Quote of the day 29th December 2014
“I'm very depressed how in this country you can be told "That's offensive" as though those two words constitute an argument.”
( Christopher Hitchens )
( Christopher Hitchens )
Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria
Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Comments
I don't take the Hitchins quote to mean that you should never have a problem with something being offensive. The key point he was making is that those two words do not constitute an argument.
Some people appear to find any opinion different from their own to be offensive. It should be obvious from the number of comments I have allowed to stand on this blog which I disagree with - starting with the one above - that I am not one of those people.
At other times people have a very good reason to find something offensive.
If you have a good reason to find something offensive you should be able to explain why - for example in a recent post and comment I explained that I find dragging someone's children into a political argument offensive and I used a lot more than two words to explain why. I'm not going to repeat that argument here.
I don't think there is anything hypocritical in holding or expressing the opinion that people may have good or bad reasons to find something offensive: and therefore if you argue that something is offensive it is a good idea to explain why, and a bad one to imagine that the words "that's offensive" in themselves constitute an argument.