The right to offend and the right to be offended

a reply to: chiefsmom

I can call an old lady a 'wizened old bitch' and then shout, "What are you crying about?!"

"Hey retard! Nice wheels dude!"

"Yo cancer man! Nice haircut!"

It's reasonable to expect limitations in our freedom of speech. It's not reasonable to demand the targets to grow a thicker skin or stfu

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: ketsuko

Yea. It doesn't work like that. Though I see what you are trying to do.

Yes, it sometimes does indeed work like that. All a person has to do is be from the proper "victim" group and create the proper hashtag and get a following and all of sudden ordinary things that no one thought were offensive the day before become terribly offensive the day after.

It no longer matters what the actual intent of speech is, only the impact.

See the billboard about throwing rocks at girls in one of the Carolinas. The person who created the ad was talking about giving her expensive gems as gifts and created the joke as throwing rocks. That was the intent and it was pretty plain to anyone with half a brain, but some hare-brained activist decided the impact was offensive and thus it become a national outrage issue.

Impact > intent

And since that is the case, you have to always live in fear that you might have said something, anything wrong to the wrong person because you can never, ever accurately predict how your words might affect someone. Thus, your life, as it were, is and always will be in their hands. It is arbitrary and capricious and wrong.

First Amendment - U.S. Constitution. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Religion.

abridge
(Shorten), verb abbreviate, bate, boil down, capsulize, circumcidere, compress, condense, contract, contrahere, curtail, cut down, decrease, diminish, foreshorten, give the sum and substance, lessen, praecidere, reduce, shrink, sketch, subtract, summarize, synopsize, take away, telescope, trim, whittle.

350,000,000 people claim this right, and very likely 2/3 of those people believe in the second amendment as well and ARE ARMED.

If your gonn'a run your mouth however, Deaf Alien is right, you might find your meals served with a straw and dark sunglasses.

a reply to: Kandinsky

BS. You have the right to say all those things. That is your constitutional right.

Then I have the right to think you are an idiot and avoid you.

I'm not going to punch you.

And if I cry, it is only because I am sad that you would say those things, that maybe you believe them.

People USED to have thicker skin.
Not so much anymore.

Freedom of speech has been eroded over the years, we have allowed things like hate crime laws to be introduced as they were needed to fix a problem that didn't exist, prior to our Governments inducing it.

People have a right to be as ignorant as they like, and it's down to individuals to feel offended if they chose. They have a right to reply, of course, and if they feel offended they can say so. Unfortunately what we are witnessing currently, throughout society, are people taking offence on some else's behalf.

originally posted by: Kandinsky




It's reasonable to expect limitations in our freedom of speech. It's not reasonable to demand the targets to grow a thicker skin or stfu

"It's reasonable to expect limitations in our freedom of speech."


Who get's to define the limitations?

originally posted by: ketsuko

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: ketsuko

Yea. It doesn't work like that. Though I see what you are trying to do.

Yes, it sometimes does indeed work like that. All a person has to do is be from the proper "victim" group and create the proper hashtag and get a following and all of sudden ordinary things that no one thought were offensive the day before become terribly offensive the day after.

It no longer matters what the actual intent of speech is, only the impact.

See the billboard about throwing rocks at girls in one of the Carolinas. The person who created the ad was talking about giving her expensive gems as gifts and created the joke as throwing rocks. That was the intent and it was pretty plain to anyone with half a brain, but some hare-brained activist decided the impact was offensive and thus it become a national outrage issue.

Impact > intent

And since that is the case, you have to always live in fear that you might have said something, anything wrong to the wrong person because you can never, ever accurately predict how your words might affect someone. Thus, your life, as it were, is and always will be in their hands. It is arbitrary and capricious and wrong.

Yep!

Just look at the state of Comedy and Comedians!

Say something deemed offensive and BAM! Social Media insanity ensues........

originally posted by: knowledgehunter0986

originally posted by: jimmyx

originally posted by: seeker1963

originally posted by: Hazardous1408

originally posted by: seeker1963

originally posted by: Deaf Alien
a reply to: seeker1963

What made you think I was an Antifa supporter?

Just a generalization. The fact you seem so week that it is okay to punch someone because their words might offend you?

