Normal people eh?
Check this out... Goths are well known to be a troubled, sombre people. They are common in Melbourne's schools and even universities, dressed in black, the colour of evil, and forming strange cliques that no normal person can penetrate or even understand. As the many incidents of school violence in Melbourne today have shown, Goths can be very
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Are you seriously suggesting it should be censored? Pieces of writing getting into "the wrong hands" is always the justification used. Pagan material, suffragette material, sexual material - all have been burned to stop them falling into the "wrong" hands, and supporters and believers persecuted.
Prohibition, whether it relates to alchohol, weapons or ideas, is not a great solution. Nor does it ever work unless the regime is completely totalitarian.
In the same way the best way to introduce alchohol to children is to put it into their hands yourself, if you use it yourself, and take the mystery out of it - the best way to deal with inflammatory ideas is to read it with them.
"Hey mum, look at this! Do you really think black is the colour of evil? What about backstage crew, and italian grandmothers? What about your cocktail dress?"
The spoof becomes evident when they finally bring up that nuns and priests wear black, the so called "colour of evil".
Christians tend to not go hard on the phrase "scientifically proven" to validate anything, including Christ's short hair, because people tend to bring up Darwin. But a Christian could have realistically watched "Jesus of Montreal" and remembered the byzantine mosaic depictions, so that didn't raise a red flag with me.
Bad pieces of writing from those who oppose your ideas (spoof or not) are the best to introduce to people you want to see your side, because it's easiest to defuse the more idiotic ideas. You can't expect anyone to ever see your side without explaining it, and letting people know what it's not is so much easier than letting them know how it is, so it's easiest to start there.
I'm not saying its easy. Diplomacy between hostile cultures or even towards general ignorance is never easy. I could say the "OCD" jokes from "Deuce Bigalow" fell into the wrong hands. When my friend aped the "slap your head three times" after he sneezed, I really didn't like him much at that moment.
But I swallowed my upset. When I'm calmer, I'll tell him about my OCD diagnosis, and say "It's not really like that, you know."
I know this comment is a bit of a long rant. Feel free to tell me you'd rather I just post it in my own journal.
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I think that it would be very difficult for a young person to approach a closeminded parent with such an article and try to explain why it was not the way things are. Especially when that young person's parents are closeminded, and judgemental. This I know from growing up in such a family myself. My parents would, and still do, latch onto anything negative they hear or see in the media and go with it - no matter how it is presented to them, as they like to have any kind of reason to back up their views on what is "normal" and what isn't.
And yes, it is good to try to educate people in the manner you have mentioned, but it doesn't always work and is prone to causing more trouble and problems than are necessary. As an adult, yes, it is a workable thing - but kids are already going through enough at home let alone it being added to with the careless writing of someone else, joke or not.
Anyway - thats just my opinion on the matter, I know that with my own children, it won't be an issue as there is no discrimination or judgement in our home. Unfortunately, not every household is like mine.
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