The clear problem of the outlawing of insult is that too many things can be interpreted as such. Criticism, ridicule, sarcasm, merely stating an alternative point of view to the orthodoxy, can be interpreted as insult.
I am suggesting that as we go through life, we 'accentuate the positive.' I am asking that we look a little deeper for the good, that we still our voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment and endorse virtue and effort.
Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.
When my wife and I met, I couldn't talk to her - and my defense mechanism is sarcasm. I belittle someone with verbal pokes and prods. I did it to her out of complete awe. When friends introduced us, I said 'Hi' - and turned my back. Later, I called my mom and best friend and said, 'I think I just met my wife.'
My natural-born sarcasm, when it's unimpeded, can be a bit overbearing at times and I'm the first to admit that.
Somebody says, 'Do a Tom Bodett, a folksy kind of thing,' and it sounds like something out of 'Hee Haw,' very insulting. They turn wry humor into disparaging sarcasm, and you get what amounts to insulting advertising.
Sarcasm is lost in print.
Sarcasm is a Manchester trait.
The key to humor is often self-loathing or sarcasm. In a sense, that's how self-loathing is made palatable.
Sarcasm helps me overcome the harshness of the reality we live, eases the pain of scars and makes people smile.