SebastianBlue
President, International Julian Alvarez Fan Club
- Joined
- 25 Jul 2009
- Messages
- 56,022
To be fair, I have unintentionally said or done things that were offensive to someone, was called out for it, and I did my best to own up to it, make amends, and not say or do it again. I am not always successful, but I do try.Reasonable people can disagree, but who draws the line? Where? Should it be where the sensitive want it, lest their delicate sensibilities be stressed? Or perhaps at the far end of the spectrum, where only the most hardened person might find offense?
It’s a slippery slope and once you head down it, there’s no coming back. Soon, what you say will be deemed offensive by someone and then what?
There have only been a few times where I genuinely disagreed that what I said or did was offensive (or that I felt the person was acting in bad faith saying that it was), and in those instance I tried to respectfully push back.
Generally speaking, it really has to be egregious or part of a larger pattern of unacceptable behaviour (or both, in the case of Joey Barton) for it to get someone in serious trouble or, as the right like to call it, “cancelled”.
I think some of the issue now is that for so long certain people (white men in particular) were accustomed to generally being able to say or do whatever they wanted around most other groups of people, no matter how offensive or hurtful, without much consequence, as those offended or hurt didn’t have much recourse to call out the behaviour or apply any sort of social pressure to prevent it in the first place. In some cases, it wasn’t just that there was no outlet—in many cases the person would be severely punished for even raising their concerns.
Only know that this privilege is being questioned do we have a lot of “people are too sensitive nowadays” or “people used to be much less quick to offence” or “the world has gone mad with political correctness”. People were always offended or hurt (or worse), they just couldn’t do anything about it for a very, very long time and thus most of the time there was no point in airing their grievances. And when they did things tended not to go well for them.
Do I think some of it has gone a bit far or has become a bit silly, or that it can be weaponised by bad actors? Sure, but that’s the case with most things.
Do I think the development of more sensitivity and respectful consideration of others compared to the past has a net positive impact on the world? I absolutely do.
I think often times losing privilege can seem like oppression for those that enjoyed the privilege before, and I do think a lot of the current backlash stems from that and just generally being apprehensive of how to successfully navigate this new environment.