When you were growing up, what words did you get punished for saying? For many of us, the list of words that would make our parents instantly frown extended to cuss words and possibly the word “hate” simply for its permanent meaning. If we were to ask children today, we would find that their lists are much longer. In fact, numerous schools now discipline students on the basis of word usage such as “stupid” and “retard.”
Scroll down Facebook and Twitter and read the posts you usually skim past. If your feed is anything like mine, it is a collaboration of posts beginning with “I don’t like” this and “I’m offended by” that. Moreover, the topic of free speech has been put on a spotlight during this election with Trump standing at the forefront.
So, what changed? Did we wake up one day and become over-sensitive or are we simply fed up with the unnecessary hatred that is passed around so carelessly?
Freedom of speech is exactly what it sounds like – free. However, just because it is within our rights to say virtually anything we please does not mean that we should. I am by no means suggesting that we ditch our opinions. Instead, we should stand tall and say exactly what we believe in more thoughtfully-worded ways.
You can’t judge what you say with the justification of “it doesn’t offend me so I don’t see the problem” because you know all about yourself and what sets you off, but how could you possibly know what someone else has been through? Even your closest friends only tell you what they feel comfortable sharing. With that being said, just because it isn’t relevant to you doesn’t mean it is okay to say to someone else.
We throw around the words “retarded” and “stupid” not knowing whether a person has a physical or mental disability. We make “your mom” jokes without knowledge of their mom being alive or being involved in their life. We are quick to say “eat a hamburger” to someone who is thin and “stop eating” to someone who is “overweight” but forget that eating disorders rock the world we live in. We mindlessly say things like “you’re crazy” and “depression isn’t real,” while one in every four people suffers in silence from a mental disease.
We want people to ask for help but we say things like “you just want attention” or “get over it” when someone tries to let out whatever is bothering them. We call the girl who works her butt off at three jobs “privileged” or “selfish” when she buys herself nice things. Simultaneously, we call the person who works at a fast food restaurant “incompetent” and “lazy,” not knowing that he goes out every day after working looking for a better job or that she just graduated from college and can’t find any work. We are quick to assume that women who had children before marriage are “slutty” or “reckless” but we don’t ever stop to think that they could have gotten pregnant the first time they had sex or while on birth control. We love to label young married couples as “making mistakes” and “divorce-bound” but we don’t know anything about their relationship. We use “gay” as an adjective for things we don’t like, not ever stopping to think about the people who are proud of who they are or the people who are anxious to publicize their wants.
With this and so much more happening every second of every day in every part of our nation, who can possibly say that we are wrong to be offended?
