Unco Junto: Offense by Proxy and the Moral Right to Indignation

by | Sep 22, 2016 | Benjamin Radford, Books, Media Literacy, Research, Skepticism | 0 comments

My new CFI blog examines the issue of taking offense, and taking offense on behalf of others. I’m joined by Celestia N. Ward and Ian Harris in examining where we draw the line and why. Check it out HERE! 

 

It’s no secret that (potentially) offensive things are all around us: Social media and news stories are populated by stories of both genuine and almost-certainly-staged outrage over offensive remarks. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump seems constitutionally incapable of not making offensive comments, whether about Mexicans, women, Muslims, war heroes, or anything else. Then there’s comedian Stephen Fry, who takes a dim view of the process of taking offense: “It’s now very common to hear people say, ‘I’m rather offended by that.’ As if that gives them certain rights. It’s actually nothing more… than a whine. ‘I find that offensive.’ It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase: ‘I am offended by that.’ Well, so fucking what.”

I think we can all agree that there are indeed some things worth being offended about. It’s one thing to be offended as the target of an objectionable action or insult, but what about being offended on behalf of other people, whether requested or not? In many cases people defer to a victim’s interpretation, experience, or “personal truth” about what happened. After all, a person who tells another what or how to think about that person’s experience is imposing their own set of values and beliefs….

 

You can find more on me and my work with a search for “Benjamin Radford” (not “Ben Radford”) on Vimeo.

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