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What's even sadder to me is the idea that a universal pictorial language is subject to moralizing. The idea is facilitating communication, not just that which is judged by you to be positive.

In what sense is it "a sad commentary on humanity?"

Agreed. And the OP going out of his way to push for it is sad. There are more important problems to spend your time on than trying to make it easier to insult each other. If you want to insult someone, you can still do it in English. Your freedom of speech is not restricted.

There are more important problems to spend your time on than criticizing people in internet comment sections, yet here you are.

Emojis are supposed to be for fun. Some people enjoy playfully teasing their friends. Of course yes, this could be abused, but choice words are _much_ more hurtful than a picture of a middle finger.

Maybe this will help make a case for including a means for users to disable any and all emoji if they choose to do so.

> It's offensive

By what measure? To whom?

> a sad commentary on humanity

Again: by what measure?

Offensiveness is arbitrary.

cry me a river?