No Offence

We live in the age of anti-libertarianism. An age where homophobic policies are saw as moderate yet wanting to pull troops out of a nation is seen as a far left position to our modern society.

In our society, Jeremy Corbyn has his top button undone and the nation is furious while Theresa May tries to abolish Human Rights and nobody says anything. Not to sound like a conspiracy nut but this is what we should be talking about!

My point is that we are, on the whole, offended by the silliest of things. Issues with dress infuriate us while racist and homophobic hate speech is fine. The things people are offended by annoy me, frankly, and I feel that we need to take a long, hard look at society. The right calls the left "libtards" and "snowflakes" while the left screams back at them "bigot"; while I actually agree with all of these, we need to understand that both sides are just as easily offended.

The typical Trump supporter claims that the youth is too liberal and is offended by everything that ever happens but throws a tantrum as soon as anyone insults Supreme Leader, I mean, President Trump. At the same time, Liberals mock Trump and his supporters but are instantly mortified to hear anything they don't agree with.

In a free society, (such as the one I live in, the UK) comment on people's political views is fine yet seen as impolite, however, if you dare to comment on the religious beliefs of the same people there is uproar as people are offended by the mere mention of religion.

The current attitude in Britain (and the USA) seems to be summed up by "if you aren't a white Christian, go home." The statement itself has racist undertones of intolerance but sadly is exceedingly accurate, especially among the older generations.

Obviously, I do have a bias in this argument since I am not Christian but, personally, I believe that regardless of your belief you should be treated the same however, I remain adamant that I have the right to hear that which you believe and call it bullshit. In simple terms, my stance is: believe what you want but be prepared to have me question it. Yet, while my views seem extremely fair, the notion of disagreement leads to offence and, in the current political climate, people seem to think that they have a right to not be offended. Surely, Freedom from Offence is the opposite of Freedom of Speech?

Living without offence is to live in an echo chamber where everyone agrees with us, never questioning us, just solidifying our beliefs. To us as individuals, this sounds great; as a nation, this is extremely damaging to our society. Imagine a society where everyone agreed with what the government said. Those who didn't? They were arrested and seen to be enemies of the state. So is the nature of fascism.

Fascism is the concept of a nation based around an all-powerful leader with no opposition of any kind. The most famous example of this system we have is that of Adolf Hitler (1933-1945) ruling Germany with an iron fist. In a traditional sense, the nationalism that comes from fascism causes trouble as the country in question begins to view itself as better than all others. This viewpoint leads to war on a scale we've seen only once... during the reign of Hitler.

Obviously, a war of this magnitude is not inevitable but is a reason to avoid such political ideology. My point is that, regardless of whether you are Christian or Muslim, Catholic or Protestant: just allow people to live their lives.

If you want to understand life on a deeper level, ask questions. Don't spend your life in hatred of those with opposing beliefs, just strive to understand why they hold those views. Those who are scared of men may have been abused; those against migrant workers may have lost their job due to outsourcing; those against religion may have been forced into religious belief.

Our political leaders have their own views that are rarely what they express, constantly contradicting themselves with statements that just do not remain consistent. Trump and his fans call Hillary a "c--t" but Ivanka is called the same word and there is pure outrage against Samantha Bee. Probably, since Trump supporters didn't know what "feckless" meant - "My daughter has so much feck, more feck than you'd believe" would say an eager Trump if he actually spoke on the subject outside of Twitter.

And in the same moments, those that call themselves Libertarians advocate Free Speech until something offends them. They bash Trump on a regular basis but get offended whenever someone mentions their gender or disagrees with the legalisation of marijuana. While I am a libertarian, I am sick of the constant hypocrisy from both sides. Conservatives only conserve values that they care about and Left Wing supporters are socialist until anybody mentions what true socialism is.

What I'm really trying to say about all of this is: I don't care if I offend you. I don't care if anything offends you. Everyone gets offended sometimes and maybe we should just learn to deal with that instead of blocking out anyone with a differing world view. Whether you think we should have an open border or you view immigrants as a swarm (not a plague as that would imply they were sent by your god), different opinions are okay. I have friends who vote UKIP and I have friends who are part of groups UKIP hate (foreigners for instance) but, as the Dr Martin Luther King JR said, "darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that".

I hope you took something from this article, even if it's just a hatred for me. And if you did come away with a hatred for me, take comfort in knowing that I could not care any less... Your hatred is merely a fuel to add to the burning wreckage we call a planet, suspended in a cold vacuum... I'll let that be your final thought tonight.