No joke, this bit from Duckman, as well as NC’s editorial on comedy and political correctness, really got me thinking on this topic.

It’s easy to think that being offended is a bad thing, and that one shouldn’t be subjected to posts, ideas, or jokes that challenge one’s own values. But as of late I’ve realized something: being offended is actually a normal and healthy response. 

When I say “offended”, I refer to that general feeling of uneasiness one feels when they’re subjected to something that goes against their core values. This is a valid response to these sort of stimuli. It shows that you have firm values and beliefs, which are the backbone of who you are as a person and how you live your life as an individual!

Now, every once in a while one’s values need to be shaken up and challenged, as a way to mature and grow as a person, as well as confirm the strength of said values and as a method of self-examination. This is how little bits of yourself bubble up to the surface, ways of thinking and opinions that you may not have noticed before, things that are negative and can possibly impact the way you view and treat others. These might be preconceptions you have towards certain groups of people, ways of thinking, etc., or it can even be the way you react to the things you’re offended by! Hate messages, threats, rejection of other peoples’ opinions, and subjecting to fallacies to push your personal opinions are all negative ways of reacting to offensive stimuli. They’re childish and immature ways of handling your emotions, and they show how you might need improvement in how you interact and socialize with others. 

So yeah, there’s the positive way of reacting to offensive content, which involves self-examination and validation of one’s own core values, and then there’s the negative way of reacting, which I likely don’t even have to describe, as, sadly, this site is FULL of negativity in general.

Going back to self-examination, if and when you notice negative things about yourself, you can start working on fixing them and improve. But of course, you wouldn’t have been able to discern those negative aspects about yourself if you weren’t challenged intellectually by something that offended you, something that shook up your core values and made you question yourself and validate what you believe in! Something that made you think and use that brain of yours! 

Isn’t that a better alternative than being subjected to nothing but mind-numbing, safe, and “harmless” stimuli, things that treat you less as a thinking adult and more like an infant that can’t think for itself? If one’s not challenged, then there is little opportunity for personal improvement, and that’s WAY worse of an outcome than simply being uncomfortable with something you saw or heard every now and then.