Freedom of Speech -OR- Freedom from Being Offended

I love this article from Selwyn Duke. He illustrates that we have an interesting take on the freedom of speech... and what that means in our society today is "You are free to speak your mind as long as you agree with me".

When I get in discussions with people I find that I need to do a little digging to find out if they can handle REAL discussion. Meaning they they do not rely solely on the persuasion of pathos. Nothing is more taxing to me that to hear an emotional rant and it escalates because the other person gets frustrated because you do not "feel" the same way or that they do not have Ethos and Logos to back them up... Then then they whip out the "I am offended" the king of all information override cards and it is based on what?

The full article can be found on his website....

clipped from www.selwynduke.com The Offensiveness of Taking Offense The Fraud of the Fairness Doctrine By Selwyn Duke The voicing of the unpopular, being the very soul of free speech, the right to give and take offense shall not be infringed. Sometimes I think it is time to insert the above into our First Amendment. Whether it’s an off-color joke or colorful commentary, it’s now hard to make anything but the most plain vanilla statements without offending somebody. In fact, so ingrained is the notion of being offended that it has become a topic of satire. Just think about Geico’s famous commercials, wherein stone-age characters take umbrage at the slogan, “So easy a caveman can do it.”