Show of Hands

It's not funny and it's not offensive.

You don’t get the joke? Or you don’t get the point of the poll? Or something else?

The joke

It’s like saying, “I always rains when I wear socks, so I don’t wear socks anymore”. The idea that something benign that you did somehow had an effect.

The joke implies that students tend to fake a grandparent’s death, to get excused from early morning classes.

@Grandma- that’s funny. I totally saw it a different way, but your description makes a lot of sense to me as likely true also.

I’m just curious- why don’t you find this funny?

I found it a little funny, just not a lot. I’m not sure why. Possibly because of what I mentioned above - that I suffered through a whole Chicago-area winter & a somewhat lousy course (although we did use Richard Feynman’s Lectures as an ancillary text, so it had *that* bright spot) at freaking 8 AM and *I* never thought to skip a class with that excuse... so... a bit of sour grapes on my part, maybe? Or maybe because I’m sort of a stick-in-the-mud about lying in general? But if so, why *wouldn’t* I find the professor’s comment funny? I dunno.

Re lying, though... I once called in sick to work (my hospital lab job) on a Monday because I had helped move our household of 6 adults over the weekend & I was truly exhausted. I thought that sounded wimpy though so I said I had “motion sickness.” (Get it? Sick of moving...) Which also sounds pretty wimpy, but what the heck. So I don’t know that that’s any better than making up a dead relative. I still kick myself for that lie.

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Me neither.

Read the link. A bunch of people found a way!


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That’s ridiculous! And the worst part is that stuff like that leads to this:

“This culture of volatile discourse can have a disproportionate effect across genders and groups. Those likely to be more sensitive to the opinions of others, or to take things more personally and closer to heart, may become less likely to speak up and contribute what they have to say. And when voices that are more measured, more thoughtful, more tentative or from a different walk of life are less likely to participate in public discourse, what is lost is an accurate reflection of society.

This voice silencing matters. If enough voices are extinguished or otherwise opt out of public discourse, the narrative becomes skewed in favor of those who are loudest, more extreme, more belligerent.”

I’ve seen this happen on SOH, where those that were nicer or more timid left the app because others bullied them with their words and they got fed up with it. And we all lose something when that happens, imho.

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