Point out the fallacy
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Original Question
Doing an April Fool's prank telling someone you might have COVID 19 when you know you don't, then revealing it within 5 minutes. Victim says it's disrespectful to everyone who is affected by the virus suggesting it trivializes their suffering. "It tells me you don't care about them".
Comments on Question
Answers
2The basic premise is as follows:
If you joke about X, then you don't care about the people who experience suffering because of X.
As an absolute, this is clearly not true. All it would take is one example to disprove this. As a general statement (i.e., most people who joke about X...) it would certainly have to be argued and supported by data, which I don't think can be done. Do SOME people who joke about X not care about people who suffer from X? Sure. Now, the big question, do *YOU* (the person this statement was directed to) not care? I don't see how the speaker could know this, so it is an unsupported claim as it stands.
We had a similar scenario here.
Ultimately it's an unsupported claim/non-sequitur, because simply joking about something doesn't not logically imply you find it unimportant or unworthy of respect. Jokes are used to lighten the mood, break the ice, or, to use less colloquial terms, as a 'coping mechanism' to deal with traumatic/upsetting events.
Memes about the 'rona have indeed been circulating for some time now.
People have the right to be offended - it is part of free expression, after all - but presuming the motives of others without evidence makes for tenuous claims. If the victim wants to believe it's disrespectful, they can - but there's no proof that the other person 'doesn't care', it's simply the explanation conducive to their argument.
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i joked about this virus and someone got pissed. I did not know what to say back then. Now i have a defense. Thanks for the question and the answers too.