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Are we too easily offended these days?

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No. Sometimes young people who are just becoming aware of left wing politics go a little overboard but more often than not the people complaining about how we're "too PC these days" are reactionaries who want to continue to say offensive things without consequences.

This.
 

MGrant

Member
The bad comes with the good. For every piece of social media that rightfully calls out shitty behavior, there's another that tries to stir up controversy because there's a market in it now (see what happened to Shaun King when Breitbart discovered he had white parents).

I feel like what should be good, common-sense values, like accepting and protecting others' cultures, bodies, sexualities, and gender identities have turned into a new kind of purity test for our generation. The tumblr and twitter crowd, and I know I'm generalizing, often seek to ruin peoples' lives over perceived inadequacies in tolerance or acceptance. Sometimes it's justified, as in cases of police murder or sexual discrimination, but other times it seems like some real effort was put into unearthing someone's shitty comments from years ago, comments that they may not even condone anymore, in order to use it against them today.

So yeah. People are a little touchy these days, but worse, people have learned how to turn admiration for tolerance into both a product and a weapon, and it doesn't always hit the right target.
 

pgtl_10

Member
Trump-lol

Comedians avoiding campuses-Only the washed up ones that are trying to find an excuse for their current irrelevance.

Internet Outrage-It's a platform for communication between billions of people at all times, of course there's always going to be someone drumming up stupid outrage.

I think Larry the Cable, Chris Rock, and Jerry Seinfeld are fairly relevant and informed about their profession.
 

way more

Member
I think Larry the Cable, Chris Rock, and Jerry Seinfeld are fairly relevant and informed about their profession.

Jerry Seinfeld is hardly as popular today as he was when he had the number one show on all of network television. Dude is dried up.
 

Jigorath

Banned
Unfortunately OP, you don't get to decide when people should and shouldn't be offended.

And neither does Donald Trump.
 
Social media has made it seem that way but I also think that social media has made people believe it's okay to be outraged by anything under the sun.
 

YoungHav

Banned
Comedians avoiding college campuses are a copout. They just suck and can't perform in front of an audience different than they're used to.

Larry the Cable Guy boycotting NYU or something?
 
I think people generally have a hard time recognizing nuance or holding two paradoxical but not incompatible positions in their head at the same time, and that that has always been the case, and the more recent trend towards social awareness is just the way it's being acted out now.
 

jacksnap

Neo Member
The only people I ever see 'getting off' on being offended are usually the ones offended by people being offended.

I feel like when someone is accusing someone else of enjoying getting the chance to be offended (as if it's a choice to accept or not) it's usually projection.
 
absolutely 100% no doubt in my mind whatsoever. I honestly believe people just look for reasons to be "offended" sometimes too. People need thicker skin

However I now see mods have swarmed in so that is all I shall say, I'm watching you bish.
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But those looking to be offended usually do it when there's no reason to be. They don't need a thicker skin, they just need to pull themselves together and try to properly understand what they are reading or hearing.
 

Renekton

Member
We're not "more" sensitive than before. Just far far more connected.

An unintentionally bigoted comment gets into everyone's smart device in seconds. Same goes for the responses.
 

Trey

Member
Discussions are way more interesting nowadays. So many viewpoints. If you can defend your arguments, do so. Way easier to do that than ever before.
 
I can't anymore..no no no. Your ass said twice? Nah, man..I'm done.

okay, let me clarify: outrage-over-outrage culture is the worst, as opposed to exponential outrage culture or the oft-faux-outraged-over outrage-over-faux-outrage-strawman-outrage-corollary outrage culture

RIP gordon
 

Madness

Member
The social media era has made the outrage into a focused point, both good and bad. A video on YouTube parodying a religion can lead to massive riots and protests in several countries all over the world, a photo on Twitter can cause death threats instantly to a dentist in Minnesota etc.

Are people too offended? I'd say no, but with Twitter, Facebook, forums, their anger can easily be shared with like minded people. Plus, the social media era gives a soapbox to stand on that didn't exist before. A blonde girl can make a video about why she hates fat people and gain worldwide infamy for it. Think about it, if you read something offensive twenty years ago, what would you do? Tell your friends, your family, seethe at home. Now, you can share your anger online and have others who feel the same way join in. Being offended hasn't changed, but shared offense now exists.

This works both ways. Look at the recent Oregon shooting. Instantly you have two sides. I'm offended the president wants to take my guns, it's a false flag rabble rabble. Or the we need to ban all guns, 'Merica does it again etc. Another issue is lumping it all together.

We do live in a more politically correct society. There should be no debate over it. But ask yourself is that a good or bad thing?
 

-Ryn

Banned
I think there is definitely a trend of dismissing things as offensive without considering the context in which they were done or said. Outrage culture has become more prevalent since the internet makes it easier to make your voice heard and it encourages reactionary responses instead of logical thinking.

We've been making progress as a society, but as with all things the extreme works both ways and things will become blown out of proportion.

