Derp

Over the weekend, I ran across a blog post which took exception to use of the word Derp. I have commented on it a little and will explain here a bit more about why this post irritated me.

The point isn't that I have a burning desire to say Derp. The point is that today we are *inundated* with people telling us we shouldn't say things, to the point that it's become really irritating and even a bit creepy. These days people spend so much time looking over things people say and write, seemingly hoping to find something they can scold people about, that it is almost impossible to say anything that isn't bland or mealy-mouthed without offending somebody. This country, which has the ideal of being the land of the free and the home of the brave, now has "first amendment zones" that are getting smaller and smaller. In my opinion, this control freak mindset has to start meeting (verbal) brickbats and the sooner the better.

People get offended when you comment for or against the two (identical) major political parties. Or for or against 3rd parties.

People get offended when you comment for or against being religious. Or when your brand of religion doesn't match theirs.

As a matter of fact, people get offended when you comment for or against civil liberties.

People get offended when you mention ethnicity. And often when you don't mention it. Even mentioning works like Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness" offends some because his sensitivities don't match today's, ignoring the fact that this was an important work attacking Kind Leopold and Belgium's atrocities in the Congo.

People get offended when you say ANYTHING about sex or gender roles. And often when you ignore them.

I'm not the first person to comment on this whinging attempt to control people via hypersensitivity.


“Don’t step on the toes of the dog-lovers, the cat-lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere. The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean. Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters. They did. Magazines became a nice blend of vanilla tapioca. Books, so the damned snobbish critics said, were dishwater. No wonder books stopped selling, the critics said.”
- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451