It Is Your Fault

It is your fault, what is? You may well ask. Here goes. I believe we all have the right to free speech, provided always that it falls within the bounds of human decency.
If you believe in the right to free speech then by extension you have to believe it is my opinion and equally you have the right to agree or disagree with it. Sadly, we are brought up with the concept of having to be right and trying to convince others to fall into our thoughts and accept them as the new gospel.
Recently, I listened to a great podcast by Sam Harris with special guest Ricky Gervais called Waking Up. They debated the subject of free speech and touched on racism, sexism and all those subjects like Pro Life. My judge of offensive is if the person meant it. Reginald D Hunter says it “Was there hatred in your heart?”.
It bothers me because the more people make such a huge deal out of what is said, the less likely people will be to express themselves. My problem is that I was brought up just before political correctness, through shear repetition words might be used that in those days were not hurtful. In the same way I was married for so many years to Louise, if Im talking to a female my lowly brain might put in the word Louise. If it’s a new girlfriend, I understand that is slightly hurtful, but equally Im not trying to offend, there is no hatred meant, it is a habit I work consciously on dropping. And what if language changes over the years. Something I said back in the 80’s might be considered offensive now. You can’t dig that up and say Im this or that, where is the context of the moment?
If you believe in something passionately and I disagree, we can debate the subject and choose to remain friendly and agree to disagree. At the end of the day, what difference is made to them or myself by making the other change their mind. Their life, their opinion, their business. It really is nonsense to consider I am right and they are wrong. We are neither, we just happen to have a difference of opinion.
In recent months/years we have had outright fighting over Brexit. Our opinions no longer count, the vote was taken and democracy wins. Everybody else has to go along with it. You may not agree, but why be so vehement about it. We have similar now, where people want to go out and buck the lockdown situation. The difference here is the potential to lose lives.
We all have an opinion on many things, football, food, government but do you need to throw those things out there for people to argue about. It doesn’t matter, trust me, I don’t give a toss about your football team.
In the end, what Im saying is this, your opinion is just that, an opinion. I am entitled to mine, and provided it falls within human rights, you should still respect that it is mine and leave on good terms.
Lastly, there is such a thing as irony or comedic value. You can’t go to watch a comedian and then get offended that he said something to upset you.
Be sensible people, allow free speech, respect people’s views and try to stop so much arguing and hatred.