{"id":27160,"date":"2012-03-19T05:44:27","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T11:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/19\/the-right-to-not-be-offended-is-itself-offensive.html"},"modified":"2012-03-19T05:44:27","modified_gmt":"2012-03-19T11:44:27","slug":"the-right-to-not-be-offended-is-itself-offensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/19\/the-right-to-not-be-offended-is-itself-offensive.html","title":{"rendered":"The Right to Not Be Offended … is, itself, offensive"},"content":{"rendered":"

The essence of politeness is being in offensive. But politeness, by its very nature, is a delicate social construct, varying by time and place. What's politeness in one culture (century, place) might be wildly impolite elsewhere and elsetime. Burping in some cultures is seen as inappropriate and offensive; in others, it's seen as the obligation of guests to demonstrate that they've had a fine meal.<\/p>\n

So you'd think that trying to legally mandate politeness — inoffensiveness — would be acknowledged as a mook's game, an impossibility in this global Internet culture. And you would be, of course, wrong, as the attached story shows.<\/p>\n

This goes for offensiveness against religion, against politicians, against pretty much everything. It may be offensively projecting my own Western culture, but one of the first things one learns in elementary school is that, while actual sticks and stones may break your bones, names cannot, in fact, hurt you (libel, slander, and defamation aside). Which doesn't mean that being offensive shouldn't incur social<\/i> costs — as it is an offense against the social construct of polite company — but that legal costs should be few and far between.<\/p>\n

And, of course, this is my personal opinion (which some will consider offensive), but if God or Allah or Vishnu or Hastur or whomever might be lurking behind the scenes does actually take offense at something mere mortals says — They are eminently capable of doing something about it (so all the holy books say) directly, or indirectly after death. They don't need busy-body judges looking out for Their delicate sensitivities. Indeed, to think so would seem to me to be rather offensive itself … #ddtb<\/p>\n

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Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIndia: obscene pics of gods require massive human censorship of Google, Facebook<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGovernment officials demand that Google, Facebook, and other Internet companies hire armies of humans to pre-screen and censor the content that users upload. A judge threatens to block them "like Chin…\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The essence of politeness is being in offensive. But politeness, by its very nature, is a delicate social construct, varying by time and place. What's politeness in one culture (century, place) might be wildly impolite elsewhere and elsetime. Burping in some cultures is seen as inappropriate and offensive; in others, it's seen as the obligation … Continue reading “The Right to Not Be Offended … is, itself, offensive”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-27160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","tag-ddtb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51439,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/12\/the-politeness-of-rudeness-the-rudeness-of-politeness.html","url_meta":{"origin":27160,"position":0},"title":"The politeness of rudeness, the rudeness of politeness","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 12-Jun-15 7:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The most artificial thing in the world is social custom, yet nothing is considered more \"natural\" and \"obvious\" and fundamental. Which can lead to all sorts of interesting conflicts when people of different cultures meet. What 'Thank You' Really Means in Chinese In America, saying thank you is routine. In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25510,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/17\/i-find-your-offended-offense-to-be-offensive.html","url_meta":{"origin":27160,"position":1},"title":"I find your offended offense to be offensive","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Jan-12 5:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While politeness might cause me to not take actions that unnecessarily cause offense, ultimately there is no \"right\" to not be offended, nor should there be. Dealing with offensive people and situations without pulling out a gun, or calling the police to do likewise, is a sign of emotional and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27002,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/08\/you-can-scrub-but-you-cant-hide-on-the-internet.html","url_meta":{"origin":27160,"position":2},"title":"You can scrub, but you can't hide, on the Internet","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 8-Mar-12 11:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"To be fair, Rush might simply be taking down material that he's apologized for. Indeed, one could argue that were he to leave the material up, it would continue to be an insult\/defamation, not in keeping with his Official Apology (such as it was). This might be politeness, or it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41173,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/23\/an-armed-society-is-a-scared-society.html","url_meta":{"origin":27160,"position":3},"title":"An Armed Society Is a Scared Society","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 23-Feb-14 10:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So should\u00a0\"politeness\" be based on mutual respect and a desire to be kind to one another, or on fear that the other person may pull a gun if they don't take a liking to your sass? \u00a0Because it the latter sounds less like politeness and more like being bullied.(h\/t +George\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3703,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/03\/phone_etiquette.html","url_meta":{"origin":27160,"position":4},"title":"Phone etiquette","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Oct-02 3:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"If you are calling someone to whom you are largely or even partially a stranger, particularly at work, be sure and introduce yourself right off the bat. E.g., \"Hi, this...","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10031,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/09\/20\/why_some_folks_think_chri.html","url_meta":{"origin":27160,"position":5},"title":"Why some folks think Christians are nuts","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 20-Sep-06 10:29am","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, because of guys like Pastor John Hagee, interviewed at length (and with extraordinary politeness) by Terri Gross on NPR's Fresh Air. While much of the discussion is on...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/john_hagee.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}