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These days, it seems that most people are against people that get too sensitive over small things such as the Washington Redskins name or Derpy's image. On a political spectrum, conservatives are against political correctness and believe people should just shut up and deal with it while liberals are for political correctness and believe that no group should be left out. I was thinking if we have the right to be offended by things even if we make ourselves look foolish. What's your thoughts on this matter. Please make this debate civil.

You have the right to be offended. I have the right to offend you.

…I don't see a problem with this.

"Redskin" is a racial epithet that brings to mind centuries of discrimination and persecution. "Derpy" is a neologism that refers to the implication of learning difficulties. Although it could be argued that the name Redskins is somewhat entrenched, I still think it's far worse than the term "derpy".

Truthfully, I don't see anything wrong with being offended. Neither do I see anything wrong with being offensive.

No, the real issue I have is when others think their feelings should decide how society is run. You don't get to demand someone change their lives just because you feel hurt by their words. Nor do you get to force someone to be exposed to incorrectness (for lack of a better word) against their will.

You be as you are. Realize that others are different and so you can't make everyone the same. Some people will be hurt by the slightest comment, others will be making horrid comments for a laugh. Neither get to decide how the other should live.

What no one seems to realize is that you don't have to be heard. It's your human right to have a free voice, not to speak it. You don't like what this person is saying? Walk away. You don't want to offend this person? Walk away. It's all a lot more simple than people make it.

On a political spectrum, conservatives are against political correctness and believe people should just shut up and deal with it while liberals are for political correctness and believe that no group should be left out

Somehow I don't think this comes down to conservatives or liberals.

Despite the name "political correctness" I see this as less of a matter of politics and more about personal perspective. What people tell you to "shut up and deal with" is usually the things that they themselves, find to be completely harmless and has never affected anything they know, including the things that are directly involved in the context. What people say should be corrected or censored are the things that they see having a decisive impact.

The problem is everyones experiences are different.

State A could have a local incident that causes the world "Hoopla" to be connotated to a tragedy that offends the senses of everyone reminded of it.

State B could be using "Hoopla" a slang term for "Hello" and has for centuries but has no idea what State A went through

People in these two States will meet across the internet and assume their experiences and beliefs on the matter should be treated universally across the web…then be offended that theres someone out there that doesn't with flagrant (but blameless) obliviousness. They will then start comment section flamewars and Social Justice Blogs about it to try and control how the rest of the internet affects their sensibilities.

State A and B will forever disagree on who's really being hurt and who has the right to be upset and dictate how the other side should behave. State A will be offended by State B's negligence of their consideration to State A. State B will be offended by State A's attempt to control something they enjoy as harmless and that it has nothing to do with them.

Everyone in this example has the right to be offended, but the real question is: who's offense is more important?

And that's why we are having this debate over how much right people should have to be offended or not.

Now this is a tricky topic where I don't think I can nail down my perspective in one post. But I will say that context is everything, first and foremost.

I dont believe that all offense is created equal and there are some things that I will regard as completely frivolous and others that I will regard as truly important. It's not that I will think someone doesn't have the right to be offended in the former case, but rather that I will see their offense as being misplaced and unfairly antagonizing.

But of course there are massive grey area's as well. It's hard to say

You know what I hate? When people get offended for others.

Reminds me of this Cracked article I read recently

People should make every effort not to offend someone.

People should make every effort not to get offended.

It's ok to be offended but it's not ok to force everyone to make sure that you're not offended. This reminds me that South Park episode with "non-offensive" Christmas.

The only tip I can give that if you offend someone, trying to correct it can often offend people you didn't offend at first.

Actually, 91% of Native Americans in a poll that was conducted had no problem with the name.

I'm offensive and I find this thread conservative.

I'm offensive and I find this thread offensive.

So if I was OK with you calling me a nigger, that would make it alright? Or if there was a professional football team named "The Niggers," and 95 of 100 black people were OK with it, would that make it alright?

Just like there's a whole history behind "nigger," there's a similar one behind "redskin." It's odd territory to tread when you take the majority's opinion and say that everyone should feel that way (especially with one or two sentences in your argument. It's much more complex than that.)
 
