In Defence of Offence…

Assuming that fact claims that offend you must be false is wrong. Assuming that laws should spare you from offence is wrong. Seeking out that which offends you to indulge your psychic status as a victim is stupid, pathetic and wrong. Nonetheless, being offended is not itself wrong, and the sort of “cultural libertarian” who thinks that being above offence is virtuous is fooling themselves or so free from personal and cultural attachments as to become poignant. Offence is a mark of the strength of our loyalties, and an antibody against that which is perverse, malignant or malicious. Thus, it unites us as friends, families and citizens, and affirms our opposition to demagogues and degenerates. There are further qualifications to be made here. Transcending these responses can be virtuous, whether you are attorney representing a serial killer or a scientist testing an unpleasant yet plausible theory. But the response itself can be healthy.