Offense Is No Defense (Mark Steyn On Multicultural Sensitivity's Threat To Freedom Alert)

Orange County Register ^ | 12/01/2007 | Mark Steyn

[goldstategop]

But the point is that the right not to be offended is now the most sacred right in the world. The right to freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of movement, all are as nothing compared with the universal right to freedom from offense. It's surely only a matter of time before "sensitivity training" is matched by equally rigorous "inoffensiveness training" courses.

East is east, and west is west, and in both we take offense at anything: Santas saying "Ho ho ho," teddy bears called Mohammed. And yet the difference is very telling: The now-annual Santa lawsuits in the "war on Christmas" and the determination to abolish even such anodyne expressions of faith as the Pledge of Allegiance are assaults on the very possibility of a common culture. By contrast, the teddy bear rubbish is a crude demonstration of cultural muscle intended to cow and intimidate. When east meets west, when offended Muslims find themselves operating in Western nations, they discover that both techniques are useful: Some march in the streets, Khartoum-style, calling for the pope to be beheaded, others use the mechanisms of the West's litigious, perpetual grievance culture to harass opponents into silence.

Perhaps somewhere in Sydney there's a woman who's genuinely offended by hearing Santa say "ho ho ho" just as those New Hampshire atheists claim to be genuinely offended by the Pledge of Allegiance. But their complaints are frivolous and decadent, and more determined groups are using the patterns they've established to shut down debate on things we should be talking about. The ability to give and take offense is what separates free societies from Sudan.

[goldstategop]

Being able to give and take offense is what distinguishes a free society from a totalitarian one. The Multicultural Sensitivity Crowd has obliterated the distinction to such an extent its hard to tell how really different we are from the Sudan. When you object to Santas saying ho ho ho in Australia because it offends women you have very little ground to oppose grievance mongering Muslims offended over naming a teddy bear Mohammed. The point is being able to tolerate genuine differences is the very essence of freedom. A point both the Left in Western societies and Islamofascists in the Muslim World appear determined to extinguish in the name of multicultural sensitivity. Let's not go there.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Jeff Chandler]

I take offense at the tone of this article, and I’m not taking it lying down. I’m revolting!

[AZLiberty]

Before we allow the Sudanese to kill this British woman for allowing her students to name a teddy bear “Mohammed”, I suggest we similarly punish all the parents who named their children “Mohammed”.

[Graybeard58]

I’m revolting!

I can be too.

[goldstategop]

Its an insult to the Prophet to name a teddy bear after him but no one in the Muslim World finds anything wrong with a homocide bomber being named Mohammed. Talk about degrees of insanity.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[RichInOC]

“They’ve always been revoltin’...but now they’re rebellin’.”

[phs3]

ping

[wildbill]

The ACLU has supported numerous lawsuits about having crosses on Federal property.

I wonder if any ACLU lawyer has ever visited a Veteran’s cemetary, filled with white crosses and stars of David, and given a second’s thought about the reason those symbols are there—those lives were given to protect the ACLU’s right to behave badly.

[maine-iac7]

[maine-iac7]

I can be too.

[Cacique]

btt

[dsc]

“I’m revolting!”

Boy, I’ll say. You stink on ice.

(Mel Brooks mode OFF)

[MrB]

I’m sure you know that “multiculturalism” isn’t about tolerance of other cultures,

it’s about the destruction of ours.

[goldstategop]

True enough. What multiculturalists really object to is the proven superiority of Western culture. It gnaws them in their guts and since they can't assault it directly, they can undermine it by elevating inferior cultures to the same level. That allows them to say Western culture is no different from that of any other on the planet. Mission accomplished! Of course, that means the values that built our civilization are no better than that of any others. The tolerance multiculturalism have for the barbarism and savagery of the backward Third World is really an abiding hatred of the freedom, civilization and prosperity achieved only in the West. That's the true logic of multicultural sensitivity writ large.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[bfree]

That is an extremely accurate statement.

PC and multiculturalism are both BS.

[Jeff Chandler]

You stink on ice.

I did when I was a child, but a friend of Mrs. Chandler was a professional skater, and he taught me how not to always fall down.

[dsc]

I guess it’s good to be the king.

[Jeff Chandler]

I guess it’s good to be the king.

Beats picking grapes.

[phs3]

I was just in an Ace Hardware store, and couldn’t find one decoration for sale that read “Merry Christmas”

[MrB]

Have you heard the lecture “regurgitating the apple” at the Heritage foundation site?

It’s a “must hear”.