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Comment by cm2187 | Hacker News Reader

Not the least because being offended is a blank check for anyone to define their own red line and impose them on others. And some people seem hyper sensitive...

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What makes you say that? It would obviously have to seem offensive to the judge, not just to the purported victim. Same as for the other adjectives, like "intimidating", "sexual" etc. I don't see why "offensive" is any more inherently subjective than those.

Is a carricature of Muhammad offensive? Cartoonist have been making carricatures of God and Jesus for years, but most newspapers didn’t dare to publish the Muhammad cartoons. Apparently some people get offended when being called either male or female, even though these two categories are bioligically correct. Etc. Anyone can make up their own definition of what is offensive to them, and many do not hesitate. You seem to treat being offended as if it was an absolute objective thing. And I would certainly not use the word “victim” to refer to someone attemting to limit someone else’ speech on the pretext of having been offended.

My point was anyone can make their own definition of pretty much any word, and still, we have a functioning legal system. Very different from what you've read in my comment.

But I think there's some things we know we can assume are offensive. And there's other things that a person can say "stop it, that's offensive". And that creates an obligation on you under the general principles of good manners.

Now you might not have realised it's offensive. You might disagree - you think it's fun, and legitimately believe most people think it's fun too. But once you've been told to stop, it's pretty clear. It's perfectly okay to be corrected and to learn. And it's normal to behave different with different people.

So it hardly seems like there's a big issue here.

I disagree. It is a very subjective thing. Now you call someone an “asshole”, anyone would be offended. You claim that men tend to be physically stronger than women, a woman tells you “I am offended, you are somehow implying that women are inferior to men, this is offensive to me”. Do you apologise? I think it’s reasonably factual statement. I don’t think everyone should have the right to make up their own red line in term of what is offensive and can be said.

And in this world of twitter lynching, feminist and political correctness mititantism, this is a blank check that you can bet will be cashed in.

If someone is screaming "you claim that men tend to be physically stronger than women" over and over again while you walk alone along a road and you tell them to leave you alone but they keep doing it louder and closer to you than before, deliberatly targeting you, does it matter if it's factually accurate?

This is a fine. It needs a cop thinking a reasonable person would find something offensive to inconvenience you and a judge agreeing for it to be applied.

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