We are living in the Era of the Offended

And that bothers me. Everyone is offended about something or the other. It's like when I wake up I wonder what's new on the Offended Menu for the day.

So I had a thought on how this could be fixed, if humans can't migrate back a few decades when they'd let things roll off their backs and just strolled or scrolled on.
This made me sad writing this. I mean sad. We'd have to give up all we stand for, all that makes us uniquely human, just to keep from offending anyone. Or being offended.

This is sad.




Era of the Offended and the sad means to fix it. We'll all have to wear grey, with rectangular shaped 'hoops' from neck to ground so everyone has same body shape, we'll have to hide our heads under grey hoodies, not talk, have to find the tallest human and wear platforms so we're all the same height, live in the same style grey house, same gray furniture inside, set up the same, same non-descript grey cars of the same model and mileage would be checked so everyone has the same mileage, everyone will have to do the same work in identical gray buildings with gray offices, same equipment in the same set up, eat the same dinner per night (cuz jones will be offended if smith has steak while he has hot pockets). That's the only way to stop the Era of the Offended.

To avoid offending those who'd rather rise later in the day, that will have to stop. We'll have to sleep at the same time, rise at the same time, do everything at the same time, else someone will be Offended. If you ever read 'A Wrinkle in Time', this is a longer idea I came up with of the town the kids went to where all houses looked the same, the kids were outside, each standing on the porch, bouncing a red rubber ball in tandem. Up down up down. One kid dropped his ball and the mom ran out freaking out cuz they'd be destroyed cuz the kid broke the rules.

Forget movie night or music you love. We'd have to watch the same movie at the same time in our homes, we'd have to have the same music piped in from the Higher Ups to avoid offending anyone.

Gosh this is making me sadder.

Now I made up the gray everything. The same house and balls were from the story I mentioned, but I took it to a new and frightening level. But yeah, that'd be the only freakin way to not do any offence. We'd not see skin color. Or eye color. Or gender. We'd just be a world of carbon copy grey.

Gray grey gray grey. Even we'd have to settle for an 'e' or 'a' in the name to avoid offending someone.

Folks, we just can't allow this to happen. We need to learn to let things wash off of us. Being offended is fine, but there's a limit. As long as someone isn't harming another physically, then it should be okay to do, also as long as it stays within being proper. I don't know. I just gave myself a sad writing this. I can see this happening in 50 years if things don't reach some kind of 'you do your thing, I'll do mine, your opinion is as valid as mine, so please hold to it, as long as it's not harming me or my loved ones physically."

It's not that hard to do, but people are making it hard to do. Why????

a reply to: sarra1833
Hum hum.. the era of the PC; the politically incorrect. Statements that must not be made according to some to others MUST BE.

a reply to: vethumanbeing

It's just all around sad. A shame. Heartbreaking. The very things which make us uniquely human are things humans want to stifle.
Stifle enough and carbon copies we become.

The thing with this "PC BS" narrative is that every Tom, Dick and Harry has jumped onto the bandwagon.

You now have outright sexist, racist, homophobic clowns all screaming "oh I can't say what I think because it's PC"...



That's not even the case...
They're just sad that they're now known as the world's bigots and need to play the victim.


Is there "PC BS"?
Yes.

There is a hell of a lot more of the other though.

"I can't tell a woman she should be in the kitchen making babies"
"I can't compare homosexuality with paedophilia"
"I can't generalise all black people as thugs"


No, you can...
And we'll be here to call you a bigot.
Cry me a river.

originally posted by: sarra1833
a reply to: vethumanbeing

It's just all around sad. A shame. Heartbreaking. The very things which make us uniquely human are things humans want to stifle.
Stifle enough and carbon copies we become.

We are already carbon based so this will be easy.

originally posted by: vethumanbeing

originally posted by: sarra1833
a reply to: vethumanbeing

It's just all around sad. A shame. Heartbreaking. The very things which make us uniquely human are things humans want to stifle.
Stifle enough and carbon copies we become.

We are already carbon based so this will be easy.

SHHHHH. Dont say carbon....scary word.

a reply to: sarra1833

Hate to break it to you but it's always been like this. It just seems more common because we have a 24 hour news cycle which needs constant new "content". And social media makes it easier than ever to spread gossip on "offensive" things. Plus a lot of people have more free time so they can afford to sit around & complain now.

Older generations in the past were still offended by the music, clothing & behavior of the younger generations. Blues music was once considered offensive "devil music", rock 'n roll was once considered offensive "devil music", heavy metal was once considered offensive "devil music", gangsta rap was once considered offensive music, etc.

