From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!mhuxa!mhuxh!mhuxm!mhuxv!burl!rcj Newsgroups: net.jokes Title: Re: ethnic, racial, religious jokes Article-I.D.: burl.29 Posted: Wed Jan 12 12:23:40 1983 Received: Fri Jan 14 02:52:47 1983 Why is it considered both natural and polite to encrypt obscene jokes, and yet no one seems to encrypt jokes that have a racial, ethnic, religious, or similar connotation? Is this not offensive to some people? Why not encrypt them as well, with a note in the TITLE describing the reason for encryption: What do you get...? (Racial) or Two Fleas (Obscene) [or Unclean or whatever] I myself am not a member of a minority, have no real religious persuasions, and have a very thick skin and open-minded sense of humor anyway. Not everyone is as areligious/non-ethnic/stupid? as I am, though. Why not give it some thought before you leave something that might easily offend someone uncrypted? A final note, which will no doubt draw many flames in my direction: I do not (my personal opinion) believe that sexist jokes (in either direction) should need to be encrypted. I do not consider jokes about gays to fall into this realm of sexist jokes, they should be encrypted to avoid offending someone. My reason for this is: Most everyone I know is either one sex or the other; whereas not everyone is either Protestant or Catholic, either black or Chinese. Most minority groups have their own problems coping with life from the position of being "different" from the majority anyway; why complicate their position. Men and women (generically), however, are not minorities. I take this stand because it is a fact that almost any joke that makes people laugh will offend SOMEONE. I believe that we have to draw the line somewhere or we will either encrypt nothing (which I would opt for from my position), or encrypt everything (which is going a bit overboard). I welcome replies, retorts, suggestions, and even (yes) flames on this matter. Plez try to send them to me and I will summarize if volume warrants. Otherwise net.jokes will be inundated by tens of people all saying the same thing. Thanks 4 ur time, The MAD Programmer alias: Curtis Jackson (...!floyd!burl!rcj)