Satire can be a mighty weapon when humor is used to puncture the pretensions of the privileged, the pretentions of the elite.
When it directed at the downtrodden, those who struggle to overcome hardship, satire mutates to something less noble. It becomes simple meanness, petty and cruel.
Free speech includes freedom of malevolence. We can and we must defend the rights of those who bully and hate.
That full and vigorous defense does not obligate us to join them in their hatred.
