3 ms·
> I sometimes worry about anything I may have said years ago or anything I say now that could be construed as offensive by ... almost anyone at this point. I h
by awb 6y ago
> I sometimes worry about anything I may have said years ago or anything I say now that could be construed as offensive by ... almost anyone at this point.
I hear this complaint a lot and don't quite understand it. I don't think the goal in life is to not offend anyone. Just live your life as best you can and if others get offended that's OK. Learn from it if you want to, if it's nonsense ignore it. If someone injures you, sue them. If someone threatens you call the police. If someone stops being your friend get new friends. People are free to get as offended as they want and you're free to not let it bother you.
When there are laws passed that create penalties for offending someone then we have a problem. Until then the outrage about the outrage is just like the outrage itself.
- TerminalSystem3 6y agoThe problem is that these rules worked in prior times, but social media has given the offended the power to group up with 10000 other people who would be similarly offended. And once they are all offended, they adopt a mob mentality and ruin the lives of people. There's no examination of evidence, no due process, and no deviation from the mob's mentality. It's the exact opposite of the norms that the United States had been built on for it's history. And there's little to no legal recourse for victims of the mob who have been fired from their jobs and labeled as a racist online.
- awb 6y agoHistory has plenty of examples of mobs ruining people's lives without due process. I'm not disagreeing that it's bad just that I don't think it's a new phenomenon or even worse than it used to be. The mobs used to kill you not just harass you. Unfortunately, something within us seems to want to blame, shame, control and punish other people.