On the whole, I agree with most of the comments here. Take each individual, and respect them. Some gay people probably don't mind being called "faggot." If you really feel like calling them "faggot," and they're OK with it, then go ahead.

But if someone is offended by it (or just annoyed,) then why would you say it to them or around them? The only reason a person would go directly to a person they know would be offended by something and saying it is to bother them.
 
Freedom of Speech?
 
The freedom of speech Americans have wasn't fought for in order for you to be a jerk to someone without consequence or concern for another person. It's so you can speak your mind without being punished for it, or worse. It's actually pretty insulting to even use a "freedom of speech" argument to defend this. I'll concede other points, but this isn't a matter of freedom of speech.
 
Consider this: If you say something bad about your boss, then it's well-within your American right to do so. This is not a crime. You can be fired for not being smart about such a situation though.
 
Personally, I tend to be politically correct, because I have no need or want to say something that's inherently offensive/created to be a slur. I have other words for racial and ethnic minorities and sexual minorities. Like "gay." Or "Native American."

I don't mind curbing my language to keep from offending one person. My life is not compromised by not being able to say something offensive in select situations. My life is enriched by respecting another person's wishes though.
 
As far as the Internet goes, then yes, your own Tumblr or Twitter is generally governed by two entities (and in this order:)

1. The site on which you post your content.
2. You.

Do note that if Twitter has a problem with you calling people "faggot" "or "dyke," their will overrides yours in the same way living with or visiting another person in their place of residence gives them most of the control over what happens in their home. Twitter does so with business in mind, but that business is based in respect:

They'd lose users if they supported (or allowed) such language in one way or another. Despite the freedom of 4chan, Twitter and Facebook have a lot more users (and a whole lot more money.)

And the users would leave, because they didn't want to get insulted all of the time/have their feelings (yes, feelings) disrespected.

Feelings and the like are important. People kill themselves over consistently hurt feelings. Again, they shouldn't, but I don't want to be the one running them into it. Saying offensive stuff isn't worth it for me. Now, if someone was offended by me eating meat at all (even if they weren't around me,) then I'd take offense to that. And many "Social Justice Warriors" do want this. That would be infringing on something that doesn't concern them.

Now, that said, I probably agree with their thinking (although not the logic) behind wanting to remove such words. After thinking about it, I do take some offense to Derpy Hooves (as accidentally/unknowingly portrayed,) and I think jokes about rape do perpetuate feeling towards it that isn't conducive to a civil, respectful society.

At the same time, asking people to "Stop making jokes" isn't the way to go about it. That's something everyone has to see on their own. Jokes aren't the problem. It's the thinking.

But on the other hand, if someone disagrees, then they're perfectly OK to. I can't say I'm certainly and always right when I say that joking about rape is indicative of a person who doesn't see the world in the range of right ways (I won't say there is a "right way," but there are ways of viewing the world that are certainly less right than others.) And making such jokes doesn't have an obvious or even direct association with "rape culture" or whatnot. So in that, SJW's who are antagonistic towards people who hadn't said anything directly to them are just as wrong as a person going to someone they know wouldn't like certain comments or words and not caring about what they think or feel (in this situation, at least.)
 
And finally, I think we should all stand up for another person who's being wronged. I believe that people should fight (intelligently) for their own interests, but I don't believe you have to be black or gay to say racism or prejudice is wrong or to be an advocate for equality.

---

tl;dr: It's everyone's individual call as to how they respect another person. It's less about what is said and more about caring about other people. If you care about the well-being of people in general, then that should probably get people on both sides of the issue to come to better decisions.

Also, live and let live. Don't try to offend someone in their own space. Don't try to dictate another person's actions unless they're bothering someone else (I don't believe making offensive jokes online is harming someone else. There comes a point where you just don't go to certain sites or pages, because you know what's there and you know how you feel about it.)

Peta has the solution.

I think the main problem how people get offended is that they look at slurs and caricatures of how a group of people is depicted and they miss all kinds of passive-agressive behavior and excuses which are often much more definite proof of bigotry (I know many people who use racial slurs but are actually nice to people with different races and vice versa).

