Offence and Ridicule
There seems to be this great taboo against criticising the thoughts and beliefs of others lest others get offended. Someone can believe the moon is made of mouldy cake or that mathematics was invented by sentient jetpacks last Tuesday. Are you allowed to titter at their stupid beliefs behind their backs? Of course! How else do you think society works? Are you allowed to openly disagree with them? No, we can't have that - no matter if they're just plain fucking wrong or, worse, passing that wrongness on where people can't disagree with it, you can't rebut them because to do so would be offensive. And there's nothing worse in the world than offence, is there? Not paedophilia; not indoctrination; not even plain old stupidity. Offence is the worst of them all. If you can't tell that that last sentence was sarcastic, you probably shouldn't be reading this blog. As you can probably tell, I have some quibbles with this whole idea that not giving offence come...