I do. Simply to avoid the annoyance of someone missing obvious clues that scream “this is sarcastic and ironic, should not be taken literally!” and creating drama out of nowhere.
This is a very short story about sarcasm:
Ted opposes racist rants.
Yesterday - Ted posted a few exaggerated racist rants (sometimes with the /s).
2,177 people saw Ted’s racist rants.
-
50% of them guessed he was joking.
-
98% of them would not have seen a racist rant yesterday, if it weren’t for Ted’s little gag.
So the question is:
Despite the sarcasm… isn’t Ted just spreading more of what he honestly deplores?
Is Ted subverting his own integrity?
Why not say how we actually feel?
i think there’s merit to sarcasm depending how it’s done. satire can be a powerful tool to poke holes into ideas.
but like many things in life, you need tact and a bit of self awareness
I agree, there is a time for purposeful sarcasm.
To me, it requires two conditions:
-
A person has already expressed their real perspective to a specific ‘opponent’, and
-
That specific opponent cannot see the hole in their own logic.
This Norm MacDonald radio clip is a good example.
He explains his true perspective, and only switches to sarcasm for one sentence (at 5:25), to show the opponent how she is being goofy [and it works].
His foundation of sincerity gives context to the sarcasm.
Conversely - nowadays - a common ‘communication style’ is to just spray aimless sarcasm at distant or imaginary foes,
which (to me) reflects a deeper cultural issue…
a hiding behind mockery, a suppression of real constructive bravery,
just dunking on one-dimensional charicatures of strangers (who might not actually exist).
[So I agree with you - there are times for purposeful sarcasm.]
-
-
Yes. /s
Wait.
I don’t think it ruins the joke nor does it bother me. If it helps people see the joke it’s fine. Also it’s probably useful for those who have a hard time understanding others, like people with autism.
I do, because I care about people who may not have the ability to recognize satire for any number of reasons (neurodivergence being one)
In most cases they tend to be nicer people than ones who say the tag is unnecessary, anyway
On here, for pretty much every opinion you can find someone who supports it. Sarcasm can really only be understood by people who know you, as they can compare it against what you usually say and do. The pure text form makes it even harder to understand sarcasm, as it removes any cues in your voice or facial expression.
It might somewhat ruin the joke, but in an environment like this, you have to be blunt if you want people to understamd you’re being sarcastic, for example by adding a tag like “/s”.
I don’t, but I know that I’m rolling the dice when I do it that way, and I’m willing to live with the consequences.
And I say this as someone who regularly misses sarcasm when it’s delivered to me in person :)
I try to avoid it and be obvious in how I phrase stuff. Though sometimes I can’t find the right words to make the sarcasm clear that would be obvious in my voice so that’s when I do add a tag.
That comment was some very obvious sarcasm. There will always be a few idiots, don’t worry about those.
But I do think /s has its place around autism communities because many of those people really can’t tell.
Hell no, let’s please leave that shit on Reddit.
/s is like explaining a joke you just made right away.
Never, it’s for cowards.
No, absolutely never. /s
Came here to say this.
I’m from Britain, and I don’t feel like adding an /s to each and every of my comments.
Yeah. I’m autistic and so sarcasm can be hard for me to read/express in person, let alone in text form.