Is Everything Offensive Nowadays?

[cryptwarmer]

You don't even have to say anything to be called our for offending someone. If you don't support them in being offended, they call you out for being a closet hater of some kind. No more silence is golden.

I agree there are time and things that need to be spoken out on, called out, etc, but sheesh. I'm being accused of being a hateful person and a bad friend because I don't hang out on FB and "like" all the posts that some people apparently are keeping track of.

Excuse me for having a life that doesn't include obsessively following the 150 posts you make per day.

 

[thrasherpix]

Btw, this is one of the College Humor vids I liked...mostly it's the start (they're preparing an intervention on Katie's use of cocaine) which spiraled out of control and then...that ending as Katie finally arrives, hahahaha! 😀

 

[Xanderectomy]

Btw, this is one of the College Humor vids I liked...mostly it's the start (they're preparing an intervention on Katie's use of cocaine) which spiraled out of control and then...that ending as Katie finally arrives, hahahaha! 😀

Honestly i dont think any guy has ever been offended by the phrase "man up" or any girl gets offended when u say "pussy"
this video just shows everything thats wrong with society today.

 

[Fuffy]

The current POTUS is a walking fascist machine with a thing for tans and albino tails.

Disagreeing with a popular opinion is considered offensive.

Jokes are considered offensive.

Old movies and books (like GWTW and To kill a mockingbird) are considered offensive.

So yes, everything is offensive, people need to lighten up and open themselves up to the fact that not everything needs to be politically correct at all times 🙄

 

[vellavu]

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

I was in Costco with my niece last Friday, when two people near me began talking about Trump. They seriously hated him, which is their right.

However, they made the mistake of assuming I agreed with their views. The blond girl (wearing a Bill Maher t-shirt!) turned to me and smiled. "We'll get him impeached this year, right?" I rolled my eyes and said,"No, he'll be fine. Better than the Obama puppet." She nearly had a fit. "You support bigotry and violence against women?!" I said, "Absolutely." (I don't) Her face went red and she couldn't speak. It was beautiful. 😀

At that point, my niece pulled me away. She was hungry and bored, but not at all embarrassed. That's one awesome kid.
I just can't find it within myself to follow trends. Any kind of peer pressure is absolutely repugnant to me.

 

[Athena]

I once got reprimanded by a HR lady for starting an email "Hey guys", to a group of people of mixed sex. She told me I couldn't refer to them as "guys" because some of them were women and could be offended. This is the same woman who once told me off for (and I quote) "showing too much shoulder" 🙄 So, yeah, apparently even my shoulder is offensive to some people.....

Whilst I do genuinely believe some people get offended for the sake of being offended, there are certain things that must never be normalised as being inoffensive; certain words or phrases, any sort of discrimination based on religion, gender, disability or ethnicity, denial of certain historical events. A British "comedian" once made a joke about of a disabled kid on his standup TV show. Lots of people were offended by it (and rightly so). I just didn't understand how he thought making a joke out of a child with a disability was okay? And how the TV execs thoughts broadcasting it was okay? It's not okay! It's never going to be okay! I don't think TV needs overly censoring, but how that was actually allowed on TV still beggars belief.

And remember kids. Always, always wear something on your shoulders.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

I once got reprimanded by a HR lady for starting an email "Hey guys", to a group of people of mixed sex. She told me I couldn't refer to them as "guys" because some of them were women and could be offended. This is the same woman who once told me off for (and I quote) "showing too much shoulder" 🙄 So, yeah, apparently even my shoulder is offensive to some people.....

That's another thing that pisses me off...being told that I cannot use "he" "she" "her" or "him." I will NOT change how I speak because of some idiotic new trend.
As for your "scandalous" shoulders, I am just flabbergasted. People have become so straight-laced! My God, in the '70's it was the NORM for most women to go braless. I don't understand this sudden switch to an almost Puritan way of thinking.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

vellavu,
your cartoon has a couple of errors. The guy in the black cat suit should have the words, (we like animal liberationists, fried).
The words on the white T should be Sineya rules the world, if that's ok with you.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Not everything is offensive these days,
arguments for words that begin with Trump do have possibilities though.
Trump has said that the media needs to be controlled, to do what he says.
But if the media is controlled by politics a Dictator can take the place of a President.

 

[November]

I was beginning to think I was insane, thanks for the comments on this thread.

