I don't have the right to not be offended but I do have the right to take offence, but I'd better be ready to defend my taking of offence if challenged. I don't believe that there is an untrammelled sacred right to "free speech". All too often, the ardent scoundrel supporters of "free speech" (more often than not yanks in my internet experience, who inhabit the Land Of The Free in which you're free to get all your facts from Faux News and carry a lethal weapon in your pants pocket) want to be able to express hatred and prejudice without consequences for themselves. One fellow I know, too close to me for comfort, thinks that we should all have the right to publicly deny the Holocaust without penalty. Well, to me, you have no right to do that. For a start, the overwhelming body of facts is utterly against you, and, in my experience, I've never come across a Holocaust denier/belittler/demurrer that isn't one hundred percent antisemitic, a stance which is simply one of unqualified hatred and bigotry. You shouldn't be allowed to preach anything that threatens or terrifies anyone else or that makes them frightened of criticising you back. These days, you can often avoid stuff that you know might offend you (though there are people hereabouts who love to be offended, it seems), but, even if it creeps up on you by surprise, you have the right to complain. Just decide first whether you're feeling truly offended or whether you're just being sanctimonious. I see an awful lot of sanctimonious behaviour, bordering at times on the sheer hypocritical, in these "controversial" threads, typically from people who wish to use it as a screen for their own racism, homophobia or religious delusions. I've always found that a thick skin and a cool head serves both to protect you from idiots and to thoroughly annoy them at the same time.
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