@verbose

So if I was OK with you calling me a nigger, that would make it alright? Or if there was a professional football team named “The Niggers,” and 95 of 100 black people were OK with it, would that make it alright?
Just like there’s a whole history behind “nigger,” there’s a similar one behind “redskin.” It’s odd territory to tread when you take the majority’s opinion and say that everyone should feel that way (especially with one or two sentences in your argument. It’s much more complex than that.)

If that many black people where fine with the word nigger being used that way, than its vulgarity wouldn't be at all comparable to how they really feel about it and I'm not so sure you can use its historical origin to judge political correctness as many common words have lewd origins.

People have the right to take offence, obviously, but nowadays with more places than ever to state your opinion and to respond to others and talk about comments or names or whatever that people have made, complaints seem pretty plentiful.

The thing that gets me is the N word… It's about as bad as the other words but there are many black people out there that use it like it's a casual nickname. Why? It was originally racist, so why did the tables turn?

Offence gets to me, because people have precise reasons why there care, no matter how big or small.

@Dac

I’m not so sure you can use its historical origin to judge political correctness as many common words have lewd origins.

This is an interesting point which deserves a bit more focus

When making a point on how a particular word is offensive, how important is historical use of that word?

I've heard of people try and tell me that 'caucasian' is an offensive slur. This was particularly highlighted in the Homestuck fandom when Hussie inexplicably declared this character to be precisely the skin tone it looked

This caused a riot so huge you could call it the "equivalent Derpy incident" of Homestuck. And I was surprised by this.

I've never, ever heard the word 'caucasian' used to insult anybody. It certainly is not used in the same vein as "nigger" or "redneck". I've heard people use it in very formal context just to describe white people. It's even used in public census polls under "race" for white people to tick off and nobody ever complained about that.

The people upset by this word mainly referenced the historic origin of 'caucasian'. That 'caucasian' was pulled from a discriminatory source.

But that was so long ago, most people don't know this and just assume 'caucasian' = 'white'.

Words change in meaning all the time. "Faggot" is a great example of how quickly a words past can become irrelevant.

Should we be less concerned about past forgotten meanings and only worry about contemporary uses and implications?

You know offends me more than racism? People stereotyping themselves into a racist definition…I mean every single black person does it. Why?

Hm. What do you mean?

Well have you ever seen someone stereotype themselves into a culture? Like Rednecks do it quite a bit, they all wear camouflage jackets, and start acting like Larry the Cable Guy, and crack redneck jokes about themselves light heartly. Black people do it seriously, and other black people I've noticed hate black-stereotypes doing it more than anybody else. Any race you have in the world does it. The British are a class on their own; of course since they've ruled the world ten times over, nobody really cares about xenophobia towards British people, British people enjoy making fun of themselves too, and are quite light hearted about it.

I was friends with a black lady once, and she was not a close friend of mine, but a friend. We went shopping one day together, and she saw a black guy in a small market store; she flipped her shit and started yelling at him to "get back" repetitively; it was really surreal, and she wandered off all scared. I was just standing there looking at the black guy, nothing was said.

On a sub-conscious level I am a racist; I expect myself to hold high standards because I am white. I demand utter perfection out of myself; if I don't, I get depressed. It is just the way I am, as much as I hate it, I expect myself to have money and I expect to treat everyone with dignity and respect because I am higher than those that fail to do so. I hate looking scruffy around a nicely dressed black guy, because I feel lower than him, making me feel like a failure in comparison; jealousy on a sub-conscious level.

TIL: People make themselves like the racist stereotype people often attack them for, and I do the same thing.

Edited: To clarify the point.

On a totally irrelevant rant.

One time, I asked a small white kid to stop skate-boarding on the pavement in front of my workplace. His reply was "What are you against skate-boarding? Do you hate skateboarders?". My reply was: "get fuck out of here". It was actually pretty funny looking back on it; he was trying to make me feel guilty for being prejudiced against skate boards, and it almost worked.

Query: If we become so offended over the little things, why even bother living? Political Correctness doesn't really work out well, with a lot of people crying wolf.

