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Stuart · 18-02-2015, 15:12

This isn't about a particular new item, but a lot of news items do seem to be about people being offended by something..

Frankie Boyle (often in the news himself for offending one group or another) has written an interesting essay, at http://www.frankieboyle.com/frankie/free-speech.html, the central point of which is that he believes we, as a people , are becoming too easily offended. Often by things we have not directly experienced, and have no knowledge of apart from what we are told.

There have been several instances where the public has apparently been offended by something that 99% of them only know about through the newspapers. The example he gives was that Tennis player's girlfriend who apparently swore while watching him play. The newspapers actually went to the effort of getting a lip reader in to see what she had said so they could find something for us to be offended by.

Ok, that sort of language is not considered polite or ladylike, but she was not hurting anyone, and since when has being polite or ladylike been a requirement to be the girlfriend of someone famous?

My concern is not individual people, however. As Frankie rightly points out later on, this increasing ability to be offended at the most minor of things is causing us to question what we do. It's making the media less likely to criticise someone (even in satire) in case they cause offence. This is, IMO, damaging society. If the media is unable or unwilling to question what people do, what are they getting away with? If you don't believe that the media can get authorities to actually take action, I'll just remind you about HSBC Switzerland, who were happily helping people evade all sorts of taxes until Panorama got involved.

18-02-2015, 15:12	#1
Stuart - Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Somewhere Services: Virgin for TV and Internet, BT for phone Posts: 26,546	Are we being offended too easily? This isn't about a particular new item, but a lot of news items do seem to be about people being offended by something.. Frankie Boyle (often in the news himself for offending one group or another) has written an interesting essay, at http://www.frankieboyle.com/frankie/free-speech.html, the central point of which is that he believes we, as a people , are becoming too easily offended. Often by things we have not directly experienced, and have no knowledge of apart from what we are told. There have been several instances where the public has apparently been offended by something that 99% of them only know about through the newspapers. The example he gives was that Tennis player's girlfriend who apparently swore while watching him play. The newspapers actually went to the effort of getting a lip reader in to see what she had said so they could find something for us to be offended by. Ok, that sort of language is not considered polite or ladylike, but she was not hurting anyone, and since when has being polite or ladylike been a requirement to be the girlfriend of someone famous? My concern is not individual people, however. As Frankie rightly points out later on, this increasing ability to be offended at the most minor of things is causing us to question what we do. It's making the media less likely to criticise someone (even in satire) in case they cause offence. This is, IMO, damaging society. If the media is unable or unwilling to question what people do, what are they getting away with? If you don't believe that the media can get authorities to actually take action, I'll just remind you about HSBC Switzerland, who were happily helping people evade all sorts of taxes until Panorama got involved.