I have increasingly less patience with political correctness. (By way of Mr Hib Gib.)

A wise man once said “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” I suppose that this sentiment no longer has any place in intelligent cultures. The mark of a civilized culture is now, apparently, where nobody ever says anything that anyone else can possibly take as offensive. I’m afraid I have come to take this attitude as an indication that the person(s) in question are simply incapable of having an intelligent debate, so they have to fall back on whining about how unfair it is that their oponent disagrees with them.

It would seem to me that only a child, an idiot, or a sheltered academian, could possibly look out at the world and take offense at people that disagree with them. Get over it folks. *Most* of the people in the world disagree with you on at least one major point, and you simply can’t spend your life getting offended at this.

People who get offended by words they don’t understand (“nigardly”, “uvula”, and “tar baby” are good examples to start with), are fair game for mocking. Except, of course, when courts and committees support their ignorance. Then the field for mocking is greatly widened.

People that get offended by people who disagree with them on religious views (critical readings of books like “The Bible” and “The Koran” are good examples) are simply burying their heads in the sand. Whoever you are, most of the world disagrees with you about religious views. Get over it.

People who get offended by nationalism are living in a dream world. For millenia, people have loved their nations, and have been willing to die for that love. And, for a very long time, when people have moved to a new nation, to become citizens of that nation, they have, in some sense, been willing to become part of the culture of that nation. I’m not sure when people started thinking that they can become part of a new nation, but not in they slightest measure integrate into the culture of that land. I suspect that this is a very new phenomenon. Now, granted, not all things old are good, but this strikes me as a very odd notion indeed.

People who get offended by being treated differently from citizens, when they are in a nation where they are not a citizen, clearly need to travel more.

People who get offended by satire need to read more. If writers across the ages had been as hung up on political correctness as we are today, some of the great works of literature would never have been penned.

And some people just need to get offended more – by things that really are offensive – so that they can distinguish between real offense and what is just something that they happen to not agree with, or, perhaps, simply don’t understand.