Re: Canada.com - Coyne: ... being offended ... is a choice

Here's a Canada.com article written by Andrew Coyne in relation to how some people, including the media, have reacted to the product put out by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, after the magazine headquarters in Paris was murderously attacked.

With some exceptions, being offended by what we see before us is a choice (Jan12/15)

This is the caption under the photo above the article...

"A man with Je Suis Charlie written on his hand holds a pencil. Following the Paris attack, the choice for the media to show, or not show, the Charlie Hebdo cartoons served up an opportunity to rehearse, yet again, the theme of the apologetic, uptight squareheads versus the fearless, free-thinking French."

I would have added the words "to some extent" before "a choice" in the headline, due to fact that some things can create such a visceral feeling in people that they have little chance to think or do anything before offense takes hold in their mind. (Maybe Mr. Coyne was trying to make this point with his use of the word "exceptions", but if so it wasn't fully clear to me.)

That said, the only thing that needs to be made clear is, while there's nothing inherently wrong with someone being offended over something (as Mr. Coyne wrote in his article, people are offended by everything these days), that person must take responsible for how they subsequently react to being offended.

There are many ways people who are offended can subsequently react, most of which, at worst, simply annoy others. Well-meaning reactions often times lead to misunderstanding which in turn creates chaos out of conversation. Much less often does truly intelligent and polite intercourse occur.

But when reactions reach the level of illegal activity, like vandalism, arson and assault, those people are in the wrong, no matter what they were offended by. And when it comes to murder on any scale, there is simply no acceptable excuse for that.

Anyhoo...