I left a comment on a tv shows page, I mentioned the actor was acting like a blonde. Out came the PC patrol. On previous threads these same women were carrying on hysterically about a larger lady not wearing a bra in a family timeslot, but I dare call a ditzy woman blonde...when she is actually blonde... the words started, this woman on about how men cant handle childbirth and I couldnt handle birthing babies like the blonde did, kinda a kick in the guts if you know my history. And I am not a man.

I had to deactivate that account after another pregnant woman took offence to the name I used. She called up my work place, contacted friends and now started a hate thread with her friends finding photos of me to mock.

So, in my experience, its the crazy freaking mummy patrol who is out of this world with wanting safe spaces and their children to be treated better than they were. Of course, not all are, but even woman who have been pregnant confess to bizarre brain behaviour. My issue is that none are told their behaviour is unacceptable for risk of causing stress to baby, even online.

There is zero in the way of supporting women who are not of the norm. Motherhood is a "struggle" that puts the rest of us to shame, quite literally, shamed.

SO I was highly confused and thank you for your discussion.

 

[The Bronze]

I can see the left are taking a bit of a kicking here with regards to free speech. No doubt there are some people that identify as left wing who have a very irritating habit of blowing things out of all proportion and appearing professionally offended. Some of these people probably do stand to make some money out of being in the spotlight, so yeah it happens.

Accepting that is the case though I would urge people to take a browse over to the right when it comes to free speech. There's a right wing president planning a war on the press because they sometimes point out when he's lying through his teeth, which is their job. On my side of the pond this is our Prime Minister:

Who are the real extremists?

Then more generally if you want to see people react to being offended, try posting something that isn't ignorant racist drivel on the extreme right Britain First Facebook page and see how long it takes you to get banned.

The point being that finding the balance is never easy but the real danger to freedom of speech and thought is much more likely to come from the right, in power more or less everywhere and with more to gain by shutting down dissent, than the left.

Also this quote is particularly fitting in a lot of cases:

The "waaaaaah ... you're censoring me" fallacy relies on a particularly warped interpretation of free speech. The complainant isn't actually whining that they've been censored at all, they're whining because their views have been subjected to criticism.

To the reactionary thinker therefore, "freedom of speech" can be invoked, not only to protect their right to free expression, but also to decry anyone who uses their own free speech to counter their specious arguments.

This is an absurd fallacy because freedom of speech is the liberty to say whatever you like, not a freedom from criticism if the views you freely express happen to be ill thought out rubbish.

 

[Blair]

So, in my experience, its the crazy freaking mummy patrol who is out of this world with wanting safe spaces and their children to be treated better than they were. Of course, not all are, but even woman who have been pregnant confess to bizarre brain behaviour. My issue is that none are told their behaviour is unacceptable for risk of causing stress to baby, even online.

There is zero in the way of supporting women who are not of the norm. Motherhood is a "struggle" that puts the rest of us to shame, quite literally, shamed.

I second this. There's been a few times where I've stated on Facebook that I don't plan on having children or even say in a conversation that I don't want kids and I get the reaction of "Oh you'll change your mind one day, everyone loves their own kids". I personally can't think of anything worse than having some alien growing inside of me. Not that it would happen anyway- being a lesbian on top of having PCOS pretty much makes me infertile.
But after seeing so many of my high school friends swamp Facebook with their too much information posts about their offspring... It's put me off for life. There's only a few people I can talk freely about not wanting kids to, and they also don't want children. I think in Australia it frustrates me that there is hardly any kid free areas and when there is, there is immediately and uproar of "What about my children??" Urgh!

In other news, at my orientation at Uni today, there was a woman trying to sell a newspaper (I assume she's part of some club on campus) and the paper was about Donald Trump. She asked my opinion about him and so I started to say my piece. I swear, as soon as I started talking about the TPP she had no idea what I was talking about. Then asked me if I was left wing or right wing. I said I'm somewhere in between and I started to explain some of my right wing positions. But nope, I could see her eyes glaze over and pretty much cut me off and wished me a nice day, clearly not wanting to debate me. If you ask a question, don't be surprised if you get a different answer from your own opinion.

 

[Guy]

There are obviously people who are genuinely racist or a sexist or a homophobic
but these days a person can't even express a genuine opinion without being labeled a racist or sexist or homophobic
these words are thrown around like nothing even though they could potentially ruin lives.

