I do. Simply to avoid the annoyance of someone missing obvious clues that scream “this is sarcastic and ironic, should not be taken literally!” and creating drama out of nowhere.
This is a very short story about sarcasm:
Ted opposes racist rants.
Yesterday - Ted posted a few exaggerated racist rants (sometimes with the /s).
2,177 people saw Ted’s racist rants.
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50% of them guessed he was joking.
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98% of them would not have seen a racist rant yesterday, if it weren’t for Ted’s little gag.
So the question is:
Despite the sarcasm… isn’t Ted just spreading more of what he honestly deplores?
Is Ted subverting his own integrity?
Why not say how we actually feel?
i think there’s merit to sarcasm depending how it’s done. satire can be a powerful tool to poke holes into ideas.
but like many things in life, you need tact and a bit of self awareness
I agree, there is a time for purposeful sarcasm.
To me, it requires two conditions:
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A person has already expressed their real perspective to a specific ‘opponent’, and
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That specific opponent cannot see the hole in their own logic.
This Norm MacDonald radio clip is a good example.
He explains his true perspective, and only switches to sarcasm for one sentence (at 5:25), to show the opponent how she is being goofy [and it works].
His foundation of sincerity gives context to the sarcasm.
Conversely - nowadays - a common ‘communication style’ is to just spray aimless sarcasm at distant or imaginary foes,
which (to me) reflects a deeper cultural issue…
a hiding behind mockery, a suppression of real constructive bravery,
just dunking on one-dimensional charicatures of strangers (who might not actually exist).
[So I agree with you - there are times for purposeful sarcasm.]
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On here, for pretty much every opinion you can find someone who supports it. Sarcasm can really only be understood by people who know you, as they can compare it against what you usually say and do. The pure text form makes it even harder to understand sarcasm, as it removes any cues in your voice or facial expression.
It might somewhat ruin the joke, but in an environment like this, you have to be blunt if you want people to understamd you’re being sarcastic, for example by adding a tag like “/s”.
I don’t think it ruins the joke nor does it bother me. If it helps people see the joke it’s fine. Also it’s probably useful for those who have a hard time understanding others, like people with autism.
Yes. /s
Wait.
I do, because I care about people who may not have the ability to recognize satire for any number of reasons (neurodivergence being one)
In most cases they tend to be nicer people than ones who say the tag is unnecessary, anyway
That comment was some very obvious sarcasm. There will always be a few idiots, don’t worry about those.
But I do think /s has its place around autism communities because many of those people really can’t tell.
I try to avoid it and be obvious in how I phrase stuff. Though sometimes I can’t find the right words to make the sarcasm clear that would be obvious in my voice so that’s when I do add a tag.
I don’t, but I know that I’m rolling the dice when I do it that way, and I’m willing to live with the consequences.
And I say this as someone who regularly misses sarcasm when it’s delivered to me in person :)
No, absolutely never. /s
Came here to say this.
/s is like explaining a joke you just made right away.
I’m from Britain, and I don’t feel like adding an /s to each and every of my comments.
Never, it’s for cowards.
Yeah. I’m autistic and so sarcasm can be hard for me to read/express in person, let alone in text form.
I have the opposite problem where people think I’m being sarcastic, but I’m not. Is there a tag for that?
/s has been around forever, but zoomer/tumblr types have taken it and built an entire tone indicator system around it. So yes, it exists; the tag you’d want is /gen.
But… tone indicators are not well known or commonly used outside that demographic, so using them will make people assume you’re a certain age or type of person, and you may not be comfortable with that.
Here’s a jan Misali video that’s somewhat relevant to your second paragraph
Mmm could you say a bit more? I’m too exhausted tonight to commit to an 18-minute watch based only on “somewhat relevant.”
From my POV, as a person coming up on 40, I just don’t want to make myself seem younger than I am to such a degree that teens and tweens might feel more comfortable approaching me as a casual friend.
Totally, fair enough. It’s specifically about the /hj tone indicator, how it is mostly useless because of its ambiguity and it not being known by people in general, and how that extends to most tone indicators. It’s basically what you said but goes way more in depth (almost crazily so but that’s sorta their thing)
Personally, I don’t use tone indicators for pretty much the same reasons as what you said above. I also think that anything that could be conveyed using them is probably just better off being spelled out
Appreciate the explanation! I’ll put on the watch list for another time.
