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It was a good week for viral audio. In the span of a few days, LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling was exposed as a racist, which cost him $2-5-million and a lifetime ban from the NBA, and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was exposed as an addict, leading to a stint in rehab.

Neither was news, exactly. Mr. Sterling’s racism as a landlord is well documented, as are Mr. Ford’s nightly habits. But the gleeful schadenfreude that rose up around them does more than offer a funny distraction. It betrays the shallowness of some popular moral convictions, and suggests racism and addiction are taken less seriously than is often claimed.

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Racism cannot be both an oppressive scourge and a casual punchline, at least not without being hypocritical or darkly humorous. Likewise, addiction cannot be both a blameless medical condition and a running bit of slapstick, with symptoms as gags.

Yet the world laughs at Donald Sterling as if he were Archie Bunker, and Rob Ford as if he were Barney Gumble, the slurring drunk from The Simpsons, taking perverse pleasure in their dramatic comeuppance.