Notes on "The Not-So Politically Correct Tale of Joe Poe"
I fully realize that publishing a story like this in this day and age is liable to cause me to end up the same way as the ostensible "protagonist" does in the end.
Well, the first end anyways.
It should be pretty blantantly obvious if not by the title itself then by the end of the second sentence that this story isn't exactly what they call "politically correct". It should also be blantantly obvious that it was specifically devised to be that way, but as satire is quickly becoming a lost art form in a world much too full of itself I figured I'd better also do my best to make it clear with the title. Not that that will even be enough for some people.
I've actually been involved in writing several stories like this over the years. They're meant to be farcical, satirical; but mostly just plain silly and stupid.
With only one single exception that I can think of ("The White Guy"), none of them in any way are meant to marginalize, insult, demean or offend anyone who may happen to belong to any of the so-called "minority" groups or broad "categories" of persons who may find themselves supposedly being represented therewithin.
If anything, they are meant to give such people a well-deserved laugh after routinely suffering so much stupid and moronic bullshit from the rest of us who somehow consider ourselves the "normal" ones, though I fully realize there are just some people out there who will always insist upon being offended no matter what.
And frankly, if anything it's actually THOSE people if any that I actually don't mind so much offending.
Because here's the thing.
Racism and bigotry, and dismissive, divisive, demeaning, derogatory and dehumanizing labels do not for one second deserve to be taken seriously by ANYONE.
They are a stupid, infintile and pointless way of looking at and describing the world which objectively do little to no good whatsoever to anybody involved.
This is despite the fact that every one of us tends to fall into the error of giving credence to them sometimes, at least to some degree, one way or another.
For by definition each of us is inevitably blind to our own prejudices.
That's what makes them prejudices.
But it doesn't mean we have to act all high and mighty and be judgmental and dismissive and completely uptight about our own self-defeating natural human tendencies to categorize and dehumanize one another, and it also doesn't mean we have to get bent all out of shape and act all offended every time some idiot decides to talk or act like a complete ass.
Like me for example.
© 2023 Randy Bone