People were also far more offended by racial matters than they are today. Now people complain, protest, and boycott. But in the late 1800s to mid 1960s, "sundown towns" openly existed all over the country because the majority was so offended by the presence of minorities. Racial Segregation was the law strictly because the majority was too offended by racial minorities to even live beside us. And interracial marriage was so "offensive" that it was outlawed in every Southeastern State. And just look at the "Massive Resistance" program which found racial integration so offensive that conservatives had to resist its implementation. And this doesn't even go into how "offensive" LGBT issues were back then.

Then there was the open racism against other ethnic groups & nationalities like the intolerance of Irish, Jewish, Polish, and East Asian immigrants. There was even the Chinese Exclusion Act passed by Congress specifically designed to refuse all Chinese laborers from coming to the US. There was also the Red Scare where anyone even suspected of being a Communist or Communist sympathizer was considered a potential traitor.

And let's not forget the Puritans, who were just as intolerant & easily offended. They ran their colonies like religious police states & rejected any non-Puritans, even other Christians. They aggressively oppressed their women, and conducted the Salem Witch Trials because of how extremely offended they were at the possibility of witchcraft.

The best advice I'd give you is to focus on the positives & keep moving forward. This is literally the nicest & most tolerant time period in American history. Obviously more work needs to be done, but we're getting there.

originally posted by: Gothmog

originally posted by: vethumanbeing

originally posted by: sarra1833
a reply to: vethumanbeing

It's just all around sad. A shame. Heartbreaking. The very things which make us uniquely human are things humans want to stifle.
Stifle enough and carbon copies we become.

We are already carbon based so this will be easy.

SHHHHH. Dont say carbon....scary word.

OKAY: (silicon) instead or Polyester (got it).

I think maybe the culprit is simply that we have this massive power to communicate with whoever we want, where ever we want, relatively anonymously.

Before there was social networks or easy-to-post blogs or any real way to state your opinion, there wasn't really a way to know everyone else's opinion. Everyone was simply subject to a small population (school, work, home) where there are only a limited amount of opinions to go around. Now we have an overload where we are also protected by a lack of face-to-face interaction; therefore less reason to "hold back" on our opinions.

We also have more available knowledge as well. And more topics just means more opinions. Religion is wide open for discussion. Otherwise taboo topics like sex, race, sexual orientation, or what a country is or isn't doing is wide open for discussion.

If we had these opportunities "back in the day" i think it would be just the same as it is now. Not so much as a generational thing, but more so of a available info/communication thing.

a reply to: sarra1833

I'm the most non politically correct guy you could meet. I'm sure that I offend somebody every day. In fact, I hate, no despise, political correctness. I see the value of saying what you mean and disposing of the Orwellian doublespeak that is all that political correctness encompasses.

I found myself questioning the other day why I stayed involved with social justice, when there are so many fools within the movements. Then I experienced some good ol' fashioned anti-queer street harassment by a (presumably cis-hetero) white man in a truck with a Jesus Fish on it, and I remembered why. Because I don't deserve to have obscenities yelled at me because you can't tell what sex or sexual orientation I am. Neither does anyone else who happens to fall outside of the cis-hetero white protestant Christian category. It's psychologically harmful, and psychological health is nearly as important as physical health.

It's super easy for people on the good end of the stick to deride social justice movements and what we have accomplished, and stand up for their white right to say the n-word to black people or whatever it is they do in their spare time. It's been a hard effing road for the rest of us. I could provide links to pictures of lynchings, to remind you why you should be bloody offended. I could provide link after link to news stories of murdered trans-women and homosexuals from this year, to remind you why you should be offended.

I find bigotry to be offensive. I think it should be offensive. Body shaming should be offensive. Treating women, homosexuals, trans-people, non-Christians, and people of color like they are lesser, the natural butt of the joke, should be offensive.

I wish all the racists, homophobes, and other bigots would go all in and just join the Klan. That way, we could excise them from polite society like the cancer they are.

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs
The thing with this "PC BS" narrative is that every Tom, Dick and Harry has jumped onto the bandwagon.

You now have outright sexist, racist, homophobic clowns all screaming "oh I can't say what I think because it's PC"...



That's not even the case...
They're just sad that they're now known as the world's bigots and need to play the victim.


Is there "PC BS"?
Yes.

There is a hell of a lot more of the other though.