While it's true that these words are sometimes used wrongly by people, I think (and the irony of what I'm about to say is not lost on me) that you are overreacting. If someone calls you a racist, then, well, what's the big deal? If it's just a misunderstanding, then just explain what you meant, and it'll be fine. And if the other person doesn't get over it, then, well, that's his/her loss.
I recently used the n word without thinking, and people were like "dude...", and I said "oops", and that was the end of it. I just don't see the big deal here.

I mean, I sometimes feel like people are just WHINING when they're talking about "misogynistic movie posters" or stuff like that... But if that kind of talk is whining, then complaining about that kind of talk is just as whiny.

like for an example - I once foolishly as a joke said Hitler did nothing wrong (i know it was a very stupid thing to say and i regret saying it)
and even though i said it in a very sarcastic tone within minutes people started calling me a white supremacist and im not even white.

I understand that you didn't mean it, but... Well, if I may paraphrase Louis C.K:

If you say that Hitler did nothing wrong, and then people say that you're a white supremacist... Then maybe it's not that weird. Maybe it's a tiny bit your fault.



As for the "offensive words" debate, well... I found this video to be enlightening:

 

[Blair]

At the end of the day, words are words. What I've seen some Youtube videos on is the concept that words are violent. Leaves me thinking what the hell has our society come to.

 

[Mr Trick]

Not sure I agree about the point in not being about to tell pregnant women when they are acting crazy. I mean isn't it just accepted that pregnancy changes you? As long as it doesn't go any further than the woman reacting strongly to things she normally wouldn't and she doesn't become out right rude, then I don't see the issue in cutting them a bit of slack. Its only a problem if they take advantage of it. Which I don't think in the whole they do.

I agree that people are narrow minded about others not wanting Children. There is a big assumption that bringing Children into the world is part of the natural order, and should be part of a person's ambition in life. Another thing that bothers me is how people never discuss abortion either in real life or TV and movies (very rarely at least), we've gone backwards from that point of view. If you watch 80s teen movies you were more likely to have a discussion about it pop up than in a teen film nowadays.

 

[Blair]

I agree that people are narrow minded about others not wanting Children. There is a big assumption that bringing Children into the world is part of the natural order, and should be part of a person's ambition in life. Another thing that bothers me is how people never discuss abortion either in real life or TV and movies (very rarely at least), we've gone backwards from that point of view. If you watch 80s teen movies you were more likely to have a discussion about it pop up than in a teen film nowadays.

I think I was born without the maternity gene. But yes, there is the whole "The purpose of life is to breed" argument.

As far as abortion goes, what I don't understand is why churches (or at least churches I've attended) are okay with IVF and not abortion. I mean, do they not realise the once an embryo takes that the others generally get discarded? But yet they view life begins at conception, so...

 

[VisionBoy]

I've been called an SJW feminazi and a raging misogynist, so I feel ya.

The internet is a major platform for these extremes. I don't think it's that reasonable discussion isn't happening, we just unfortunately pay the most attention to the ones who shout loudest (I don't see that changing, we love the drama). You've got your folks who are determined to be offended and outraged by literally everything and anything on one side. Then on the other you've got the nasty bullies making out like they're on some noble mission against PC, when frankly 90% of the time they're just assholes. Put them together and you've got a never ending soap opera.

 

[Xanderectomy]

I can see the left are taking a bit of a kicking here with regards to free speech. No doubt there are some people that identify as left wing who have a very irritating habit of blowing things out of all proportion and appearing professionally offended. Some of these people probably do stand to make some money out of being in the spotlight, so yeah it happens.

Accepting that is the case though I would urge people to take a browse over to the right when it comes to free speech. There's a right wing president planning a war on the press because they sometimes point out when he's lying through his teeth, which is their job. On my side of the pond this is our Prime Minister:

Who are the real extremists?

Then more generally if you want to see people react to being offended, try posting something that isn't ignorant racist drivel on the extreme right Britain First Facebook page and see how long it takes you to get banned.

The point being that finding the balance is never easy but the real danger to freedom of speech and thought is much more likely to come from the right, in power more or less everywhere and with more to gain by shutting down dissent, than the left.

Also this quote is particularly fitting in a lot of cases:

Dude i agree with you but ever since the UC Berkeley incident its hard to not be critical of the left.