Have we become "too sensitive?"

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Sometimes I ignore old people when crossing the street. People look at me with contempt. I flip them the finger and they gasp. They are overly sensitive, I agree.
Serious or no, I find this funny
 
Honestly? Yes, people are too sensitive these days. Don't get me wrong, it's good that people of non-traditional sexual orientations, women and non-whites are getting rights that have been denied to them for so long, but I feel that the pendulum has swung too far. It seems that some people are actively looking for reasons to get offended to demonstrate their higher moral ground. You can't call such behavior progress. It's not. Those people are the worst kind of bullies because they sincerely believe their cause is just and the society let's them get away with it. And no, what they're doing isn't always annoying but ultimately harmless like forcing the producers to include strong female leads of color in their movies.

I have to admit this topic resonates within me deeply. To fully understand my sentiments, you should probably know I'm Czech. Those of you who know my country even exists probably also know we've gotten rid of communist regime relatively recently. I'm young, so I've never experienced it, but my grandparents and parents have. They told me stories of people harshly persecuted for their opinions and I can't help but see parallels here. I've read story of a woman that made a joke about not being afraid to get AIDS in Africa because she was white. She lost her job, her own family practically disowned her and she had to start all over again, all because someone chose to smear it on Twitter. Was the joke in poor taste? Of course. Did she deserve to lose everything because of it? No, no, no. What happened to sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me? She didn't do anything wrong. Her only crime was a moment of carelessness. We're all people and we all make mistakes, we all joke about inappropriate things from time to time. But did the world care? No, they acted as if she was a second Hitler and the mob lynched her with glee. This is the ugly side of progressive thinking and tolerance. Do you want another example? Well, have you heard about the Rotherham scandal where the police covered up sexual exploitation of 1400 children because those atrocities were committed mostly by Pakistanis and they didn't want to be seen as racists? This is exactly the result of over-sensitive people turning everything into a racial issue. They are responsible for suffering of these children along with their rapists for they are the ones who enabled it.

I personally think that the ideas of progressiveness are very similar to immunity system. If it's too weak, the body suffers, but if it's too strong, it starts destroying the body. As with everything, we need to find a balance. That can be tricky, but we can never strop trying to reach this ideal. Remember, too much of everything will kill you. That includes such harmless substances as water.

As for myself, I freely say I see over-sensitive people as a bunch of babies who can't handle their own feelings and arrogantly expect me to cater to them. Yes, you have the right to be offended and challenge me to a duel of words, but I have the right to voice my opinions without becoming a target for your witch hunt in the process. Freedom of speech, bitches. Again, it may have to do with our cultural differences as nothing is sacred for us Czechs. We openly laugh at gays/minorities/women not because we hate them, but because we laugh at everyone and we're not giving them special treatment. It's a national tradition. Hell, we laughed at Nazis during WWII. Reinhard Heydrich himself called us laughing beasts. And do you know what? Even though we have our problems - and they are numerous - I think our society is healthy in this regard because nobody really takes this banter seriously. I think some people could try to be less uptight and focus their rightful anger on issues that actually need to be addressed instead of getting royally pissed off because of small things. I'm sure they would also be happier that way since laughter brings us all together and erases our differences. Well, laughter and booze. I haven't encountered a dispute that couldn't be solved by a pint of good beer yet.
 
Honestly? Yes, people are too sensitive these days. Don't get me wrong, it's good that people of non-traditional sexual orientations, women and non-whites are getting rights that have been denied to them for so long, but I feel that the pendulum has swung too far. It seems that some people are actively looking for reasons to get offended to demonstrate their higher moral ground. You can't call such behavior progress. It's not. Those people are the worst kind of bullies because they sincerely believe their cause is just and the society let's them get away with it. And no, what they're doing isn't always annoying but ultimately harmless like forcing the producers to include strong female leads of color in their movies.

