The name is Fend, Offend.
It seems that nowadays, before people introduce themselves by name, (“Hi, I am so and so”), they first introduce themselves as Offended. I am offended.
Last week I come out of the Spar and ran into an acquaintance who is quite active on WhatsApp groups that attempt to prevent crime. “Did you see they were taking you out in big way on the group again? They say you were insensitive with your article,” she said to me. “Well, they have a right to their opinions. I’m not here to win popularity contests, and anyway, I am so tired of the fragile keyboard warriors,” I replied.
Yes, I think we are on a slippery slope. There is a thin line between political correctness and hate speech and the death of our inalienable right to free speech. (By the way, this is something no constitution or law can either take away from me or give to me). Yet we are sliding so slowly down this slope that we have not even noticed we are heading for an Orwellian totalitarian nightmare. If we can not say what we want any more, the slow suffocation of our other God-given rights will soon follow, under the one-sided guise of laws that favour one agenda over another. Stop and think about the proposed Prevention and Combating of Hate Crime and Hate Speech Bill. This is the ultimate tool to silence dissidents, critics of the government, satirists, comedians, writers, artists and the likes. It will even encroach on your right to religious freedom because professing your religion might – yip, you guessed it – offend someone. You might, God forbid, offend the snowflakes who need their safe spaces and who do not want to be gender-specific in case someone identifies with another gender than perceived, but want women and men to use the same bathrooms because we can not offend transgenders etc.
You can not make this stuff up.
Political correctness is tyranny dressed up as good manners. Finish and klaar
Robust opinions make for stimulating debates which make us grow and bring about change. Hell, and I am going to get crucified for this, if someone wants to be homophobic, racist, sexist, anti my religion, let them be. It is their right to have those opinions – neither I or you need share them.
So if I offend you, tough luck. Next time you are offended be thankful that we still have the freedom to offend each other. As the French philosopher Voltaire so rightly said: “I might not agree with what you say, but I will fight for your right to say it with my life”.
