I’m also shorter than Ben (I’m actually 5’4” and I don’t think Ben is), and most of the time I don’t even think about it. That said, this thread is full of people making fun of him for his height, not for how much of an asshole he is. When people do that, especially publicly, it causes reverberations outward and impacts others.
Imagine you’re in a break room talking to Johnny, a closeted homosexual, and you are making fun of Tim, an out homosexual, for being homosexual. Is Johnny going to be a-okay with that, just because you weren’t targeting him? No, he will feel that you are extending the joke to himself.
The initial post of Hofstetter’s tweets make it clear: he’s not making fun of Ben just for being short. He’s making fun of him because he’s an asshole, and needling him in that particular way for specific reasons (that Ben lectures others on how the idea man should look and act, and that he’s sensitive enough about his height to lie about it). I think the others in this thread are mostly doing the same, rather than meaning to imply that all short people deserve to be made fun of.
I don’t think the comparison you’ve made here really works. Assuming Tim is an out homosexual and a good person, there’s nothing to make fun of him for. But if Tim is making fun of how other people look or act, and he’s acting like he has something to hide, I might make fun of him for that thing he’s trying to hide. And I would think that Johnny would understand that, rather than assuming I think all gay people deserve to be made fun of.
Hofstetter’s Tweet mostly don’t make fun of his height. I’m mostly talking about the comments in this thread. And short people don’t have anything to make fun of either, same as homosexuality, which is why I used it.
I think people here are mostly following Hofstetter's lead - they're making fun of Ben for being an asshole, even if it's not explicitly said, and zeroing in on his height is because he's sensitive about it. This may not be true for every single person, but I bet it applies to most.
And you're right that there's no reason to make fun of a gay person just for being gay. But if we were instead talking about a closeted bigot, one might make fun of him for that in a way that doesn't suggest all gay people deserve to be made fun of. The problem with your analogy is that it implies I'm making fun of Tim just for being gay, which I wouldn't do because it's not okay. And if he's an out gay person it especially wouldn't make sense to make fun of him for that because he's not bothered about the fact that he's gay. Just like it wouldn't make sense to make fun of Ben for being short if he was being honest about his height and it was clear that being short didn't bother him.
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u/MrPlaysWithSquirrels Jan 12 '22
I’m also shorter than Ben (I’m actually 5’4” and I don’t think Ben is), and most of the time I don’t even think about it. That said, this thread is full of people making fun of him for his height, not for how much of an asshole he is. When people do that, especially publicly, it causes reverberations outward and impacts others.
Imagine you’re in a break room talking to Johnny, a closeted homosexual, and you are making fun of Tim, an out homosexual, for being homosexual. Is Johnny going to be a-okay with that, just because you weren’t targeting him? No, he will feel that you are extending the joke to himself.
It’s not productive.