I have to admit this topic resonates within me deeply. To fully understand my sentiments, you should probably know I'm Czech. Those of you who know my country even exists probably also know we've gotten rid of communist regime relatively recently. I'm young, so I've never experienced it, but my grandparents and parents have. They told me stories of people harshly persecuted for their opinions and I can't help but see parallels here. I've read story of a woman that made a joke about not being afraid to get AIDS in Africa because she was white. She lost her job, her own family practically disowned her and she had to start all over again, all because someone chose to smear it on Twitter. Was the joke in poor taste? Of course. Did she deserve to lose everything because of it? No, no, no. What happened to sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me? She didn't do anything wrong. Her only crime was a moment of carelessness. We're all people and we all make mistakes, we all joke about inappropriate things from time to time. But did the world care? No, they acted as if she was a second Hitler and the mob lynched her with glee. This is the ugly side of progressive thinking and tolerance. Do you want another example? Well, have you heard about the Rotherham scandal where the police covered up sexual exploitation of 1400 children because those atrocities were committed mostly by Pakistanis and they didn't want to be seen as racists? This is exactly the result of over-sensitive people turning everything into a racial issue. They are responsible for suffering of these children along with their rapists for they are the ones who enabled it.

I personally think that the ideas of progressiveness are very similar to immunity system. If it's too weak, the body suffers, but if it's too strong, it starts destroying the body. As with everything, we need to find a balance. That can be tricky, but we can never strop trying to reach this ideal. Remember, too much of everything will kill you. That includes such harmless substances as water.

As for myself, I freely say I see over-sensitive people as a bunch of babies who can't handle their own feelings and arrogantly expect me to cater to them. Yes, you have the right to be offended and challenge me to a duel of words, but I have the right to voice my opinions without becoming a target for your witch hunt in the process. Freedom of speech, bitches. Again, it may have to do with our cultural differences as nothing is sacred for us Czechs. We openly laugh at gays/minorities/women not because we hate them, but because we laugh at everyone and we're not giving them special treatment. It's a national tradition. Hell, we laughed at Nazis during WWII. Reinhard Heydrich himself called us laughing beasts. And do you know what? Even though we have our problems - and they are numerous - I think our society is healthy in this regard because nobody really takes this banter seriously. I think some people could try to be less uptight and focus their rightful anger on issues that actually need to be addressed instead of getting royally pissed off because of small things. I'm sure they would also be happier that way since laughter brings us all together and erases our differences. Well, laughter and booze. I haven't encountered a dispute that couldn't be solved by a pint of good beer yet.
There seems to be a trend that we let a vocal minority and great manipulators in the guise of leaders lead us to a path that has repeated again and again throughout human history. I know of the Czech Republic (formerly known as Czechoslovakia for you kids who don't read a damn book) and the rough and bloody history being taken apart during WWII then held under the Soviet Empire's thumb as an Eastern bloc country. Your country have endured the horrors of communism that many in this nation are disillusioned that it is the most wonderful thing since sliced bread. Ignorance is bliss in the political scheme of things. I digress.

Those who did not get bogged down in semantics and passive-aggressive jabs, most of you have made many great points. I really think there is more to it than being over sensitive. It's more involved than that. It always is!

Too many people take their freedom to think freely, speak freely and demonstrate freely for granted anymore. Most Americans in general do not appreciate what is protected under our laws (ala Constitution) and some of these progressive thinkers look for ways to work the system for themselves and not for everyone else. It is akin to someone having too much time on their hands therefore look at unhealthy things do with all that spare time. Even more damning we've allowed ourselves to be trapped into societal bubbles to the point if it's not progressive then it is racist, white privileged, bigoted and etc. How does one expect to get anything done if confine ourselves into a litany of buzz/trigger words and we ostracize one end of society while alienating another.

Where do we draw the line?

As stated before we are too sensitive for our own good. Until we have a rude awakening, not just here in America, but the Western world entire; it'll only get worse until the whole damn system blows up in our collective faces and may repeat someone of the violent upheavals as before.

Hell if anything we need to get regressive just to tip the pendulum back to the center, alas that's just me.
 
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