Someone decided to take offense over some disagreement with me here so made a report and so SW has trawled through my entire post history to penalise me for things vaguely ‘offensive/inappropriate’ with no definition as to what constitutes those things. It’s got me penalised until next February and yet I’ve never acted hostile toward anyone. Something considered offensive to one person will be considered normal to the next person. And yeah being outraged gives a false sense of superiority to otherwise mediocre people.
You’ve said all this well, I will build on your second paragraph slightly. It isn’t just that people want to do this stuff, it’s that the very terms used that is meant to reduce bullying etc actually encourage it. Many people know how to paint others as engaging in some vague hate speech or something like that. And they will then convince themselves and others that it is now okay to dehumanise that person to a level way greater than the offense this person was meant to have caused.
They get ever more extreme with what they get outraged at, knowing that the type of people who will finally stand up to them are polite, reasonable people who they know will just put up with them being nasty people. They love this whole ‘you have to use fascist tactics to beat fascists, and anyone I don’t like is a fascist’ concept. It seems almost as if these terms and ways of thinking have been introduced into the zeitgeist to intentionally cause difficulties in having much needed dialogue. As I’ve seen much greater mutual respect and understanding in places that are pro free speech. A little bit of them knowing that deep down their ideas cannot stand scrutiny in the free market place of ideas.
I also find it absolutely insane to have the logic of ‘we have to censor speech to prevent ‘extremism’’. That’s such a ridiculous idea. If you censor certain voices from public discourse, they will retreat into echo chambers where the more radical elements of their side will push for more and more extreme views which will go unchecked by an opposing opinion. These groups then have no way to air how they feel with opposing groups and so turn to violence. I find that if you respect a person’s right to an opinion, respecting that person as a person naturally follows. And I find that if you allow free exchanges of ideas, people will find common ground and bond on that common ground.
There really does seem to be some intentional nefarious motive somewhere in all of these speech restriction ideas. I just honestly can’t imagine coming out of school/college/university where it’s championed to explore new ideas and thinking ‘we should censor like this. It seems counter to common sense. As I say, the truth doesn’t fear investigation.