I'm Offended
It never ceases to amaze me at the things people find to be offended by these days. It's as if we have an entire sub-culture of people who are constantly on the lookout for any perceived slight. I remember one incidence while living in Vegas where the cops stopped a handicapped man riding one of those scooters designed to give the handicapped mobility. He was driving it at five mile per hour on a six lane street in the center lane of the north bound side, during the morning rush hour. Cars screeched to keep from hitting him, or dodged into adjacent lanes to avoid him. All the sidewalks along that street are the type municipalities have spent millions on to make them handicap accessible with the up and down ramps at every street, business entrance or alley. His reason for driving in the street was he finds having to drive up and down those little ramps "offensive".
My daughter worked for a while as a PSA (passenger service attendant) on the steam train that runs from Williams Arizona to the Grand Canyon. The job of a PSA is to answer questions and mix drinks, but the majority of the trip will be spent telling about the country they are traveling through, some of the history of the area, what to expect at the canyon, tours that can be taken once they arrive, and the like. She would also tell jokes. Bad jokes. Since that is open range country you will often see cattle along the line, so most of her jokes were cow jokes. One such joke would be, if they saw a herd of cattle, she would tell them those were summer cows. A little pause to let them think what a summer cow could be, then she'd say summer black, summer white and summer even brown. The railroad received three different complaints from black people that found that joke offensive (?) and she had to stop using it.
I guess the easily offended sub-culture baffles me even more than the "victim" sub-culture. The victims are usually trying to get something free by playing up their victimhood, but what do the people get from constantly searching for something that offends them?
My daughter worked for a while as a PSA (passenger service attendant) on the steam train that runs from Williams Arizona to the Grand Canyon. The job of a PSA is to answer questions and mix drinks, but the majority of the trip will be spent telling about the country they are traveling through, some of the history of the area, what to expect at the canyon, tours that can be taken once they arrive, and the like. She would also tell jokes. Bad jokes. Since that is open range country you will often see cattle along the line, so most of her jokes were cow jokes. One such joke would be, if they saw a herd of cattle, she would tell them those were summer cows. A little pause to let them think what a summer cow could be, then she'd say summer black, summer white and summer even brown. The railroad received three different complaints from black people that found that joke offensive (?) and she had to stop using it.
I guess the easily offended sub-culture baffles me even more than the "victim" sub-culture. The victims are usually trying to get something free by playing up their victimhood, but what do the people get from constantly searching for something that offends them?
posted by Fish at 7:32 PM
5 Comments:
As an educator I often find myself having to tiptoe around certain subject areas so as not to offend, most often, the parents of my students. We have become a hyper-sensitive society, have we not? And the "rules" have become so complex and confusing that it is sometimes difficult to discern what our values truly are. I can only guess that such easily offended people must be miserable because they seem to focus primarily on the negative rather than seek the positive aspects of life.
I think the biggest cause of this is because America has become a litigious society.
No one, from an individual all thhe way to corporations, can tell these whine&seeters to "piss off" and "get over it" anymore. At least not without a horde of greedy aclu type lawyers crawling down thier back.
If we just start telling them to piss off, you can bet they would stop doing it.
BTW - Those kind of people offend me.
I know what your saying, and have no reason or answer for why they do it. Probably just to be ignorant, and only that their reality of the situation is the only one that counts. I personally do care what they think, and generally say what's on my mind. If they don't like it, they have the option of not listening.
Maybe the Offended Folk are angry because they don't have any claim to be fullblown victims. :(
Correct - as a society we have taken one step too many away from being politically correct to just being too sensitive.
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