Do you get offended?

[sumo73]

52 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

Just throwing this out there...if there is a perceived injustice, why shouldn't people be challenging it? There is no "false dignity" in just gritting your teeth and ignoring things because then nothing really changes. Surely that's where improvements have come from in terms of better rights for homosexuals, better workplace rights for women and more opportunities to succeed regardless of your background?

I don't necessarily know whether people are generally just more impolite or if we're being exposed to these things more due to social media. I don't know where we'd begin to quantify that.

I was trying to make a point that the British in general complained less and expressed their emotions less in the past. If there are perceived injustices then we should be challenging things as people have done in the past such as the abolitionist and the suffragette movements which both had a big impact here in the UK and elsewhere. Fifty years ago homosexuality was decriminalised, the race relations act of 1976 and we now have equality in marriage as examples. None of these things would have changed if people had not stood up and made their voices heard. This is not about as you say the false dignity of gritting your teeth but I feel more observing how things were done in the past (from my own personal observation) and comparing them with now. How in the past were we able to resolve differences and how did we express ourselves to make our points heard without offending people?

We live in a world now of instant communication and information. We expect/demand and want things quicker than we did in the past also how do we deal with people who have different opinions to our own now? Some studies have shown for example that our overall attention span has decreased partly due to the increase use of technology. As I said before I feel that the social constructs and technology have not caught up with each other. (YouTube comments are a good place to see this). Also I believe that the pace of life partly fuelled by technology has increased which is causing some issues as well.

 

Edited August 3, 2017 by sumo73

[Fierce_LiNk]

2 minutes ago, sumo73 said:

I was trying to make a point that the British in general complained less and expressed their emotions less in the past. If there are perceived injustices then we should be challenging things as people have done in the past such as the abolitionist and the suffragette movements which both had a big impact here in the UK and elsewhere. Fifty years ago homosexuality was decriminalised, the race relations act of 1976 and we now have equality in marriage as examples. None of these things would have changed if people had not stood up and made their voices heard. This is not about as you say the false dignity of gritting your teeth but I feel more observing how things were done in the past (from my own personal observation) and comparing them with now. How in the past were we able to resolve differences and how did we express ourselves to make our points heard without offended people?

We live in a world now of instant communication and information. We expect/demand and want things quicker than we did in the past also how do we deal with people who have different opinions to our own now? Some studies have shown for example that our overall attention span has decreased partly due to the increase use of technology. As I said before I feel that the social constructs and technology have not caught up with each other. (YouTube comments sections are a good place to see this). Also I believe that the pace of life partly fuelled by technology has increased which is causing some issues as well.

 

I understand what you're saying and agree with a lot of your points. I imagine that a lot of people would have been offended when homosexuality was decriminalised, or when women obtained the vote because it challenged the social norms of those times. There are still people actively against homosexuality now (think there was a BBC report the other day about a violent attack on two homosexuals? might be wrong) and we've become a (supposedly) more tolerant society since then. The advent of social media means people are just more able to view their thoughts and feelings whenever they want and however they want. That goes for all sides, including those who are "offended" and those who are actively "doing the offending".
 

I don't necessarily think having a stiff upper lip and showing no emotion is the right answer either. The cop-out answer is that you need something in the middle. So, challenging injustices when they appear, yet also finding the right way to engage in discussions appropriately and respectfully. I definitely think that it can be achieved and we can learn to discuss our differences, yet respect them and move on from that. Maybe it's that human nature element of not letting arguments go or knowing when it's time to move on?

With regards to YouTube, I saw this years ago and it's still as relevant as ever:

I still feel that we're not quite there yet with solving that issues. It's interesting because I'm part of the generation that grew up with forums, MSN, and so on and am seeing how Facebook and Twitter are now engrained into our lives. On the whole, I'd say that the standard of intellectual conversation has improved, but it's still not quite there. Think we both agree there.