Saying do you have the right to be upset is like saying do you have the right to feel. of course you do. What should be asked is why you are offended so easy. Dr.Coolface is completely right in saying yes you have the right to be offended but you also have the right to offend.
As for political correctness, it works like this; if you have the money, media, and political strength to change something that offends you then you can do something about it otherwise it's just complaining about something you don't like.

Well anybody who answer the OP's question; the answer is no, because the government is cracking down on feels and taxing them.

This is why over 190% of all people ever are douche bags, the government stole their feels.

Edit: Not that you were telling us that we were derailing or anything.

That feel that you screwed your post up from the beginning; if the government didn't still it.

The problem is that when the media is trying to please those who got offended by something they found "insensitive". This almost always results in a bigger controversy than if they would have just ignored them.

Ok, so due to the controversy surrounding Jimmy Kimmel, I have decided to revive this thread. The main question is when do we have a time to be politically correct? Would you agree with this view, "Republicans support the right to be offensive and Democrats support the right to be offended."

@Chowz

I'll just repeat the reaction I left on the Jimmy Kimmel page:

How the hell is it Jimmy Kimmels fault that a little kid made an unscripted genocide blurb on his network? He didn’t tell him to do it. The kid probably didn’t even know what he was talking about.
And even if Jimmy did say it himself, why would anyone take him seriously? He’s a comedy presenter for Optimus Primes sake.

We see North Koreans threatening to kill all Americans with a serious face on a regular basis and nobody says anything. Yet a little kid threatens Chinese genocide the same way kids on Xbox-Live threaten to bone your mom and suddenly it creates waves of outrage. WTF? Are all these people really upset or did they just need something to protest this Tuesday?

And if they are gonna protest this, why haven’t they said anything about Skrillex? He clearly wants to go further than Chinese genocide, he wants to kill everybody in the world o e e o e e e o he wants to eat your, wants to eat your, he wants to kill everybody in the world [screeching and wubwubs]

My point is, if there is a time to be politically correct, then if anything and at the very least; that's going to be a time when you actually have the slightest fucking clue what is going on.

Every last person raging against Kimmel is a blithering idiot who wouldn't understand political correctness if it spanked them on the ass with an angry jellyfish. They obviously do not understand the situation. The way they react is completely and utterly disproportionate from what actually happened. I haven't seen a bigger pointless overreaction like this since the time Janet Jacksons had a nip slip on public TV

Jimmy Kimmel is completely innocent of every charge laid against him here. He cannot be held accountable in any way for an offhand adlib remark that came from a young small child who himself is also not accountable his actions. I've seen the footage and the proof is right there in your face. There is nothing he said or did that can be used against him. Let alone is there any reason to take this seriously and with this much offense.

The only people who should be offended are actual Chinese and so far, they have a far better handle on the situation. At least they know to laugh off the empty threats of a little 6-year-old. Everyone else is pretty much white-knighting, being offended on behalf of an entire culture and they have no right to be

“Republicans support the right to be offensive and Democrats support the right to be offended.”

I don't know who has a tendency to support what based on what political spectrum as I have seen no studies to confirm that Republicans or Democrats are going to react to offense in such a stereotypical way and I have reason to believe that both political spectrums can and will swing both ways on that sentiment. But the case with Kimmel doesn't lend to this. All we see here are idiots plain and simple

Behold your answers to all questions, nsfw I guess-ish

I've decided not to care about politics unless it's pretty funny or facepalm worthy. I've also decided to try and get enough money in my life to buy my own island for $300,000.

It kind of depends on what is being presented as offensive since liberals and conservatives get offended by different things.

Republicans and Democrats alike often put down their normal ethics on the Freedom of Speech to defend a position they are in favor for and such views can shift inward and outward regularly between folks.

As for me, it's kind of natural for a person to be offended in some ways. But to suffer from it can be optional. It's one's own choice whether to use or waste their time and energy from it by being depressed or being vindictive to the person who offended them or just simply ignoring them and choosing not to get affected from it.

And concerning political correctness, what's bugging me is that there are those certain collective attitudes from groups of people that leads them to automatically get offended. It's like conforming while not thinking deeply about why they got offended in such matters. Yes, it relates mostly to people coming from different races but I don't want to point out who those people are.

Republicans are red
Democrats are blue
They both fuck up
This poem ends now