Being Offended
In the wake of Charlie Hebdo, The Interview, and the nationwide riots, I have been fascinated by people actively promoting limitation of speech and expression. Our social responsibility is tolerate each other, not accept, embrace, or satiate each other. Since the world has gone so far up its own digestive tract, I suppose I have to spell that out. Whatever a person's race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual identity, religion, national allegiance, profession, favorite sports team, preferred choice of cell phone, hair color, etc., Western secular society dictates that person can carry on with life as that person sees fit within the rule of law. That person can say, write, think, dress, believe, etc., whatever he or she chooses. Conventionally, only speech that is not protected is speech which is dangerous AND literally false. Not arguably false, or believed to be false. Literally and precisely false. Hence the often misquoted phrase, "falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater" (Schenck v. United States). Nothing in that limitation, nor in the conventions of Western secular society (repetition of phrase is quite deliberate), dictates that a person should be free from offense. It's easy to play coy at our levels of our offense. I'm not referring to being offended by Miley Cyrus at the VMAs. I'm referring to the level of offense caused by anti-abortion protesters showing high-resolution, enlarged posters of aborted fetuses in front of kids waiting for snow cones at Earth Day. Everyone has the right to offend, and in turn be offended to the marrow of the bones. No one has the right to silence or attempt to silence speech based on an opposite worldview. There is no race, religion, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual identity, national allegiance, profession, favorite sports team, hair color, or freckle count that is somehow exempt. This is not true globally, but I am not discussing the world. Once more with feeling, I'm specifically referring to Western secular society. It's not (insert group here)-phobic or anti-(noun/adjective) to hold the rule of law above sensitivity. In contrast, here are a few things that are (insert group here)-phobic or anti-(noun/adjective): - Committing violence because someone insulted your religion - Launching a cyberattack because someone insulted your nation - Targeting an ethnic store for violence because you don't like them - Assuming that an entire population is of a hive-mind based of the acts of a few - Denying equal protection under the law to a population based on their identity Offensive language, images, and audio is around us everyday. Racism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance, and all of their cousins in bigotry are everywhere. It's just the way of the world. The concept itself is subjective. That's why there is a codified cultural baseline. We have to tolerate each other. We do not have to like each other. We do not have to cater to each others' sensitivities. We don't have to kiss each others' metaphorical backsides. We just have to not deny anyone of life, liberty, or property because that person's free speech is offensive to another.