This is my coping mechanism

It’s summertime on the internet and everyone is hot and bothered. Record high temperatures are rising every minute, and the hottest thing to do right now is to weigh in on disputes between strangers on the web. You’re simply not IT if you don’t throw in your two cents. Here’s the skinny if you haven’t heard about it yet: Famed exploiter of stupid people on the online Danni Tosh is in trubbs because he allegedly told some female human being that it’d be funny if she was gang raped. Now, outside of one Sublime song (RIP BRADLEY!) I’ve never enjoyed mentions of rape in pop art. But that’s one little bear’s opinion. This “media” “firestorm” is a pretty good chance for bros/ladybros like me to remind everyone that we don’t like that. Cool, dude. “Hey just an update, 9.9 times outta 10, your rape joke isn’t funny.” That seems to be what a lot of the responses include on the surface, but there are some other issues being bandied about here.

This is Free Speech Suppression and G.G. Carlin & Willy Hicks are spinning in their graves!
Sorry to everyone who feels this way, but you’re wrong. What we’re actually seeing right now is a wonderful demonstration of the free speech process. Dane Tosh is allowed to say whatever he wants, but we’re also allowed to say that what HE says is smelly and dumb. He is in NO THREAT of being arrested or thrown out of clubs or followed home from venues by unmarked police cars. HE’s not being FORCED to do anything. (I put the word “forced” in all caps because we’re talking about rape and I think I am being clever about it.) If anything, HE brought WAY more attention to the situation by half-heartedly apologizing via the most intimate and appropriate venue: twitter. Clearly the dude was alerted to this random-ass blog post, had he sent a private email along the lines of “hey, i’m so sorry i made you feel really bad. my job is to make you lol and instead i made u :(” THE LADY WOULD’VE POSTED THAT EXCHANGE AND WE WOULD BE ALL “WOW WHAT A KIND YOUNG MAN.” The sitch would be dealt with, and he might even come off as a cool guy who is good at handling things.

NOBODY IS EVER ALLOWED TO MENTION THE R-WORD BECAUSE OF FEELINGS
Now this is a little trickier. I’ve never been raped. I’ll never be raped. I can’t imagine what being raped is like, and the pain and humiliation and association of pleasure with the darkest moment in your life. However, I do know facts. The fact is that white men all across the country are currently trying to roll back women’s rights with a swift iron fist not seen in DECADES. Maybe women would be more primed to laugh at a rape joke if their state didn’t ban them from abortion in cases of it. Maybe this young bloglady wouldn’t have felt so compelled to heckle if lawmakers weren’t attempting to unmistakably force sexual assault into standard medical procedure. As one dude with a brain, it occurs to me that maybe we, as purveyors of culture, should AT LEAST be aware of the context of oppression. Tracy Morgan got a lot of shit for his grossly homophobic remarks because DOZENS OF GAY CHILDREN ARE BEING PUSHED TO SUICIDE BY GROSSLY HOMOPHOBIC REMARKS. People are being a little more sensitive right now, and with reason. If society (meaning you and me and that postman with the good legs) treated each other with more respect and fairness, we could get away with saying anything we want. Moreso than we do right now, which is actually quite a fucking lot.