Some people think that Chris Christie is much too out of shape to effectively hold office...

[moriah]

146. The fact you think it's acceptable to call a politcian a "beached whale" is a sign of your bigotry.

I hope there are many reasons you wouldn't call a fat person a "beached whale" to their face. Like that maybe, just maybe, there's a bone of sensitivity in your body and you know that kind of thing is hurtful. People respond to being hurt in different ways -- but there's a reason why "fighting words" aren't protected speech. Yes, they are "fighting words" to many people.

There are many other groups that have been compared to animals in history. I grew up hearing lots of "jokes" that did the same thing. It's not funny. It's wrong. It's not wrong because of the group it's targeting. It's not wrong because of the PERSON it's targeting. It's wrong because you, for some reason, think you are superior enough to a group of other human beings that they are animals in your eyes, based on one superficial trait. There's no other connotation for the phrase.

These kind of jokes teach our children that it's fine to look down on other people because they don't meet your physical specifications. It encourages violence, verbal and physical, against other children on the playground. And yes, eventually bullied children learn to fight back -- it's a better survival mechanism than the all-too-common alternative, internalizing the view that they are worthless.

I didn't say much when the headlines write the joke themselves. But an entire THREAD dedicated to encouraging these kind of jokes? That did it for me.