Is "Offensiveness" even a thing these days?

[t0night]

I keep hearing people getting offended by things that shouldn't be considered offensive (i.e. feminists, vegans, other cancerous groups, people who don't like using cancer as an adjective)

 

Being offended by something used to mean something, now we throw it around because whatever

 

Something less agreeable would be a white person saying "nigga". Why would this be offensive to blacks who use the word in 90% of their vocabulary? (not talkin' hard 'r')

Or is it offensive to eat meat in front of a vegan

Or use the word cancer/gay in derogatory terms, even if the person who says it is gay or has had experiences with cancer

 

We're in a state of offensive inflation

 

inb4 "this thread offends me" by the meme masters

1) white people saying a word which has historically been used by white people to dehumanise and degrade black people as part of an overarching racism which incorporates everything from name calling to "scientific" racism to slavery to institutionalised slavery is offensive because it says "i don't care about any of that history i just want to co-opt black reclaimation of hate speech because i think it's cool".  

 

2) just because you are a part of a group does not give you the title of official speaker for everyone within that group. case in point, sugarcube arguing that because he's jewish, everyone can use jew as a synonym for greedy. 

 

i guess my main feeling with using cancer, gay, nigger, jewish in those contexts is like: why? what makes you need to use that word, what makes you completely not bothered about reinforcing those meanings and stereotypes when people are genuinely hurt by it? sure, you get a kick out of being a bit taboo, congratulations,  but that's so fucking childish and selfish. thinking about what you are saying is absolutely free and if you adamantly refuse to, or have thought about it and consider your personal liberty to use specific words (that are not in any way significant to you) more important than the harm they cause to other people, fuck you. i don't really want to hang out with you and neither will a lot of people

[Hyperqube]

Freedom of Speech can offend people too but no one has a legitimate argument to silence the offenders.

... except, that's the point: yes they do. Freedom of Speech applies to the GOVERNMENT: The GOVERMENT has no legitimate argument to silence you.

Unless we're talking about slander/incitement/... (ya know, the things that are exempt of Freedom of Speech), you can't get fined or arrested.

 

That's for the goverment. Everyone else, that's quite the different story.

For example, an admin on this forum is well within his/her right to ban you when you say something they don't like and remove all your posts. This does not infringe on your Freedom of Speech.

 

And based off you trying to "hush" me, youre probably one of those people lol.

Not really. I found the argument poor - but I'm not offended by that.

If I were offended by poor arguments, I wouldn't be following the persiential debates

 

please don't speak to people like this hyperqube, it's unhelpful and unnecessary.

Appologies. I was trying to make the point that the logic of "I say what I want, I don't care if others get offended (or hurt, as you point out)" - is quite juvinile: it simply isn't how the real world works.

 

But as flunky indicates in his new posts, he seems to understand this.

[Teeny Tiny Cat]

actually python, given that you started this thread, you're kinda a handy example of my point. you have frequently taken jokes i've made way more seriously than i intended them, and been offended or reacted in a hostile way to me. personally, i don't really understand your response, and everyone else seems to be able to discern when i am serious vs kidding, but i still care about the way it might make you feel and have tried to be more sensitive to how i might be perceived by you and others. i know i can come across as more aggressive than i intend to some people, and i take responsibility for that even if i meant no malice when i commented.

 

hopefully this doesn't get read as an attack at all, it really isn't. i don't want to start a fight or anything, just thought giving you some context that you are familiar with might help you to understand what i'm saying in here.

[funkle]

Not really. I found the argument poor - but I'm not offended by that.

If I were offended by poor arguments, I wouldn't be following the persiential debates

This part made me laugh because it's so fuckin true lol. 

All in all, I think we can all agree that we never intend to hurt people's feelings. I guess I stand alone when I say that I wouldnt put in the effort to apologize for saying what I say in certain situations.