If someone said something untoward about your closest family member would you consider yourself weak if you kicked their ass???

Some would call that valour.

I would consider myself weak if I fell into their trap!

Sorry, but I am an old man, and those days of testosterone, alcohol fueled days of aggression have taken a back seat to WISDOM and looking back at the foolishness of those days of my youth?

Hopefully someday you will get there!

wisdom??...you insult anyone and anything left of center, in fact, in many threads, you encourage back-biting, the "we v they", name-calling, and insults.

He's clearly talking about physical retaliation, you are somewhere else completely, like you usually are. (My intentions are not to be offensive with this)

right....good thing you are so much more intelligent than little ole' scatterbrained me, it NEVER occurred to me that he was talking about physical retaliation. and thank you so, so, so, much for not being offensive to me. I start crying, and I'm so hurt the rest of the day when someone does that.

a reply to: Kandinsky

That's why intentions are so important. In those examples you put forth, clearly the intention was to be a dick and offensive.

If I told you I genuinely didn't like your shoes and if you got offended, well too bad.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Not only who gets to define the limitations as has been pointed out, but how do you weigh a person's intent?

Sometimes, things need to be said.

Everyone says we need to have a national conversation on race, but thanks to political correctness half the people cannot talk and half the topics that need to be discussed cannot be brought up without causing offense. So how do we ever have the discussion? We can't, but the aim isn't to ever really have that talk but to let one side lecture the other on how the "new rules" will be.

It is as Orwell predicted in 1984, language defines thoughts. Without the language to express ideas, they cannot ever be defined or spoken of.

Is political correctness really about preserving the fragile feelings of the masses or about controlling what we are allowed to think?

a reply to: DBCowboy

That's what I asked in my reply to you.

originally posted by: ketsuko
And since that is the case, you have to always live in fear that you might have said something, anything wrong to the wrong person because you can never, ever accurately predict how your words might affect someone. Thus, your life, as it were, is and always will be in their hands. It is arbitrary and capricious and wrong.

I have literally NEVER had this fear. Not once in my life. I know how to behave in mixed company and I know what is and isn't offensive. Unlike you, it doesn't come as a shock to me when jackasses get called out for being jackasses.

originally posted by: seeker1963

originally posted by: Hazardous1408

originally posted by: seeker1963

originally posted by: Deaf Alien
a reply to: seeker1963

What made you think I was an Antifa supporter?

Just a generalization. The fact you seem so week that it is okay to punch someone because their words might offend you?

If someone said something untoward about your closest family member would you consider yourself weak if you kicked their ass???

Some would call that valour.

I would consider myself weak if I fell into their trap!

Sorry, but I am an old man, and those days of testosterone, alcohol fueled days of aggression have taken a back seat to WISDOM and looking back at the foolishness of those days of my youth?

Hopefully someday you will get there!

You can insult me all you want....

I don't care if you are an old man! You insult my wife in any manner; it's just something I will not tolerate. Words have consequences that you might not like.

You play so tough on the internet, where your insults have no consequences.

a reply to: chiefsmom

The point I'm labouring here is it isn't as simple as saying, "Anything goes."

a reply to: jimmyx

You going to add something valuable to this conversation or just continue what you always do? Am I offending you yet?

a reply to: DBCowboy

Who get's to define the limitations?

That would be the parents.

Feelings are the basis of analysis and thought. Thoughts are the basis of verbal and physical action. There is a relatively broad spectrum of feelings that can lead to a broad spectrum of thoughts, ultimately leading to a broad spectrum of verbal and physical action. With so many variables, how does one know if in a crowded room, whether or not what they're about to say is going to offend anybody?

It's called better judgement. Something that individuals forget, also contributes to the growth of oneself. It isn't about your freedom or right to say something, it's whether or not what you decide to say contributes to anything of value, substance or to the collaborative effort we all share as humans to advance and further our growth as a collective.

a reply to: ketsuko

Thus, your life, as it were, is and always will be in their hands. It is arbitrary and capricious and wrong.

The reverse is also true. I.e. yelling fire in a crowded theater.

a reply to: eisegesis

It's also called being responsible.

a reply to: olaru12

You play so tough on the internet, where your insults have no consequences.

Lol, really?