 

[Jonnas]

16 hours ago, sumo73 said:

 

 

While I agree with that person's sentiment (the call for dialogue), I find myself disagreeing when she gets specific.

For starters, what's wrong with Trigger Warnings? It's just a disclaimer saying "We're going to be talking about heavy stuff. Just so you know". Is she against content warnings and ESRB ratings, too? The discussion is happening regardless. It even helps people prepare their brains.

And to my understanding, "Safe Spaces" simply refer to rules where discrimination and related profanity are forbidden. When she says she doesn't support them... is she proposing that insults are productive towards a conversation? Is she referring to something else? It would be nice if she clarified that, considering everybody on the internet seems to have gotten a definition for these terms from 2nd-hand sources and random exceptional stories.

She also brings up "censorship" quite lightly. That's a word that refers to the government forcefully and effectively erasing/blocking information they don't want to see spread out, stifling dissidents and journalists and such. People shouting "stop talking, will ya!" is not that, it's just a bunch of a loud morons who, in their crusade for shutting people up, only make the subject louder.

[sumo73]

44 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

While I agree with that person's sentiment (the call for dialogue), I find myself disagreeing when she gets specific.

For starters, what's wrong with Trigger Warnings? It's just a disclaimer saying "We're going to be talking about heavy stuff. Just so you know". Is she against content warnings and ESRB ratings, too? The discussion is happening regardless. It even helps people prepare their brains.

And to my understanding, "Safe Spaces" simply refer to rules where discrimination and related profanity are forbidden. When she says she doesn't support them... is she proposing that insults are productive towards a conversation? Is she referring to something else? It would be nice if she clarified that, considering everybody on the internet seems to have gotten a definition for these terms from 2nd-hand sources and random exceptional stories.

She also brings up "censorship" quite lightly. That's a word that refers to the government forcefully and effectively erasing/blocking information they don't want to see spread out, stifling dissidents and journalists and such. People shouting "stop talking, will ya!" is not that, it's just a bunch of a loud morons who, in their crusade for shutting people up, only make the subject louder.

I don't agree with everything she says in the video but the general idea overall.

In regards to trigger warnings and safe spaces, I've read information both praising and condemning them. I just wonder how far these ideas will go in the future and how out of the university sphere they will reach as well.

 

[Beast]

On 31/07/2017 at 11:11 PM, drahkon said:

Somebody uses the term white/black in reference to a skin colour (you can't really say "black person" to refer to a black person in Germany; you're immediately calls a Nazi)?

So what do you say? I don't get this shit at all! This actually annoys me so much. Why are people so PC? I'm white and black and I'm possibly 98% never offended. I'm actually offended that people call you a Nazi for saying something that is right, haha. 

Personally, I'm hard to offend. I get more offended if you act like a twat than anything. Like if you don't know someone and you're nasty to them- I hate that.

Being offended isn't a thing for me. It's rare I get mad. I only do if you're purposely being hateful and malice was intended. Like I laugh at jokes people get offended about but it's a joke. I get people being offended though. I've had racism on all sides for being mixed, for being black, for being white "trying to be black", for being Asian (people think I'm Pakistani, Bangladeshi, etc), for being fat, etc. I'll laugh at jokes and stuff but if you want to hurt me, you'll get it back double.

I completely get what @Fierce_LiNk is saying when people get offended for you. It's fucking annoying. Like when someone tells me a fat joke or a black joke and I laugh and they say "you should think before you speak, he probably feels awkward and feels he needs to laugh it off!"....erm, no. I can tell a bitch when they're being a bitch but thanks anyway. Or as mentioned earlier, when someone says "black" in front of me and they make a fuss...I'm black, I'm white, I'm brown, I'm mixed, it's not a thing.

I find being called "coloured" weird. Like why? White is a colour too. It doesn't offend me but it kind of annoys me.

 

[drahkon]

1 hour ago, Animal said:

So what do you say?

I use the words black or white. I've been called a Nazi three times in my life now because I called someone black. Not by the black dude, by the way. It's kind of hilarious