable to empathize with anyone that can hold something like that so tightly as to make them fragile to the ridicule of it. I simply can't relate.  And I mean that I can't relate in any sense... not just to the religious particularity of this subject specifically, but to the notion of finding offense from jest at an ideology of any kind.  That's all.

This too