“You can’t tell me I’m not offended!”

“You can’t tell me I’m not offended!” Heard that before?

Now, this is trivially true. When someone is offended, no one in the world but that person can possibly determine it.

But that’s not really the question, is it? The assertion is meant to shut down any question of whether the person should be offended. Nevertheless, I can confidently report that such is a perfectly legitimate topic of discussion for reasonable, intelligent people.

I’m sorry if that offends you.

This is the next level of offense culture. The first level was its establishment as a good thing in itself. We’ve had an entire generation of people foster the notion that not only is it acceptable to be vocally offended at just about anything, it is also somehow noble. This is effectively and hilariously satirized in JP Sears’ How To Be Offended.

This is obnoxious, but it’s been mostly just irritating. Unfortunately, now it’s getting dangerous.

I haven’t had to dig very hard underneath “you can’t tell me I’m not offended!” before I find why this notion is delivered with such intensity. I must be a member of the allegedly offended class to understand, and if I am not, then I cannot. My privilege renders me incurably ignorant.

That’s enough. There is no right not to be offended. And when you are presented with something that you consider potentially offensive, you remain empowered to choose your own reaction. May I suggest that perhaps you should think about why you’re offended? Is it because you’ve been told you should be? What were the motives of the person who told you?

If you believe that I can’t comment meaningfully on your offense because I don’t understand your walk, how can you also believe that you understand my walk enough to make that assertion?

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