Do you think you have one?

Personally, I don't think you have to even take a guess to figure out that I don't think anyone has a right to not be offended.

This sums up how I feel pretty nicely;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPhje8wepyg


How about you?

I'd especially like to hear the opinions of the regular people that whine about my posts or others.

No.

The right "not to be offended" and the right to free speech cannot coexist.

Free speech is obviously the more noble of the two, so it wins.

I believe some countries include "human dignity is held inviolate" which is often extended to meaning you have the right to not be offended.

I don't think I whine about your posts (not to say I don't think you act like a sniveling idiot with a poor self image and lack of true self worth a lot of the time, but it doesn't offend me) but some people apparently think they have the right to always live in a cozy world. I disagree.

Agreed.

I have you on ignore. It's easy enough to just hit the "Show Post" link if I really want to know what you said.

Yes.

I'm always curious as to who has me on ignore.

I'm sure the list is lengthy.

No, nobody has the right to not be offended. People have the right of protection from libel and slander, but that's not the same thing.

Now, I think that in the interest of being civil and getting along with most people, you shouldn't go out of your way to offend them. Saying stupid things just to get a reaction out of people and piss them off is immature and hurr behavior, and will almost guarantee that you won't be liked by most people. Offer constructive criticism instead of personal attacks. However, you are in no way, or should you be, obligated to be nice. You have every right to offend as many people as you want (within libel and slander limits), but that doesn't mean you should.

right not to be offended? no way. that would be totally ludicrous! if a person is offending you either ignore him or confront him. don't just go 'oh! oh! mr. government! this bad man is offending me! please write some legislation to protect me since im too much of a boob to fend for myself.'

Everybody has the right not to be offended in exactly the same way everybody has the right to breathe.

Huh?

Explain why.

People have certain unalienable rights, as Mr. Jefferson once said. The "right to be offended" or " not to be offended" are not one of them. Sure, you have the ability to take offense, but you also have the ability to ignore.

Example: Someone says Merry Christmas to you. You can either reply Merry Christmas, as it isn't an insult, its a simple good wish upon you in the season, or ignore it and just nod.

Laws weren't made to make sure someone isn't offended (aside from libel and slander), and they weren't made for people to hide behind. They were made to protect and serve the just people who follow them.

Short answer: No.

Long answer: No.

"rights" are an entirely made up concept. no one has a "right" to anything that can be justified without recourse to some infallible authority

What matters is a social consensus on what's acceptable and what isn't. If most of society is made of wimps with translucently thin skin, I don't see how talking about "rights" is going to help the situation.

Do you even know what libel and slander are?

slander's when you say it during a necromantic summoning spell that involves Satan's impish minions.

libel is when you write it in lexicons.

Obviously.

I'm confused, maybe because I don't pay any attention to political things like this, but I don't really see how being or not bing offened is any kind of right at all.
If someone gets offended, well, they are offended, it's the action that they take as a result is what matters.
I guess that is what they are talking about when they talk about "getting offeneded" they really mean "What they do in response to the offense."

Basicaly I'm just confused by the terminology.
I've always thought of the acctualy reaction of being offended as an involentary response, like yanking your hand away after touching a hot stove.
It's the response after that which would be either to yell and curse at the stove for being hot or putting your burnt hand under cold water.

Please don't read too much into that annalogy, just trying to clarify my understanding of "taking offense."

I don't think Pen's yelling and cursing really helped anything either. It just made it more difficult to get what he's trying to say. Or atleast to me it did.

Anyway... I think I just talked myself in a circle.

whatever.

DOT

Obviously.

Mystic0, slander and libel are the characterization of false claims as fact with intent to harm the reputation of an individual or a business. It is not slander to state fact; it is not slander to write fiction. Slander and libel are forms of misrepresentation and people can sue you over slander and libel for exactly the same reasons.

It is not about offending people.

I disagree. The "right to not be offended" is far too ambiguous. You could say "jelly bean" and some douchebag would be offended.

...

You thinking this scares me.

Mystic also scares me.

please explain this one... I'm not sure if I'm not understanding you, or if your just off your rocker.

I actually wrote a gigantic post explaining exactly what defamation is, why it is important to be able to file lawsuits against people who defame you, and why Mystic0 is being irresponsible and foolish for clouding the issue by implying that the state will punish you for hurting someone's feelings, but then I realized that Mystic0 gets off on posting his inane gibberish and nobody listens to him anyway.

Carry on.

DEAR MYSTIC: PLEASE STOP POSTING

This conversation will go nowhere because I'm not bat**** insane enough for you to think I'm informed about the subject. Spend less time reading political blogs authored by very well-armed polisci dropouts and more time not posting here please.

To everyone confused about Koobie's statement:

I think he means that there is primally no such thing as a right. Do you have the right to breathe? Well, no. You either breathe or you don't.

Mystic0 fails.

HEY ****ING GUYS I AM ****ING PENN I'M GOING TO ****ING SAY **** A LOT

WHY THE **** AM I POPULAR

You have a "right" to breathe, but you don't have to. I think you guys misunderstood me. I'm not saying that the government should tell what's offensive and what's not, I'm saying that it's your right to choose whether to be offended or not. But that much is obvious.

Because he's a really good magician.

And he's right.

I still wouldn't call that a right in any sense.

Do I have the right? No.

Does that mean you should act like a jackass? Also no.

oooooh... ok, i get ya now

Yes you have the right not to be offended. Look Im doing it right now. You also have the right to be offended. The problem is these dickwads seem to want to use thier right to be offended then ***** about it. It very easy not to be offended just pull the stick out of your ***. Feel free to ***** all you like. Just dont expect me to give a ****.

He's not doing any magic though

Unless making me hate him even though I agree with his premise counts as magic

Shouldn't you be busy dreaming about going to Cannes?

Ability != Right