Confliction.

I know that I had promised Adventure Time, but those episodes have proved to need way more time than I have had recently. I've had something on my mind that I have wanted to talk about. Being on Tumblr so often has skewed my views on a few important matters. Most of the time, they're on social injustices in the world such as discrimination and racism. I can find myself justifying these opinions on ideas such as racism and sexism, because they encourage the harm and mistreatment of people. I have been speaking out about these matters more, because American culture says treating people as lesser than a human being is okay, if it's only a joke. But today I found myself yelling at a fellow student for standing for the pledge of allegiance and giving a nazi salute. I don't even say the pledge myself, and view it as an odd nationalistic custom in the American school system. However, I still found the gesture to be inappropriate, so I called him on it.

What happened next shouldn't have surprised me. A student that I respect very much, turned around and made a holocaust joke. I was also upset by this, and asked him why he thought that joke was funny. He then proceeded to point out that rejecting this sort of humor represents that I am uncomfortable talking about such a topic, even if it's in a historical context.

There is something to be said about dealing with tragedy through humor. But I do not find it acceptable to joke on matters of the massive mistreatment and horrific killings of people. I find this to be on the same level as rape jokes. There is no justification for making a joke out of such horrific actions. Am I in the right for calling them out on it? Or am I stuck in white guilt and "uncomfortable with talking about things like this" since I cannot find humor in them? Are holocaust jokes really historical satire? Or is almost 75 years enough that I should be desensitized?