Instead of asking why something is offensive or if they even should be offended, you can easily end up with a bunch of people from both sides convinced that they're right and with like minded people encouraging them in that mentality.

I tend to feel like we are "too easily offended" about stuff where there's more grey area for debate. For example, there is a lot to criticize in Muslim cultures about how they treat women, gay people, minorities, and apostates, and how they view punitive justice. These criticisms are liberal in nature -- i.e. pro women, pro gay rights, etc. However, it can be quite difficult to state them without being "called out" for Islamophobia.

Call out culture also can go too far in cases where yes, the offense was legitimately sexist/homophic/what have you, but probably not the sort of thing that should ruin someone's life. For example, what happened to Justine Sacco and Alexander Carter-Silk, who both exhibited some very poor judgement on social media and had their lives blown up by it.

I would also say that instances of universities disinviting speakers to avoid controversy is pretty indefensible. The Observer had a great article on this.

We live in a time of a bitterly divided political climate in America, I can't really relate to the smugness of many posters in this thread who believe that this climate is at all desirable or a good idea. Being violently and bitterly offended at everything can only win battles by brute force. I think we all benefit from an environment where we can tolerate exposure to ideas we don't like without freaking out; that gives us a chance for reasoned criticism and the karma to have the views we hold (that others don't like) treated respectfully.
Well said dude
 

Komo

Banned
I would say yes, but baiting easily offended people is also a trend too

Said trend creates a pretty bad cycle that amplifies all the outrage and also brings new people into it.

Overall though ... Yes and no, I guess. There's undoubtedly people who are eager to be offended, and there are undoubtedly people eager to spout offensive content in retaliation.
 

Lesath

Member
Yes. Assholes that are doing the offending get too butthurt when people call them out for their shit nowadays. Used to be assholes didn't give a fuck what the people they offended thought.
 

Relativ9

Member
Oh hell yeah. We're way to easily offended and we take things way to personally. There are plenty of things I disagree with, but I remain calm and detached, because frankly an emotional reaction is a weak reaction.

Different ideologies will always clash and the idea that we shouldnt debate, criticize or satarise the merits of those ideologies in case someone gets offended is both ludicrous and dangerous. Progress is not made by being docile.
 

Anne

Member
It's probably not wholly indicative of American tertiary institutions but this piece done by the Atlantic does seem to suggest that yeah, in this particular context in some cases there is some harm done due to some people being 'too easily offended' as you put it. Although like ZiZ said, I think it may be more how people react and deal with it rather than just being offended.

This article is pretty blegh. A lot of people out there are misusing TWs and the way college campuses are deciding to engage with them doesn't really line up. I'm diagnosed with PTSD and it irks me to say the least when I see TWs being carelessly tossed out. Leads to giving people like this author more reasons to dismiss the notion entirely instead of trying to figure out what it's supposed to do.

We're not all that more offended than before I think though, I think the internet just makes it easier to engage in a kind of behavior that looks that way.
 
Not really. People are just finally getting called out on their shit and that makes them uncomfortable/nervous. There's a very able platform (internet) now that airs this stuff out, and I'm happy to see more scrutiny on issues that have been traditionally brushed off.

Given how far-reaching the net is, though, sometimes people take it too far or others hop on just to see blood regardless of the situation. I'm not sorry to see some of these 'offending people' get called out, but I do think there are definitely reactions and measures out of proportion to whatever has actually occurred.
 

Damptoe

Neo Member
I generally like to avoid offending anyone, but sometimes it's really hard to keep up with what's offensive these days. I wish someone on Tumblr would just build a list and keep it updated for the lazy people.
 
I generally like to avoid offending anyone, but sometimes it's really hard to keep up with what's offensive these days. I wish someone on Tumblr would just build a list and keep it updated for the lazy people.

Social skills are something that we're going to constantly develop through our lives, and we're going to fail or offend people sometimes. As long as we don't take that as a cue to double down, and recognize that it's not an indelible mark on our character, it's really not a big deal.
 

IceCold

Member
I'd say yes. Especially Americans and especially in the media and the Internet. For a recent example look at the situation with Perez Hilton and the pic he took in the shower with his kid.


Often times the problem is that people try to find reasons to be offended and end up wasting their energy on the wrong people. For example, let's say you're on neogaf and there's some thread about a trans person and By mistake you refer to the trans person with the he pronoun instead of she. People will likely freak out on you instead of takling the issue at hand: transphobia. You see this in the media too when famous peeps make blunders.

I think this type of mentality has hurt us greatly since it makes discourse difficult. Neogaf included. People have their pitchforks ready instead of trying to understand another persons stance. Many don't even care about the issues they are talking about they just want to appear liberal and progressive.

Then people wonder why right wing politicians are gaining traction in Europe and why you have trump running for presidency. It's because they talk about stuff that other politicians don't due to the PC nature of the world.

I will never forget the outrage in the USA over the Janet Jackson Super Bowl nip slip. What a clusterfuck that was. Can't image how worse it would be if it happened today with social media.
 
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