Negative99

If you haven’t read my post Blogs Aren’t For the Skittish yet then you should.

I know I haven’t posted much lately, but rest assured it’s not because my mental well is dry. Much to the contrary I have more material I need to blog on than I can even remember at any one time. Life has been busy and my more productive pursuits have gotten higher priorities… as well as the usual Autumn necessities like closing the pool. Now, my greatest fear is that perhaps my sparse posting could be construed for a waning desire to express myself in the face of all that is insane and illogical. Again, rest assured, I fear nobody… least of all the perpetual parade of clowns.

I do get troubled, though. I’m troubled by people all around me. I’m troubled that certain groups trumpet “free speech” and “tolerance” like it’s a religion… yet those exact same screwballs actively try to silence the speech of others they disagree with. You’d think this was a sick joke, but it’s no joke. I never thought to turn Negative99 into a political blog, but it may only be a matter of time. My good conscience cannot sit idly by while truth is trampled in favor of “correctness”. We’ll see.

Anyways… one particular irritant that has reared its ugly melon lately is that of “being offended”. Much like some use the race card, just about anyone has the ability to try and play the “offended” card. If they don’t like something, they simply say that they are “offended”… as if offendedness-prevention is something that should be everyone’s highest priority. As if being offended trumps candor, truth, accountability, and openness.

Having a blog means I speak… and as I’ve said before nowadays you can’t say anything of ANY substance without offending someone. Some have the guts to express it openly in the blog comments for the scrutiny of others… but not all. But not just bloggers… schools are open to parents being offended by an Easter Egg sticker on their kids’ papers… or a Halloween party. How many times has society changed what it calls minorities in an effort to continually avoid offending them??? I could count probably seven different ways to say Hispanic before even getting to the epithets. Does that even make sense? I could go on for hours listing some popular forms of “offense”.

And I only mention “being offended” with speech and blogging because they are connected. People all around us… whether in school, church, work, on the radio, in the newspaper… are playing the “offended” card. I recently read a whole chapter in Brad Stine’s latest book about the tyranny of the offended (my phrase, not his). It’s really just a form of control. It’s a way to stifle candor, truth, accountability, and openness.

Now, that’s not to say that nothing is offensive… what I’m saying is that what fools today are trying to pass as offensive really is not. For example, an Easter Egg is not offensive… until someone shoves it up your butt. Clear? So the next time someone dubiously plays the “offended” card… offer to give it back to them Easter Egg style.