Mikhail Gorbachev has died

Let me tell you why I think this is an inappropriate comment: The point of it seems not to be collaboratively extending the line of thought proposed by the original post or the parent comment, but to make the parent commenter feel some kind of personal shame or stupidity. Good commenting is more like a team sport than a martial art.

So like telling "jokes" at Russia's expense by a man of questionable ethics?

what is the point of his joke, if not to mock another country?

The OP posted a quote, and i posted one too?

The author of the joke doesn’t really matter here; the point is that it’s funny, period. I’m not sure how you can see a mockery of any country in a joke that would work with literally any important person in any country.

Propagandistic anecdotes deserve a little bit of ridicule. But just a little bit.

Comedy is subjective.

Try telling a sexually charged joke at your place of employment and see what happens.

World leaders freely slandering other countries like this is shameful, and not what you expect from a "world leader".

Perhaps, but equally that's a route to a monoculture - can we not question Reagan?

Americans love to glibly propitiate to Reagan's spirit (in heaven I'm assured), there's no way they could be doing so out of ignorance of the more controversial aspects of his presidency?

In that case there'd be no need to mention reagan at all? most of the "Soviet" jokes people tell seem to be made up anyhow.

> "jokes" at Russia's expense

I'm not seeing it. That joke could just as easily be told for any other national leader and it would still work.

Of course we can question Reagan but when it comes to political/ideological flamebait, it's best to (a) avoid it and (b) stay on topic.

Whimsical off-topic stuff can be ok, but flamewar off-topic stuff isn't, and a greatest-hits of bad Reagan is definitely that.

This is in the site guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and there's lots of past explanation at https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... and https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que..., though you might have to scroll through boilerplate to get to the more substantial explanations.

There’s nothing slandering here. As I wrote above, the joke could work with literally anyone.