Sharp: Closing a door [LWN.net]

Sharp: Closing a door

Posted Oct 5, 2015 22:57 UTC (Mon) by HelloWorld (guest, #56129)
In reply to: Sharp: Closing a door by jmichels
Parent article: Sharp: Closing a door

dlang essentially said "if somebody feels they're being abused and/or harassed, they're misinterpreting what has been said". How is that *not* blaming the victim?

Sharp: Closing a door

Posted Oct 9, 2015 18:24 UTC (Fri) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (1 responses)

> dlang essentially said "if somebody feels they're being abused and/or harassed, they're misinterpreting what has been said". How is that *not* blaming the victim?

Well, unfortunately, far too often when somebody (claims to) feels abused or harrassed, it's the mark of a professional mischief maker :-( (Otherwise known as the Politically Correct Brigade).

Yes, there ARE a fair few cases where offense is given when none is intended, but a little grown-up discussion should solve that. (I originally wrote "adult" rather than grown-up, but that could be misunderstood :-)

The difficulty is telling the difference between the victims where offense is given, and the trouble-makers where offense is taken. But in BOTH cases, I would actually say that blaming the "victim" is often the correct response ... in the trouble-maker case that's obviously the correct response. In the genuine victim case, the victim may well be over-sensitive. And then of course the problem is when the offender, although not intending offense, doesn't care about spraying offense wherever it may land ... :-(

Cheers,
Wol

Sharp: Closing a door

Posted Oct 10, 2015 0:44 UTC (Sat) by raven667 (subscriber, #5198) [Link]

> Well, unfortunately, far too often when somebody (claims to) feels abused or harrassed, it's the mark of a professional mischief maker :-( (Otherwise known as the Politically Correct Brigade).

I think this has some merit but in reality the PC Brigade who create the most mischief tend to be the ones protecting and protected by the status quo, who claim to be offended if anyone challenges their ideas or status, as this derails the conversation especially among those who reflexively seek a false balance as they don't seem to want to make qualitative judgements about who is right and who is wrong and believe that "both sides must do it", helping the person who's ideas are being challenged and hurting the challenger.