Are you offended yet?

   As a people Americans have become not just politically correct but petty, in that we allow personal offense taken by some to become an attack on freedom of speech which demands others to apologize for what used to be common insult and normal banter among people.

   I once had a young boy that took offense when in conversation I referred to him as a boy. He said he didn’t like it when people called him a boy he said he is a man, to which I replied your only 16 how does that make you a man and no longer a boy? He responded by asking me how I determined he was a boy to which I told him, that I referred to him as a boy on purpose in order to establish which he was a boy or a young man and in the process I was correct in calling him a boy. He still didn’t understand, all he could say was, “I don’t get it”.

   I told him I was once a boy so I understood his concerns and that my calling him a boy was simple, to get or not to get the reaction from him that I got, he then ask well when will I know I’m no longer a boy and have become a man? Simple you will know you’re a man when the day comes that someone calls you a boy, and you don’t take offense by or even notice they referred to you as such, that’s when you start to become a man. I probably should let it be known the boy was infatuated with my daughter that’s why I was curious as to his maturity.

   The idea that people say things that you should be offended by in the normal banter between people only shows you have not grow into maturity or they are trying to prove that fact to themselves.

   Like if I call you a fatty, if it’s true it is just me being socially rude and that makes me less for pointing out the obvious. If I call you fatty and it’s not true but I want to see how you view yourself, it requires nothing from you in response unless it bothers you so maybe you have a self image problem, but again it is not the most civil way to deal with others, but doesn’t rise to the level of righteous indignation. Get over it. Learn to understand that one should always consider the source and never let them get to you by responding to their insensitivity or discriminatory prejudices the shame will always fall on them unless you react, then you’re both at fault for what ever controversy follows. Never give them that satisfaction suck it up and be a man or woman instead of a boy or girl and right now, is not the past. And don’t ever tell me, what I should or should not say because someone might be offended. If your offended by that tuff, maybe you want to raise it to a violent level it’s still no skin off my ass I give no quarter to either offense  

GAP