America, Land of the Offended

Alright, it takes a lot to offend me.  I’ve been called pretty much every name in the book and I can take the abuse mostly because I don’t LOOK to be offended.  Somehow, many other people do the opposite and are offended at the slightest hint at anything that can be remotely considered an insult.  Ugh.

It’s gotten so bad that I really don’t know what to say to anyone.  Everything needs to be qualified these days, especially since every subgroup of the population has found some sort of identity in what makes them unique, whether it be blacks, whites, gays, anti-gays, christians, etc.  I don’t know, I’ve always had a “live and let live” attitude toward most people, so long as you don’t “live” in my face and do your “living” in the privacy of your home.  No one cares about your ethnicity nor your lifestyle, religious beliefs, etc, etc, etc, unless you try to ram it down our throats.  But that’s another discussion for a different day.

Back to the Land of the Offended.  OK, let’s start with a hypothetical, but very real example.  I have a friend who’s Jewish.  If I refer to him/her as “a Jew”, is that considered offensive?  I take it, it IS, but I couldn’t for the life of me explain WHY.  Somehow, “they’re Jewish” vs. “he’s a Jew” walk some fine offensive scale and one tips the scale while the other doesn’t.

Another example is saying someone’s black.  Apparently the Political Correctness Committee has decided on this whole “African American” label, which is just absurd.  Of all the black people I know, none of them is from Africa, nor have they ever been there.  I’m proposing we then use the term: “AMERICAN African American” to denote those people who are really just Americans, but have the same color skin as those people from Africa who then may have migrated to the United States.  Yeah, silly idea, right?

You can’t even say “you’re gay” anymore, without pissing someone off.  Of course, gays, like all subgroups that have identified themselves as a separate group from the rest of the population, have taken their knocks and undue abuse.  Unfortunately that just comes with the territory, like the fat kid in school getting verbally/physically abused; it sucks, but the world ain’t gonna change and I don’t know what to do about it (and if you’re going to complain about my view, then YOU offer a solution).

I like to joke around, but it seems like everyone these days takes everything so freaking seriously that no one can see humour in anything and they just look to be offended.  Virtually anything you say can be taken the wrong way and very few people actually consider your intended message before taking on the defensive view.  Sure some jokes go way too far and certainly sometimes you say something unintentionally offensive, but jeez, can’t people approach things as adults and address the issue?

So, I’ll plod on and continue to joke around knowing that sooner or later someone will get upset and I’ll do the damage control as needed.  That said, I hope all you homos have a great Xmas.

Yes, that was a joke, except the Xmas part, which I hope offended someone.  Please let me know, although I’m SURE you will.