Offended? I Hope You’re Offended. It’s YOUR Freedom
The Most Important Freedom You Don’t Have: The Freedom From Being Offended
I once heard a speaker talk to a group of professional speakers on the importance of “not offending your audience.”
She used herself as an example. Not having children, she said some have referred to her as “childless.”
She asked, “How do you think that makes me feel…?
“Offended,” she answered herself.
So, as speakers she said we should be sensitive and come up with a more politically correct, non-offensive way of saying it.
She offered,“How about saying “child free?”
OK. That’s nice, but here’s the problem…
Having two children of my own what if I find “child-free” offensive?
Couldn’t I tearfully conclude that I am offended because it makes me feel child-burdened, child-imprisoned?
This is one of the manifold problems with political correctness.
Our freedom of speech is our most important right and the one most exemplary of a truly free society.
It is sacred. It’s what sets us apart.
Today more than ever that right is being threatened by a dark force who’s power and corruption are hidden behind the guise of sensitivity and inclusiveness.
I’m talking about the new “freedom from offensiveness.”
There is nothing in our bill of rights giving anyone the right not to be offended.
In fact, freedom of speech requires the possibility of being offended.
And that’s a good thing… almost every important improvement in the world was offensive at first.
Love your enemies. Forgive those who hurt you. All men are created equal. The abolitionist movement. The Emancipation Proclamation. Women’s suffrage, property ownership and equal pay… ALL of these were offensive to many.
Yes, I am saying it starts “harmlessly,” when universities issue sensitivity warnings against and consequences for any Halloween costume that may offend someone (as many universities did this year), or worse, when they disallow certain speakers with opinions they deem “dangerous” or “not supporting the common good.” This begins the slippery slope into soft tyranny.
Here’s the big problem: Being offended is a choice.
You have 100% control of and responsibility for what offends you and doesn’t.
So, when someone chooses to be offended and then uses that to control or limit other’s words and actions, that’s manipulation.
When we legislate or force the same, it’s soft tyranny, the beginning of the end of what’s awesome about America.
Whether it’s the opinions of Trump, Obama, Black Lives Matter, Unborn Lives Matter, Ann Coulter or Peter Singer, within the parameters of lawful open discourse their views, words, and the opportunity to express them must be allowed!
We need to work hard and passionately to change the wrongs in this world.
But controlling speech through the “freedom from being offended” will create a tyrannical precedent which will sooner or later be used against anyone with divergent views.
The possibility of being offended is the price we pay for freedom of speech; and it’s a pretty good bargain.
The most important freedom you don’t have is the freedom from being offended.
Please share this if you dare (free speech!).
Live Truly, Truly Live,
Rayburn
