Hell in a Handbasket

I've been blogging for more than five years now, which is pretty good when one considers that most blogs last a few posts and then are abandoned.

I put a fair amount of effort in avoiding politics here at The Handbasket, mainly to avoid offending my students. It is more important to me that they feel comfortable enough to seek out advice than to voice my own opinions.

But the subjects of gun ownership and self defense are inherently political. Most of my readers here agree with my own views on the subjects (self defense is a human right and firearms are necessary for defense), but there are those who stop by and disagree from time to time. They usually want to let me know that I have offended them in some way.

They do this by calling me names. "Pigf****r" is my favorite, mainly because it was only used once. It isn't a very clever insult, but at least it has the distinction of being unique. It certainly didn't offend me all that much because of the absurdity of the premise. After all, I never even got to first base with a sow in my life! (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!)

But there have been times that I have been offended, even angered, by some of the comments that were left or Emails that were sent. My choices were to respond with vitriol and feed the trolls, delete this blog and avoid getting offended at all, or to accept the fact that such things will happen and just shrug it off.

Obviously, I took the third option.

But there is an insidious school of thought that actually believes we have a right to be free from having people call us names. It is strongest in other countries, but it is certainly growing more popular amongst the Left here in the United States. I find this to be rather alarming for a variety of reasons, but my one overriding reaction is one of wry amusement.

Anyone who is so delicate that they need to be shielded from insulting speech needs to go back to the kid's table until they are mature enough to mingle with the adults. Any culture or government which enshrines the concept of "No Offense" into law is obviously something that is extremely unlikely to have much effect on future history. It certainly is something that is worth scorn more than respect.

I have a post where I discuss these issues in a broader context at The Chicago Boyz. You might want to go on by and see what is cooking there.