"I can't tell a woman she should be in the kitchen making babies"
"I can't compare homosexuality with paedophilia"
"I can't generalise all black people as thugs"


No, you can...
And we'll be here to call you a bigot.
Cry me a river.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

I realized a long time ago that many people use "free speech" as code for "open bigotry". They want to be able to openly use racial slurs, misogynist slurs, homophobic slurs, and slander people just as their predecessors did. These same people also talk of "personal responsibility", then whine & complain when they have to face the repercussions for their words.

At first it seems like a contradiction, but in reality, in makes sense. I believe it comes from the former 1st class vs 2nd class system in America, where heterosexual Protestant white males were 1st class citizens & everyone else was a 2nd class citizen. Women couldn't vote or run for office; "black" people couldn't run for office, vote, or live near or testify in court against "white" people; LGBT could be openly discriminated against; other religions could be openly discriminated against; workers could be fired for getting injured on the job (and had no worker protections); and customers could be defrauded without any legal ramifications ("buyer beware"). And many heterosexual Protestant "white" American males enjoyed that privilege & the perks that came with being socially "superior" (remember eugenics was the law of the land).

But over the last 100 years, this has changed drastically. All of those exclusive advantages are being taken away & some of them don't like having to treat other "lower classes" as equals. Women were given the right to vote, were encouraged to get an education, and now are allowed to get virtually any job they want. The same goes for ethnic minorities. And contrary to popular belief, "white" women are the main recipients of American affirmative action programs for this very reason. I think that's why the majority of "libertarians" and "small government " Americans fit the former "1st class" demographic; because they want to roll back these legal measures. I'm not making that up- look at Rand Paul's view on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which ended Racial Segregation in America (starts around the 1:30 mark).

Thankfully, times are changing drastically & people are getting more & more tolerant. I suspect that 50 years from now, society won't even remember the stuff we're "divided" over now. Equal rights & social benefits will be as common sense as having equal access to a restaurant (I used that as an example because during Segregation, ethnic minorities could be legally excluded from entering any place of business).

a reply to: Phototropic

Thank you.

originally posted by: Skid Mark
a reply to: sarra1833

I'm the most non politically correct guy you could meet. I'm sure that I offend somebody every day. In fact, I hate, no despise, political correctness. I see the value of saying what you mean and disposing of the Orwellian doublespeak that is all that political correctness encompasses.

Watch it, this is a troll thread; outing themselves as PCs and are on the attack to capture you as infidels (without verbal weapons level 3); you forgot to reload/rearm.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

50 years from now people will be in polyamorous relationships with flocks of geese and no one will be able to say that it's f# weird because we'll all be too afraid of being "tolerance-shamed" by an angry mob.

Hopefully this ridiculous culture won't last that long, though.

Sad indeed.

I often wonder what makes people think the Human Species is all that advanced.

"the Era of the Offended" started 10,000 years ago at least.

The Species is effectively herding itself into a giant rat cage.

I wonder what things will be like 10,000 years from now?

a reply to: sarra1833

Remember our last correspondence on that other thread?

I had a sense of your gender by how you wrote and also your avatar, and as an old man, I had typed in "sweetheart" in a replay I made to you!

Well, I thought about it and due to Political Correctness and a daughter who is a 15 year old feminist, I deleted it!

It's not like by calling you sweetheart I was thinking I would get into your britches, but it is how I think of ladies, being an old man! Nothing sexual intended, but yet, I am scared as hell to be the affectionate old man I am, because it is no longer appropriate.........

originally posted by: NthOther
a reply to: enlightenedservant

50 years from now people will be in polyamorous relationships with flocks of geese and no one will be able to say that it's f# weird because we'll all be too afraid of being "tolerance-shamed" by an angry mob.

Hopefully this ridiculous culture won't last that long, though.

LOL So ethnic minorities & women getting equal rights & opportunities will lead to bestiality? Why do you link those 2 vastly different subjects?

Also, why do you care so much about other people's relationships? You may not know this, but bestiality is only illegal in 37 US States. And it's completely legal in many other countries. Personally, I think it's disgusting. Therefore, I don't engage in it. But I really don't care what other people do in their bedrooms. As long as it's not rape, I don't even want to know, much less legislate something about it. So why does it matter so much to you?

originally posted by: xuenchen
Sad indeed.

I often wonder what makes people think the Human Species is all that advanced.

"the Era of the Offended" started 10,000 years ago at least.

The Species is effectively herding itself into a giant rat cage.

I wonder what things will be like 10,000 years from now?

Too far in the future think tank to even imagine. We are in a process of de-evolving. Someone tell me what civilizations have lasted; long term into modern times; (Romans 700 years, Egyptians 3000 years, Chinese 5000 years). Are we Achilles heeled by design?

a reply to: enlightenedservant

I rest my case.