Comment Re:State is probably best stated by the comics (Score 5, Insightful) 138
Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld are not the problem. Modern young people are more fragile when it comes to their image and others, afraid to offend, have rather radical views of the world reinforced by social medial algorithms.
They have harder time of processing the joke without taking in personally. They have been trained to view language as a tool that can cause real, psychological harm. Combined with the threat of digital permanent records and public shaming, being "afraid to offend" is a rational survival strategy.
Social media algorithms are engineered to maximize watch time, driven by outrage, moral certainty, and extreme perspectives. Because young people consume a vast amount of information through these curated feeds, they are funneled into ideological silos. Without steady real-world, face-to-face counterweights to moderate their thinking, their worldview naturally becomes more rigid and radicalized.
Humorous text or video snippets online often lack the vital real-world contexts of tone, intent, and shared history. In modern youth culture, the prevailing ethical rule is that the impact on the listener matters more than the intent of the speaker. If a joke relies on stereotyping or subverting a sensitive topic, it is frequently decoded as a personal or systemic attack rather than a harmless jest.