There’s a large class of social/cultural behaviors that I think are fine and good when they’re somewhat rare, and I find annoying and then harmful when it becomes very common.
This includes public demonstrations, minor mostly-victimless crimes, many kinds of drug use, tipping expectations, and I’ve just realized that April Fools is now in this category.
It’s amazing when there are a few surprising well-crafted jokes published. It’s annoying when it’s common enough that it’s hard to find the good ones, and even harder to find the non-joke communications.
The problem with this (as with all examples of the phenomenon—things that are justified and good when they’re somewhat rare and intentionally transgressive or risky, but are annoying and harmful when safe and common) is that I really LIKE the gems, and want to (occasionally) partake myself.
It’s a matter of variable and contextual value (generally declining on the margin), and I don’t know any good answers.
There’s a large class of social/cultural behaviors that I think are fine and good when they’re somewhat rare, and I find annoying and then harmful when it becomes very common.
This includes public demonstrations, minor mostly-victimless crimes, many kinds of drug use, tipping expectations, and I’ve just realized that April Fools is now in this category.
It’s amazing when there are a few surprising well-crafted jokes published. It’s annoying when it’s common enough that it’s hard to find the good ones, and even harder to find the non-joke communications.
</rant>
On LW you can add a tag filter for April Fool’s. So you can set that to hidden.
The problem with this (as with all examples of the phenomenon—things that are justified and good when they’re somewhat rare and intentionally transgressive or risky, but are annoying and harmful when safe and common) is that I really LIKE the gems, and want to (occasionally) partake myself.
It’s a matter of variable and contextual value (generally declining on the margin), and I don’t know any good answers.