when is offense justified?

• modern day "politicization" of offense

  • harm vs offense
• Mill argues that offenses are not harms and should never be regulated by the government

  • moral offense FEELS harmful
• no access to inner thoughts -> safer to display external respect
• Ettiquette for politeness:

  • simple
  • universally understood
  • shared desire
• Etiquette of equality:

  • depends on social stuff
  • depends of discourse
  • depends on who's around
• assumption not to say offensive things, social currency of words (etiquette)
• offense: a responce to a sociolinguistic fact/s, not intrinsic value
• respect inflation:

  as the standard for respect increases, so does the potential to feel offended

  • describes a change, as opposed to using words like "snowflake" which focuses on a persons tolerance via metaphors
• structure of language = how we think about people

  • ex. racists don't use slurs because they're derogative, slurs are derogative because they're words that racists use
• no middle ground for etiquette

  • saying please/thank you = polite. Not saying it = impolite
  • "persons capable of pregnancy" = progressive. "Women" = conservative
• a rise in expectations regarding the etiquette of equality can be regretable, most of the blame rests with the systematic injustices that make the escelation not only a logical but possibly ineviteable responce