The lesson or thought experiment or point or whatever was supposed to be that it's not a level playing field for men and women because of biology and history, and a lot of us are conscious of that so that other people in our community feel like part of the community.
So I'm stuck at a wedding seated between a Rabbi and a Priest.
A 5 year old boy bends over to tie his shoe in front of us.
The Priest leans over to us and says "Wow, I like to screw that kid."
The Rabbi shrugs and asks "Out of what?"
That is a really funny joke (really). And most Catholics and most Jews can probably see the humor in it.
I'm a Jew. There are tons of jokes at the expense of Jews on HBO shows. Even if I'm somehow offended by a joke, am I going to cancel HBO??? Of course not.
Got it. But what if HBO started being relentless with the Jew jokes? And they stopped being as witty? And you started to realize you're not seeing any jokes about any people/races/religion except Jews? And all the sudden in the middle of "Silicon Valley" there's a Jew joke, and then another character makes a Jew joke, and then another piles on, etc.? Then you start watching "Game of Thrones" and somehow they start working in Jew jokes, which everyone on the show is laughing at... Maybe, just MAYBE, would you start thinking about cancelling HBO?
There will always be somebody offended by something. That does not mean there is anything wrong.
But it also doesn't mean it is *right*. As swampfire said, if nothing else it's just basic politeness. Which I know the Internet is not exactly known for.
But if I know my Uncle James is offended by Catholic jokes, I'm not gonna tell them in front of him, even if I think they're HI-larious. It's just being polite and respectful.
We're a community that loves pinball. Most of us are civilized, educated people who wouldn't tell Catholic jokes in front of Uncle James. We should be respectful to the other members. Even if we don't understand why, or don't believe it's real, we could, out of respect, tone down the non-pinball-related activity that's aggravating many other members of our community. It's our choice. I hate to see people leave Pinside because of non-pinball-related conversation.
Another thought: Should we cancel the "no politics" rule as well? How many threads would degenerate into fights if we did that? How many people would start feeling differently about people they are pinside friends with?
There are plenty of places on the web to talk politics.
I have heard there are a few places on the web where you can look at scandalous photos of attractive women.
We don't have to do either of those on pinside. We can make a choice to be respectful.
Now if you'll excuse me, I suddenly feel the urge to find one of those scandalous photo sites...