I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.-Voltaire
At one point in our nation's history, this statement was accurate. However, in recent years it has become more of "I disapprove of what you say, and I will fight it to the death that you have no right to say it."
In today's culture, it seems like you can just open your mouth to say a friendly, "Hello," and be sued. Yes, some things are just plain out of line like racial slurs or blantant sexual remarks, but when people get offended just when you don't agree with them(even if you still respect their opinion), it seems to me like our country gets a little too political correct.
It seems like, for the most part(of course there are always exceptions) all the christians are offended by the wiccas, all the gays are offended by the christians, etc. What happened to the days where people from different racial, cultural, and religious backgrounds could discuss and disagree rationally?
What has caused us to fall in to this pattern of, "You don't agree with me! I am so offended! I'm gonna sue you!"? It's time we examine this problem and fix it.
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I do not no how to solve this problem really, but I have experienced my opinion bringing me victim to authority. I once was asked if the class received too much homework and I replied yes. So, the teacher gave the class detention for a week and looked for every opportunity to punish me. This was tough on me, the slackers/ actual troublemakers got less detention than me. I guess our freedom of speech is actually revoked in certain situations. I know it was ignorant for me to answer a question like that in class, but I was taunted constantly if I didn't answer. The class kept saying for me to just tell her the truth. I hate lying to people, but sometimes it must be done.
"What happened to the days where people from different racial, cultural, and religious backgrounds could discuss and disagree rationally?"
I have no idea what this means. It's too broad. When have Catholics and Protestants, for example, disagreed rationally? Catholics settled in Maryland and were not treated 'well', by today's standards, in any of the other colonies, except perhaps Rhode Island.
Kennedy was our first Catholic President ... in the 1960s! And people with brown skin? Has the majority race in this country ever taken the liberty to provide equal opportunity or environmental justice, which you might see as rational in a democracy, to minorities?
I realize you're just generalizing, but you may agree that it takes recognition of facts before a person can initiate lifestyle changes like rationally discussing and disagreeing. The progression through time is in my eye the slow advancement of living standards and rights. We're nowhere near where we all wish to be, but we're getting there.
Thanks for the playing the blog game. Tag you're it.