Monday, July 17, 2017

Taking a Stance Value #6: Curbing your offendedness

Things come into and go out of fashion rather quickly during these fast-food times, but boy is it becoming ever prevalent to get offended at EVERYTHING.

Sure, there are things that offend and rightfully so, but there are people who get offended by any and everything, who can’t take a joke, who demand political correctness in every single context and focus on what’s proper more often than what’s correct. Their opinion has to be paramount and damned be anyone else, because THEY. ARE. OFFENDED.

The main problem with this attitude is that people DEMAND that they’re point of view prevail, and unfortunately, this is Planet Earth. People using the sabre of morality to demand justice is as much a farce as their concern for what is right.

“But it’s the children! The children will be the ones who suffer. C-H-I-L DREN.”

Last I checked, I was exposed to Looney Tunes characters who shot themselves, saw homo-erotic moments shared between Ren & Stimpy (latter cartoons were as in your face as it got), I read Mark Twain books with the word nigger in those editions and you want to know what’s the most fascinating thing? Some people are still reeling from me using the N-word in the previous sentence.

To be blunt: Grow up.

I’m not saying that pejorative language is correct, proper, or should be promoted, but getting offended and doing NOTHING about treatment that is as bad as using the word is worth absolutely NOTHING as well.

To make matters worse, people jump the gun to get offended… they want to be heard. OMG. That’s SO offensive. Did you see that? That’s offensive. That’s SO offensive. And what strikes me as peculiar is that people often don’t even ask why something is offensive. They don’t question their motives for being offended, they’re just offended.

Then comes the double standard of getting offended, where it seems only one side of the equation has the right to get offended. They are reserved the right to get offended and get offended they will, because they felt uncomfortable.

And THERE’S the point. One has to learn to discern between being offended and being uncomfortable. Both words may have some sort of relationship, but to offend someone, and I mean REALLY offend someone, you have to cross some serious lines. This isn’t something that should happen every week, every day, every hour, or every minute.

Yet it happens. People who are offended by everything. They don’t do anything about it, they just get on their social media soapbox and bitch.

And boy are they good at bitching.

It’s almost an art form.

The Whine Time.

And heaven forbid you disagree with them. Because that’s when tones do not remain low and instead escalate to a point where you CAN offend someone. People often demand respect, but they’re not as generous when it comes to giving it.

“You have to understand where I’m coming from. I didn’t mean it that way. You're taking my words and twisting them.”

On and on and on and it’s amazing to see how they detest being on the other side of the coin. It’s not a pleasant lesson but it is a necessary one.

Speak with respect and you will have a better chance of being respected. Speak with a sense of elitism, or entitlement, doused in an air of superiority and you will ask for trouble or you will be called on your hypocrisy.

We are losing our ability to communicate at the same time we're losing our sense of humor. We are replacing one with volume and the other with a warped sense of righteousness, and to be honest, it’s lame. So next time you’re offended by someone, rather than kneejerk-spit a fireball of offendedness, think before you speak.

It’ll save time in our lives and data on your phone bill.


Peace, love, and maki rolls.

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