Thoughts About Getting Offended...

[Arctic Werewolf]

I think umbrage-taking is a tactic people use now to pressure others into agreeing with them or at least keeping quiet, and it's off the deep end these days. Ideological litmus tests are now standard for participation in websites about video games or just general interest sites. That is mega-ultra-crazy. I also think it's a social thing. Getting offended is the new gossip. In the age of trigger warnings, disinvitation and self-censorship, it's not easy to keep in mind that all this started with real social issues.

 

[StriderShinryu]

My opinion on this has always been that it's everyone's right to be offended by whatever they are offended by. It's not up to you to tell someone else what they shouldn't be offended by as being offended is based on a large number of personal aspects that you may or may not be privy to. There definitely is a point at which you could expect someone who is offended by something to start actively avoiding things that offend them, but it's important to realize that this isn't always sensible or possible. If being a jackass on the internet is considered the norm and someone is rightfully offended by that, is it really reasonable for someone to just "avoid the internet?" Sometimes those who are offended do have a point, even if you don't agree with it, and it would be best for everyone's interests to at least take them seriously. But, opinions, right?

My own experience is the the offended rarely justify their offense properly, and even rarer why the offendee should care. Taking a simple example: my Mom hates cursing, but I don't know why. Society seems to go along with this as it's still a word you can't say on network TV. Yet strangely you can say any number of synonyms, from the poetic making love, to the scientific coitus, to the still very crass banging, bopping, boning, screwing, humping....you get he point. So why is fuck offensive when words that convey the same activity aren't?

Are you joking? Fuck isn't just a synonym for sex, it's an expletive. The job of FUCK is to be offensive. We need people to be upset by it or it loses its power. By being offend your mother is giving fuck more power. Really she's doing a service to the word fuck, without her and people like her it wouldn't be able to do its job.

This is actually a very interesting point. I've always felt that cursing/swearing is meant to be offensive or, at least is intended as a sort of exclamation point. When someone who almost never swears does swear, it has impact. You are sort of taken aback and are forced to pause even in cases where no actual offense exists. When someone does nothing but swear every third word, swearing has no real power or meaning at all. It also makes that person sound, in my opinion, uneducated. If the only way you can express emphasis on something is to throw a "fuckin'" in front of it, you probably need to expand your vocabulary a little.

 

[Westaway]

Being offended is a choice. It is not an argument and it has nothing to do with ethics. Every single time someone has told me "I found that offensive", I have answered "So what? That is your choice".
The stoics understood this perfectly.