It’s ok. In fairness “it’s just comedy” isn’t a free pass. Comedy provokes thought and shapes ideas. Steven Colbert was “just comedy” and still a managed to make a huge impact on the politics and views of many. The fact something is comedy doesn’t mean that we can’t discuss where it contains things worth discussing. That’s part of the point of political humor. It is more easily absorbed and tends to bypass our natural defenses. In that way it can be a good tool to start conversations on a less hostile tone than addressing contentious issues directly. However by the same token if one has an agenda it can be used subversively. So don’t feel too bad- if we discuss the questions raised by topical comedy in a meaningful way there’s nothing to apologize for.
It's a like time out for grown ups when we do bad things
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· 5 years ago
Says a person who has never known anyone in a prison, the food is horrible. They barley get health care, they have to not be able to walk to use it. Some prisoners are in fear for their lives. They also have unpaid jobs in prison. Some cut hair, some cook, sometimes prisons have programs to make money off prisoners like making furniture or even farming.
There are prisons and there are Prisons. One is designed to segregate the violent. One is designed to rehabilitate and allow people to reenter society. But in a capitalist society there is money to be made in keeping people in. And in a socialist society it is best to keep those people out. And in a communist society it is best to keep them working until they can't. Prisons are designed to protect. The government defines who they protect.
Why would someone down vote this? It’s literally and factually true. The only alternative left out is where punishment exists purely for the sake of spite. Prisons exist to protect a society, population, or its interests. Those who control that system determine the interests and members of society most in need of protection to them. Capitalism makes money and protects commerce through incarceration, socialism tries to “banish” criminals (look at most successful “socialist” countries and see their laws on immigration of former criminals as well as laws about deportation of criminals), and communism tends to convert human beings to work units- and treat them as such.
Oh, If I were explaining it to a five year old I would say,"If you do something that everybody else says is wrong you'll be put in with older children who have also done wrong things. And you'll stay there for a bit until everybody says you can get out. And then everybody will call you a bad boy and won't hire you and it'll be hard to rent an apartment and forget getting a home loan. If you can get a job."
This isn't even a joke. And the entire "JOKE" explanation is stupid. We spend money feeding and housing needy people without incarceration. It's a bad joke that needs to be told to drunks at a comedy bar.
Most places won’t arrest homeless people for minor crimes or repeat crimes simply for this reason- if they arrest them they must provide them care. Most law enforcement efforts with the homeless tend to be directed at either keeping them away from the public and out of open view, or in forcing them to migrate out of that jurisdiction so as to make them the problem of other people. Of course even arresting the homeless isn’t “better” as in addition to loss of freedom- the charges are light and carry minimal jail time (several days at most-) and so when they are let back out, they return to find any possessions they did have and necessities to likely have been scavenged by other homeless. It’s been shown cheaper for society to provide homes but people can’t get over the idea “I have to work for my home and they get it free?!! I’ll just stop paying rent and get a free house!!” In the end the current system hurts these people as well as society, one day our decedents will be ashamed of us.
There ya go a much less confusing way to explain to a 5yo that wound confuse them