Quote Of The Day

Last week, commenter Jayhawk stated the following at Silverfiddle’s February 2, 2022 post “Free Speech,” here at Always On Watch (emphases mine):

First of all, being offended is a state of mind which originates within the mind of the person who is offended. It has no external causes, it originates within, and its causes lie in the person’s biases, preferences and fears.

If I become offended after you utter a sentence, it is because I choose to become offended. You do not control my mind. You cannot create my state of mind. You cannot control my emotions. If you dispute this you have a very serious living problem. You are doomed to be incapable of living in society.

You may use language that is designed to make me take offense. You may be deliberately trying to create a certain state of anger or offense in my reaction, but I always have the right not to do what you want me to do. I can respond by NOT being offended. I don’t have to become offended just because you want me to.

Secondly, if my peace of mind, my self image and/or my self esteem is dependent on your actions, lack of actions or speech, then I am the worst sort of prisoner. It means I have to control you, which is an utterly hopeless proposition. It means that I have to control each and every person with whom I come in contact. Just stop and think of the sheer insanity of that idea.

Further, it also means that every person who comes into contact with me must be allowed to control my speech and actions to assure their peace of mind, self image and/or self esteem. So we have a society of 235 [sic] million people, all frantically trying to control each other. Not really a viable proposition.   

What we have is a social fabric of people frantically trying to control everybody else so that they do not have to control themselves.