25.2.13

Offensive

I have a mixture of feelings today. I'm not really in the mood to blog because of it but I am anyway because it's my blog and you can't stop me. My mood today is a mixture between sad, annoyed, and apathetic. is there a word for that? Sadanthetic? Whatever.
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Everything I thought about ranting about today made me think 'someone will be offended and then they will kick off a rant and a hideous flame war will start and most of what I rant about I don't really care that much about anyway so why offend people, and who decides whose opinions are right? 

Who decides if a joke is 'OK'? is it funny? is it offensive? 

Oh it's obvious you all cry offensive is easy, a pregnant nun fancy dress costume is offensive, a picture of a dog smoking a cigarette is offensive, a dead animal is offensive.

 And then others say "oh no it's not, the nun thing is pretty funny actually" and they make up a joke about beagles and nicotine patches ... and comedians tell us nothing is beyond humour, we should be able to laugh at anything, nothing should be truly 'offensive' it's just words and you can choose how to react see I'm rambling, are you offended?

Offended that I'm not offended by what you are offended by? Or offended that I am offended by something you deem funny? Once I wrote a post about being offended by breastfeeding in public. Maybe jokes are like that? it's ok to be offended but you have to uphold the right of others to make an offensive joke? What do you think? 

"free speech has long been recognised as a common law right in Britain, it also has a statutory basis in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the "Convention"), which has been incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act 1998."

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