Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence/Quotes

"But the international nature of the beliefs was still there. After all “capitalism” and “imperialism” caused war, while socialism was for all the peoples of the world, and when it succeeded, war would be gone. (True as it goes. Graveyards are remarkably peaceful.)

This played against the background of communist and socialist leaders constantly attacking and constantly accusing this and that and the other of being enemies. Perhaps it is because I was born jaded, but their constant excuse that these people were brutalizing them by existing didn’t fill me with confidence."

- "The Evils of Internationalism" on According To Hoyt

"However, most of the recent discussion of online abuse is about something else altogether: mean words. (Even supposed “death threats” sometimes turn out to be little more than taunts like “Kill yourself” and “Please jump off a cliff.”) To be sure, being repeatedly bombarded with taunts and insults can be discouraging and even overwhelming, and not everyone can grow a thick enough skin to ignore them. But feminists and social justice activists are offenders at least as much as victims: No one cried civil rights emergency when British comedian Stephen Fry recently deleted his Twitter account due to attacks over jokes some saw as offensive to women and transgender people, or when technology entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa stepped away from advocacy for women in tech because of social media bashing from feminists who accused him of using women for self-promotion. And besides, it is difficult to see how such behavior can be stopped without infringing on legitimate opinion and criticism."

- "Don't Confuse Unpleasant Speech with Cybercrime" by Cathy Young

"(on twitter, addressing the author who couldn't be reached on tumblr after being chased off by a pack of the whiny, entitled "fans") I found something on tumblr that is making me physically ill. steven-universe-edits.tumblr.com any idea how to make this person stop?"

- A complaint about the unspeakable horror of mostly Palette Swap edits of Steven Universe screenshots.

"What is terrifying is how subjective is this censorious category of “offensive”. At least you knew where you stood with blasphemy laws. In the words of England’s old blasphemy laws, people were forbidden from publishing “scurrilous, reviling or contemptuous” material about Christian beliefs. In short, you couldn’t be mean about God.

Now you can’t be mean, or even overly critical, about anyone. The cult of offence-taking makes everyone into a jumped-up little Jesus, apparently deserving of protection against anything that blasphemes against their sense of self worth. Once, we couldn’t offend against Christ; now we can’t offend against Greenpeace or feminists or student leaders or anyone else who, with exceptional arrogance, thinks their feelings should take precedence over everyone else’s freedom of speech.

As a result of this ostentatious offence-taking, and the almost weekly shamings of those who give offence, the parameters of ­acceptable thought shrink all the time. The message to the public is: “Don’t offend, don’t question orthodoxies, because if you do you might be branded unfit for public life.” Every war on “offensive” people puts pressure on the rest of us to keep our more eccentric thoughts to ourselves."

- "Flipping a Middle Finger at Orthodoxy" by Brendan O'Neill