Offense is taken, not given
Absolutely mental week - 3 newsletter in a row, just like back in the day. To top it all off, one on SATURDAY? If that didn’t take you by surprise, nothing will.
It’ll be a short one, though. Instead of an exercise, I’ll throw in an unpopular statement that a lot of people will be offended by.
Because lateral thinking SHOULD offend. It should get people thinking. It should make you question your values and truths. Not in a way to offend you, but in a way that challenges whatever your status quo is.
What we consider to be a woke and progressive school of thought is actually very similar to the values of the Spanish Inquisition. Apart from the horrifying physical violence, the deal is very similar in the sense that “you’re either with us or you’re against us”.
Ironically, the conservatives are the ones that encourage free speech and pushing against the government’s right to control an individual’s life.
No answer at the end this time. Today I just want to get your blood boiling.
Offense is taken, not given
Yep, I’ll just repeat the subject line. Unless someone comes out and personally insults or attacks you, it’s up to you to take offense in what other people are saying.
Unfortunately, it has become like a communal habit to rally around an opinion you might not even share or know enough about, as long as it’s an opinion your community embraces.
In tech and business, you learn to never plan for the edge cases. You plan for the repeated behavior because that’s what will scale and matter in the end. 90% of clients use your product in a certain way, but 10% want it to do something else? In most cases, you’ll ignore the 10% or try to find a workaround, but focus on the 90%.
The public agenda, however, is driven by the edge cases. You’re taught in journalism school that if a dog bites a man, that’s not a story. If a man bites a dog, however, that’s a potential front page winner. Which do you think happens more often, though?
The world, unfortunately, is recently being powered by social status. People need to feel involved. Especially people who are pretty high on Maslow’s pyramid. When someone says something that could be interpreted as offensive (comics often fall victim here), there’s a mob of social warriors that often try to find a unique angle to find a minority that could be insulted by something that was said.
Remember, though, that unless someone directly targets you with a verbal or physical attack, it is your choice if you get offended by their generic statement. In most cases, I’d say you’re wasting energy or just trying to highlight your values to your peers. There’s better and more productive ways to do that.
Take less offense. That’ll mean more comedy in the world and we all need a laugh.
In case you missed yesterday’s piece, I’m here to save the day.
There's a difference between taking offense and working towards eliminating certain ideas from the public discourse. One is harmful to one's self mostly, the other one is activism. And activism has changed the world for the better in my opinion in the last 100 years. I can choose not to take offense and also choose to combat ideas that I believe are negatively impacting me and the world.