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Originally Posted by Russ
I'm seeing a difference here. Criticising and mocking is one thing - as an example from earlier I do that about Brian Cox all the time. DI'm not going to deliberately try to offend him though, that's a different matter.
I'll be honest here in that I don't like Islam. If I knew a Muslim who was claiming to live within its teachings but on the weekends got drunk, gambles etc then I could (if I was so inclined) criticise or mock him for those failings.
What I wouldn't do is deliberately try to offend him just as I don't see any reason to deliberately offend anyone really. I don't really see the merit in a society that enjoys deliberately offending.
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The problem is, though, that again it's up to others whether they take offence, regardless of whether it was the stated intent.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/when-i-q...62?autologin=y
All the guy did was historical research and he received a bunch of threats and caused a whole bunch of offence.
If you prevent deliberate attempts to offend that's going to make society extremely sanitised. Half of our comedians are banned, Private Eye is gone, etc, etc.
I defer to Stephen Fry
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"It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' as if it 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 <censored> what."
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I found a comment made about me earlier in this thread somewhat offensive - big deal.
Those who get offended by criticisms of their faith need to grow up. If their faith is that strong a cartoon shouldn't even bother them in the slightest. We shouldn't pander to such ridiculous contradictions, by doing so we encourage a whole new generation of offence-takers and in turn encourage them to find even more things offensive as it works so well in shutting down criticism.
I, personally, quite like being able to offend and to be offended, and indeed to have someone tell me to stop my whining
