I’m truly offended!

I’m offended; flat out, totally affronted, will never get over it kind of offended. And what was it that brought on this state of affairs? I’ll tell you; the number of people who think that being offended is a right.

Being offended is not a right, it’s not even an issue. If something offends you, move on. If someone says something you don’t like, don’t listen, if you see something on TV that you find offensive, turn it off or change channels…you have another umpteen gazillion others to choose from anyway.

No one forces you to listen to, or watch or read something you find offensive. In any case, what will ‘being offended’ do to you? Will you die? Will the world end? Highly unlikely, unless of course we offend the nearest aliens.

In a phrase often misattributed to Voltaire, Evelyn Beatrice Hall wrote in The Friends of Voltaire, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

When we decide that people can’t say something, publish something or show something, ‘because it offends us,’ what we are doing is suppressing freedom of speech. We are imposing our views and beliefs on others, and that is censorship, pure and simple.

Once we start on that slippery slope, we are heading for George Orwell’s 1984 scenario, albeit it several decades too late.

What offends one person, another might find amusing, thought provoking or even uninteresting.

On the other hand, just because you have freedom of speech, it doesn’t mean you have to use it. Saying something provocative because you can, isn’t the best way to spend your time, unless you like to spend your time annoying others (we don’t have to look too far to see that happening somewhere in the world right now.)

Having the right to free speech is not universal, there are many places where speaking freely and openly will land you in hot water in a very short time. It should be a right, but that’s in an ideal world, and the one we live in is far from ideal.

Freedom to express our opinions, thoughts and beliefs is something we should cherish and nurture. It most definitely is not something we should destroy because we are ‘offended.’

And if that offends you…I really don’t care.