All jokes are true

When somebody says something, either they mean it, or they are responsible for meaning it.

Jokes are truths you’re not allowed to say directly. Marc Andreessen is slipping you a truth claim you wouldn’t accept if it were said in seriousness.

That’s why any disgusting sentiment like this has legions of “omg it’s a JOKE ffs” and “embarrassing, they can’t even tell it’s a joke 😬” on twitter. Each commenter is afraid of being the one left out, the one who doesn’t understand that this utterance exists in some scratch space outside of the real world. Duh.

But of course the reason Marc Andreessen said this was to affect reality. He’s hiding in plain sight by saying something so outrageous we’d all turn against him if he were deadass: “I have no moral responsibility. I will make technology that harms the human spirit and no one, not even the Pope, will do anything about it.” Now the audience, each in fear that they are the only one not seeing the Emperor’s New Clothes, search for ways to exonerate the man and therefore excuse themselves from standing against him. Oh, I get it. He’s saying something so offensive it couldn’t be true.

With this kind of manipulative “joke”, there’s a power gap between Andreessen and the audience, and he is preying on the audience’s insecurity. Jokes like this are a dare to challenge the speaker’s power to dictate reality when each member of the audience knows that the safest bet for themselves is to excuse the speaker— and every time the jokester gets away with it is another precedent that makes it harder to stand up the next time.

Jokes like this are how people like Andreessen test the waters, figure out how far they can go, and nudge the Overton window. The fact that he would say “I wasn’t being serious” if pressed doesn’t diminish those effects in the slightest. Sometimes, if that release valve allows people not to process uncomfortable implications of what was said, it can enhance the inoculation effect of the joke against future offenses.

Speak in crass or evil “jokes” long enough and one’s history alone will cloak one. “What do you expect? That’s how he always talks.” The audience will say, irritated at YOU for not getting that this is established rather than the offender. The same thing has happened to me when I didn’t like someone’s friend of a friend sexually harassing me at a party— I was the one being weird by not knowing that that guy “doesn’t really mean” anything he says.

The solution is not to be hip enough to magically know the speaker’s true intentions. Their deepest intentions are usually, consciously or unconsciously, to create ambiguity that they can use to their advantage. Regardless, it is not your responsibility to figure them out.

The solution is that all jokes are true. When somebody says something, either they mean it, or they are responsible for meaning it.

The more you practice this policy, the easier it is. People will try to make you feel stupid for not “getting it”, but actually you have the power when you don’t let the speaker cast their spell on you. All it takes is one person to point out the Emperor is naked.