Two of my favorite memes on speech. People who don’t sometimes use words that cause others to be offended are failing to engage meaningfully with others. They are not having real conversations.
Once we realize that ALL of us are, some of the time, fonts of misinformation, it should put up big red flags to anyone who advocates for censorship. This goes both for formal and informal censorship. Both are dangerous, whether it is by operation of government or whether it comes from your well-meaning finger-wagging friends and acquaintances who are scolding you to stop saying ‘offensive” things, falsely suggesting that it is possible for a respectable person to avoid offending others. Especially in this day and age of fragile adults and even more fragile young adults and teenagers. It is impossible to communicate meaningfully without sometimes contesting/challenging the facts and ideas of others, and that is quite often what growing numbers of people consider “offensive.”
So let’s all agree, shall we, that it is our civic duty as good-hearted people to sometimes offend others. Without the free-exchange of ideas, what makes us human is destroyed. And it is equally the our duty to hear each other out, at least some of the time, instead of tsk-taking each other, trying to cancel each other and pretending that words and ideas are the moral equivalent of physical harm. We need to take to heart the playground chant: “Sticks and stones will hurt my bones but words will never hurt me.” It’s time for all of us to grow up, to get some thicker skin, and to courageously engage with others who think differently. Only weak and lazy people refuse to do these things.
If we fail to grow up, we will destroy what is left of human flourishing in this country. There will still be plenty of human animals roaming around, but we will no longer have a functional society.
