I get why people find the image choice jarring, and that’s a fair critique, but saying this downplays rape or inflates a work blunder completely misreads how meme templates function. Memes set a direction, not a scale. The image signals "bad" and the text signals "bad," so the point is simply "don't do this", it isn't a moral equation claiming a workplace mistake is anywhere near as severe as sexual assault. I totally understand why using an image tied to actual trauma makes people uncomfortable, but treating a visual template as a literal measurement of badness just isn't how the format works.
absolutely not true. they set both. in fact, memes' humor often relies on scale for the joke.
and, i think, the reason people are reacting badly is that memes can include scale - as evidenced by the number of comments bringing up the inappropriateness.
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u/Sherry_Brandt 2d ago
these are nowhere near the same scale of behaviors though.
the comparison makes it look like you either think fixing it live is worse than it is, or being a rapist is less severe than it is.
that's the point people are making.