Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The 21st Century: The Golden Age of Being Offended
Pajamas Media ^ | 08/01/2015 | by Frank J. Fleming

Posted on 07/31/2015 5:34:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

I am angry all the time. I am constantly upset to the point that I can’t eat and can barely sleep. Just the sight of other people laughing fills me with painful rage. Because that’s how tolerant I am.

We are in a golden age of progressivism. We are hurtling to new frontiers of tolerance and understanding that not even the most fevered imagination could have conceived of a decade ago. And that’s because we’ve unlocked the core of progressivism, the sine qua non of people of all races, ethnicities, genders, sexual preferences, and categories yet to be added getting along: being offended.

Everyone remembers stories about the Puritans. They were religious types who judged each other and were offended constantly by normal human behavior. We look at them with contempt now, though, as the scope of what offended them was too narrow. Their imaginations about what sorts of things to get angry about were too limited. And never once did they use papier-mâché puppets in a protest. But now that the secular world has taken over being offended by everything, we are truly in a renaissance.

I am now upset by more things before breakfast than a normal man used to be upset by all month. And every day, social scientists are busy conducting studies, performing experiments, and consuming heavy amounts of drugs in order to come up with brand new things for the enlightened individuals in society to be offended by. It’s thrilling. Think of it — not that long ago, referring to only women having babies would have been as offensive as saying that two plus two equals four, but now it’s highly insensitive and will get you screamed at and protested. And saying two plus two equals four is also offensive because it’s falnumericalnormative. I just made that word up. Because that’s the glorious world we’re in now: one where we have to constantly make up new words to describe brand new concepts that offend us.

But if I think I’m advanced at being offended, it won’t compare at all to the next generation. Right now, tomorrow’s progressives are on college campuses being trained to have a sensitivity to offense far beyond normal human senses. With trigger warnings, safe spaces, and advanced microaggression-detection techniques, they have become so sensitive that the slightest breeze out of place will shatter them into pieces and leave them gibbering, offended messes that will take years of expensive therapy to put back together. They are so tolerant and understanding of others that they can’t ever hope to function in normal society without constant mental breakdowns caused by the huge offenses that only they are trained enough to see.

And with this course we’re on, think of what the future will be like. We will evolve to be so tolerant that there will be nothing left that doesn’t offend us. We will search the streets for anyone enjoying themselves, and when we find such fiends, we’ll scream at them, “How dare you?! How can you smile when there is so much that is offensive everywhere? What sick kind of bigot are you that you can enjoy life for even a moment?”

Soon everyone will shuffle along silently, staring at their feet to try to avoid the screaming and protests. But it won’t work — we will be offended by the silence. We will screech at the day and be enraged by the night. We will have such finely honed senses for offense that you can lock us in a sensory deprivation chamber, and we will still find things to rage against. And when absolutely everything a human can utter or do is found to be a grave offense, we will turn to the animal world and learn to communicate with them — find out what they have to say and then scream at that. And when there is nothing left on Earth that doesn’t enrage us, we will turn to space. We will explore the deepest, darkest corners of the universe and shout and wave placards at them.

Eventually, all of creation — all of reality — everything conceivable and everything imaginable will be declared offensive. We will do nothing but scream constantly. We will have no feelings but anger — except for the few fleeting moments of happiness when we have discovered yet a new thing that offends us.

And then we will have true tolerance and understanding.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: offense; politicallycorrect

1 posted on 07/31/2015 5:34:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I find this post offensive.


2 posted on 07/31/2015 5:36:31 AM PDT by Neidermeyer ("Our courts should not be collection agencies for crooks." — John Waihee, Governor of Hawaii, 1986-)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I find constant screaming to be offensive.


3 posted on 07/31/2015 5:39:45 AM PDT by Paladin2 (Ive given up on aphostrophys and spell chek on my current device...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
One day we will wish we didn't take the offend-a-bots so lightly. Follow the trend line a decade or so and you see serious loss of liberty, and all that goes with it.
4 posted on 07/31/2015 5:50:33 AM PDT by Awgie (truth is always stranger than fiction)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I’m offended by people who are offended.


5 posted on 07/31/2015 5:51:55 AM PDT by randita (...Our First Lady is a congenital liar - William Safire, 1996)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Amazing post. Thanks.


6 posted on 07/31/2015 6:33:30 AM PDT by mykroar ("Never believe anything until it has been officially denied." - Otto von Bismarck)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Paladin2

Its a Fad—done to help a political agenda. It will become a joke in the future. Wait til the media has really important things to talk about—like World War Three, or universal Pandemic, or Civil War.


7 posted on 07/31/2015 7:17:26 AM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

My rights begin at the point of someone being “offended”, and my rights end when they start to infringe on another’s RIGHTS, which are defined by rule of law.

Now when being offended becomes something that can be litigated, then the system of laws will fall apart because being offended is so arbitrary.


8 posted on 07/31/2015 7:57:59 AM PDT by Wildbill22 (They have us surrounded again, the poor bastards- Gen Creighton Williams Abrams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The evil of the “offense” culture is that it gives greater moral weight to the offense of different demographic groups.
For example, the white woman can usually trump the white guy when she’s offended, but anyone else with more demographic check boxes trumps her.


9 posted on 07/31/2015 8:01:48 AM PDT by tbw2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: randita

“I’m offended by people who are offended.”

I have very thin skin and I find your covert microaggression unacceptable.


10 posted on 07/31/2015 8:09:59 AM PDT by VanShuyten ("a shadow...draped nobly in the folds of a gorgeous eloquence.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: tbw2

So white guys have no right to be offended?

What if instead of a middle aged white heterosexual, I am in fact, a lesbian black woman trapped in a white male body? Who is to say I am not allowed that identity? And THEN can I EVER be offended!

Man, just thinking of all the preferential hiring, college acceptance, scholarship money and social ass kissing I could have had if I just played that card.


11 posted on 07/31/2015 8:29:55 AM PDT by Wildbill22 (They have us surrounded again, the poor bastards- Gen Creighton Williams Abrams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Wildbill22

I am in fact, a lesbian black woman trapped in a white male body?
**********************
I am a crippled transgender homeless black woman trapped in a white male body and I am offended that you haven’t bought me that pair of 13W(left foot) 9N(right foot) 6” stiletto’s.


12 posted on 07/31/2015 6:12:16 PM PDT by Neidermeyer ("Our courts should not be collection agencies for crooks." — John Waihee, Governor of Hawaii, 1986-)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Neidermeyer

Damn! You got me beat!


13 posted on 07/31/2015 7:04:44 PM PDT by Wildbill22 (They have us surrounded again, the poor bastards- Gen Creighton Williams Abrams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson