
The Real Reason We Need to Stop Trying to Protect Everyone’s Feelings - Jerry2
http://thoughtcatalog.com/ryan-holiday/2015/11/the-real-reason-we-need-to-stop-trying-to-protect-everyones-feelings/
======
nine_k
tl;dr: Censorship of "being offended" is as bad as that of a tyrannical
government.

~~~
smt88
As a response to your summary of the article and not you directly: absolutely
fucking not.

In most of these instances, people are exercising their freedom of speech to
shame people who are exercising their own. In many cases, it's students or
parents publicly shaming a college.

That is absolutely not at all the kind of censorship of a tyrannical
government. Private institutions caving to pressure from consumers or the
media is what happens when everyone can speak freely. Some people have more
power, and they use it to make sure that minority speech is ridiculed.

Tyranny isn't misuse of market power or the press, it's misuse of government
and the law. When we see the US government telling people they can't teach
novels about Nazis at universities, then someone can cry foul.

~~~
techdragon
A valid point... But what about the many historical examples of the kinds of
problems caused by "Tragedy of the Commons", "Tyranny of the Masses" etc. Not
government tyranny but causing arguably just as much damage to society.

Best example off the top of my head is the "post emancipation pre civil rights
period". The simple premise that "lots of people" can be just as tyrannical as
a government is hard to argue against. There are lots of small examples where
"the oppressed" have a much easier path to "freedom", from homeowners
associations, to religious groups, to various community organisations and
groups. Governments hardly have a monopoly on Tyranny.

Tldr- this issue is complicated, super short summaries are not a good idea for
this topic ;-)

