You know what really grinds my gears? Everyone who feels the need to eliminate anything that offends them. This is a very general statement, and purposely so. I am sure it has been going on for a long long time, but since when does taking offense to something mean that it is now an evil thing?
People, not everyone is going to like everything they hear or see. But as a diverse species of intellectual beings, that is just the reality we live in. This continuous sheltering and 'cleansing', as I will call it, can only hurt things in the long run. It is inevitable that at one point you will come across something that you do not like or even that you find offensive to your beliefs or ideas. The thing is, this is perfectly OK. We are capable of assessing the situation, acknowledging the fact that it is offensive to one's self or loved ones, and then distancing one's self from it. It does not entail the right to distance others from it or the need to remove it entirely from existence.
I feel our culture has always dealt with this issue, with the larger issue of civil rights down to the much debated right of free speech. If you cannot tell, I am a great advocate of the right to free speech and I feel that someone should be able to say, write, draw or sing anything they choose. It is only the actions that can hurt people. Sure, somethings that are said can incite actions, but they can also incite just the opposite. The bottom line is that there is a responsibility of each person to their actions and the blame cannot be passed on to a spoken word or piece of text.
Family Guy for instance is what I consider a noticeably offensive show, yet millions of people love it. It's freakin hilarious. It presents material that may be offensive to some, but to others it is known to all be in jest. People know that it is not to be taken seriously and they can keep going about their day without shedding a tear. This is the way all offensive things should be handled. If you find it offensive, distance yourself from it. It is fine to give your opinion of it to the world, but it is not your place to force or deny others to material that you find questionable. If it is unpopular, it will go away anyway. If it is liked by many, it will stick around, and we have to respect that.
I know this is an over the top comparison, but here goes: this idea of 'offensiveness' is quickly becoming the new blasphemy. It can be argued that we are slowly becoming more and more secular in society (sure millions attend church and believe in God, blah, blah, but are we really that religious anymore? This will have to be another posting). As we turn more secular, the blasphemous ideas that we would have fought for in the past are now being redefined as simply 'offensive' as to include ideas beyond religion, to more innately human topics such as race, gender or sexual orientation. For some reason, we allow this fight to go on as if it is ok to actually fight for the protection from offense and differing views as if it was a life and death matter to protect our ears (and our dear, dear children of course) from something someone deems unfit.
Compounding the matter is the notion that those who are leading this movement of eliminating offenses have an underlying agenda of self-promotion that is easily followed and accepted by the masses. Nobody likes being offended, it sucks. Most people on a day to day basis would actually do as recommended earlier and just ignore this issue and move on. But when there is a figurehead speaking out on the topic, it is far too easy to simply sit back and in a way support the person while not really engaging one's self in the issue. I feel this is why these offense-offenders get so much attention and support. Another great thing about our culture is now that news travels faster than ever before, we are always aware of the newest scandal or situation, and who doesn't want to know what the latest scandal is? This type of thing can give attention to something that really doesn't deserve it. Imus is the current example. "Nappy-headed hoes"? I mean, come on, really? I hear worse things in the grocery store. Sure, he shouldn't have said it, but they are words, nothing more.
This whole issue makes me think it has less to do with the offense itself and more with people using it as a tool of self-promotion and attention. Take those crazy religious protestors who show up at military funerals, etc. Everyone knows they are just crazy people, but then again, everyone knows them. They speak out about something that is 'offensive' to them, the news picks it up, and now we are aware of them. Who cares about them? They are crazy! But because they take offense and bring a scandalish issue to light, we are now aware of them are their situation.
I just find the whole situation irritating. People could live much happier lives by simply going about their business, distancing themselves from things they dislike (much like I distance myself from diet soda, country music and girls with armpit hair). There, I voiced my disapproval and will now move on. There is no need for me to fight to get rid of country music. Other people enjoy the S out of it, I would be foolish to think I should be able to deny others something which they enjoy. No matter how offensive it is, one does not have the right to deny others from it. Share your opinion, but don't force your opinion. Nobody likes a fascist. Well, maybe somebody does, so I won't deny the right to be so. (But they are dicks, there I said it, GASP!)
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