The Big Lie

Almost everywhere I turn, freedom of speech is badgered. bludgeoned and bloodied.

No place is safe to speak your mind lest you offend someone, somewhere, somehow.

You can't say that! What if your hurt their feelings? You can't write that! It's hurtful!

Then my wife wonders why I'm shutting off from the world. I think it's run by crazy people.

The thing I could never quite grasp about the position held by such people is how they've come to accept a decision made in a boardroom about which words are deemed to be bad so readily and without much thought to freedom of thought and expression.

It's queer.

Oh. Should have I used another word?

Do not laugh, friend. I had someone take offense and give me the 101 lesson of why I shouldn't have used it and offering suggestions.

I told him to fuck off.

Not polite I know but he was sensitive dick and deserved to be told so.

I'm not suggesting people use words to purposefully hurt someone. For example, to call a gay person a 'fucking fag' to their face is not appropriate. Clearly that's not right.

Now, if you call your non-gay buddy that, then, hey, why not? Who's gonna know? The Gay Gestapo? The Gay Government?

Nor is it an opening for some nanny to step in and say, "why did you call your friend that? Don't you know it's hurtful to people?" How 'other' people suddenly become relevant to what I tell my friend is still murky to me. Sorta like being told 'don't you know there are starving children in Africa?" for not finishing your effen sandwich. Like throwing it into the trash will change the food distribution crisis in Africa.

I know. I get the bloody esoteric point to the phrase. I just don't see the point.

But T.C. we need balance! Balance! If we don't balance we don't have equilibrium! Equilibrium.

We're not achieving balance when it comes at the expense of something else. Simple as that. That's just gibberish jargon. 'I think we've achieved balance' is one of the most universally loathsome phrases because it's one of the most misleading and disruptive.

It's retarded.

Oops.

Mentally challenging.

Sorry folks. You either have freedom of speech or you don't. Banning one word or reworking another is not balance. It's a lie that fosters a superficial understanding of true tolerance.

I know. This is an extremist position to take these days. 

Just my take.