Right to be Offensive

Right
to be
Offensive

Right to be Offensive

The world has gone mad. One can no longer have a casual conversation with friends without fear of social retribution for the grand crime of being offensive, the arbiters of which see themselves as so good.

It’s not possible to give offence - offence must be taken. It’s possible to take offence at anything. What constitutes as offensive is entirely subjective, and personal. It’s also always possible to remove oneself from a situation that offends. Someone talks to you at a bar in a misogynistic way - you can go somewhere else. Someone on twitter is cracking racist jokes - you can block them. Your manager slights you for being homosexual - report them to HR.

It follows that every individual has an obligation to be responsible for their own feelings. Expecting everyone around you to coddle you and protect your feelings is an expectation you should have grown out of before leaving school.

That’s not to say that those around you are freed from responsibility once you inform them of what offends you. Once someone knows you don’t find jokes of which your religion is the butt, it’s up to them to keep that in mind in future. This implementation of common courtesy is an interpersonal matter. There is no reason for you to attempt to harm someone’s livelihood as retribution for a slight you perceived. There is no reason for you as an authority such as an employer or a government to step into such an interaction.