this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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/s is an excellent modifier for sarcasm. There's no tone in text and bold/italic can only do so much. And with how many absolute crackpots are posting all over the internet, I'd prefer to be sure to not lump in a jokester with the absolute nutjobs.
Also helpful for people with trouble reading tone in text cuz of things like autism.
It wouldn't be the first time I get myself into a trouble because of that :(
Source: me
...and writing tone... for the same reasons. 😬
That’s the only legitimate defense for having to tag your sarcasm I’ve ever read.
Back in MY DAY, nobody tagged their sarcasm on BBS or IRC and we ALL UNDERSTOOD AAAAA (but srsly for folks who have trouble with tone you’re fully right.)
What are you talking about? Even usenet in the 80s recommended using emoticons to mark sarcasm/joking remarks.
Source
This. I remember having a text file of emoticons back in the day because I couldn't remember what they were supposed to mean (and often didn't mean what I thought). :-/
That’s a valid point! I forgot now many emoticons I’d use back then. I’ve always hated pointing out my sarcasm using extra things, though… I prefer to do it using italics, which is reeeeal helpful on Reddit where it goes over nobody’s heads at all.
As someone with autism, I’m here to say that it is actually the opposite of helpful.
People need challenges in order to grow. They need opportunities to fail.
Putting training wheels on sarcasm makes autistic people even further behind the social curve by depriving us of opportunities to fail.
Much like a sterile childhood environment has been scientifically proven to be a causal factor in developing allergies as an adult, I predict that science will eventually establish a causal link between lack of ambiguous communication during developmental years, and reduced intelligence in life.
Human society is so fucking hard to understand for an autistic person, and I really appreciate your looking out for me, but the struggle is worth it, and human culture is intricate and beautiful, and that’s why I chose this username.
Okay but lots of other autistic people I know really appreciate tone indicators so you cannot really speak for everyone. Not to mention, why does knowing that something was meant to be sarcastic hinder learning instead of essentially guessing?
You misunderstand, this is from my own perspective as an autistic person. Plus, the lack of tone of voice over text can make communication harder, for everyone. It’s literally just a tool for communication, clearing up what you mean.
But that's the point of sarcasm. Jonathan Swift got lots of death threats by mail after writing "A Modest Proposal," and he expected it! If someone doesn't want to risk being misunderstood, they should not write the opposite of what they mean.
How ever did autistic people survive before the internet to help them cope?
I mean a lot of neurodivergent people literally didn't survive until a few decades ago
Well that's a massively gross exaggeration.
To me it's born out of this moment: "Wait, will someone see this joke and think I'm serious? If they did they'd think I'm a psycho..."
That is exactly what Poe's Law is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
People on Reddit are scared of downvotes affecting their karma score, so they have to tag controversial comments to make it absolutely clear if their comment is sarcasm.
I have used it because my sarcastic comment, read at face value, might encourage someone to support something I despise. I'm not interested in creating or bolstering that shit, I just want to make fun of it. Karma points never had anything to do with it. I had millions but what's a million nothings, still nothing. Reddit Karma is just multiplying by zero.
Personally I used it to keep shinigami eyes users from tagging my then-universal handle as problematic when I made an off-color joke. I've been banned from subreddits I never heard of because of something I said as a joke in a totally different subreddit
Am i wooshing myself??
That is literally the point of sarcasm. People legitimately wanted to murder Jonathan Swift.
If you write "/s", just write the direct unironic statement in the first place.
If that were holistically true the concept of a "sarcastic tone" wouldn't exist in verbal speech.
Yes, the /s and sarcastic tone both exist and are used by people.
"If you want to tell a joke in which the humor is derived from you saying something incorrect, or something that would be offensive if you genuinely believed it, you should instead just say the actual truth and never use sarcasm again"
That's actually such a good idea, it would make life on the internet so much better /s
If you want to make a joke, assume that some people won't get it. If you don't want any ambiguity then no, do not use sarcasm. If you write "/s", you're not being sarcastic at all, you're just using a double negative.
That's not what a double negative is
That's the best part of internet sarcasm. There is little in this world that is more fun than a 6 reply deep argument between someone making serious counterpoints to my sarcastic comments, while I try to see how much more sarcastic I can become before they figure it out.
Putting a tag up absolutely ruins the fun.
I've found most people online feign sarcasm as a way to defend their ego more than anything else.
Or they imagine everyone is hating on them because they didn't get the sarcasm. No, we got the sarcasm. It's just a terrible joke.
/S Is aN ExCeLlEnT MoDiFiEr fOr sArCaSm. ThErE'S No tOnE In tExT AnD BoLd/iTaLiC CaN OnLy dO So mUcH. aNd wItH HoW MaNy aBsOlUtE CrAcKpOtS ArE PoStInG AlL OvEr tHe iNtErNeT, i'd pReFeR To bE SuRe tO NoT LuMp iN A JoKeStEr wItH ThE AbSoLuTe nUtJoBs.
I definitely prefer /s over this style of sarcasm.
I'd much rather "/s" than this. Though the difference may be small, this text reads as sardonic, while sarcasm may not always be meant in a mocking tone. Plus readability is important to me.
tHiS is only useful for short phrases. Saying more than one sentence in this style makes me just skip the paragraph because it's annoying to read.
But my false sense of entitlement!
iT Is tHE oNlY OpTiOn!
It totes is. Obvs
Right? There's literally no other way to make it clear that you're being sarcastic
I lot of use of /s just indicates that there are a lot of jaded people making snide comments. We haven't gotten to that stage yet.
/s h
Sarcasm isn't useful anymore if you straight up say its sarcasm. It makes it more accessible but it also ruins it for everyone who doesn't need the modifier. You might as well just not be sarcastic at that point.
That's the whole point of sarcasm though, that the delivery seems genuine. Don't write the opposite of what you mean if you aren't willing to have some people misunderstand you.
And yes, people who use sarcastic tone in conversation are also missing the point. They also should not say the opposite of what they mean.
Sarcasm was developed in spoken word. If you are using the written word, it needs to be painfully obvious if you want the meaning to come across. But due to Poe's Law, that's becoming harder and harder these days. Especially in the political and human rights discussion.
No one is forcing you to use /s. But shitting on people using it because you don't think it's "pure" is asinine and also abelism.
Sarcasm doesn’t require tone to operate.
Poe says otherwise.
Declaring confusion to exist is a way of creating confusion.
Even with my username people still don't understand.