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Deep thoughts
My god, it's content.
I was watching Bullshit! last night, and it's had me thinking. Penn went on a big long rant about how easily offended people are, and how it's started limiting free speech. While I agree with him that people are awfully thin-skinned, I'm not sure I'm totally with him.
Society has started to assume that we have a right not to be offended, not to be uncomfortable. Unfortunately, that's in direct opposition to the First Amendment -- the more free speech is, the less we can protect ourselves from offense. You can't have it both ways; you can't have both as full rights.
There's also the problem of what the line is between offense and abuse. Where does harassment shade from simple irritation or discomfort to actual injury? Workplaces make for such hairy problems, but schools do too. Where do you go from saying "get over it" and start punishing the one doing harm? Who determines whether harm is being done?
I'm still mulling all this over. Comments welcome.
I was watching Bullshit! last night, and it's had me thinking. Penn went on a big long rant about how easily offended people are, and how it's started limiting free speech. While I agree with him that people are awfully thin-skinned, I'm not sure I'm totally with him.
Society has started to assume that we have a right not to be offended, not to be uncomfortable. Unfortunately, that's in direct opposition to the First Amendment -- the more free speech is, the less we can protect ourselves from offense. You can't have it both ways; you can't have both as full rights.
There's also the problem of what the line is between offense and abuse. Where does harassment shade from simple irritation or discomfort to actual injury? Workplaces make for such hairy problems, but schools do too. Where do you go from saying "get over it" and start punishing the one doing harm? Who determines whether harm is being done?
I'm still mulling all this over. Comments welcome.
no subject
According to current interpersonal communication theory, there are five parts to any communication. There is the Sender, the Message Sent, the Receiver, the Message Received and any Distractors that may get between the Sender and Receiver. Distractors may include actual distractions (such as another conversation), background noise, attitude of the Sender and Reciever, mood of the Receiver and so forth. Ideally, the Message Sent and Message Received will be the same. If it is not, it's usually because of a distractor. In the case of something such as sexual harrassment, current legal thinking is that the Message Sent is irrelevant; only the Message Received matters.
I can't be sure, but I think we've lost about twenty years of social advancement on this issue alone.