I know it is Wednesday. But it was a monday when I wrote this post, which I discovewred in my draft post file. I thought I’d leave the title unchanged.

I think on the day I oiriginally intended to post this I decided it might be too offensive. I have a couple of posts that I have been sitting on that fit in that category. One is several years old. Every time I revisit it, I say to myself “not yet.”

So what is my point here? Was I thinking of any particular incident? Not really.

I have noticed though that the volume of debate on a topic can sometimes drown out consideration of the ideas being expressed. Which is what I think whomever originates this graphic was trying to say.

Concepts like intelligence and stupidity are sometimes fluid. What seems stupid to me may make complete sense to you. And vice versa.

I’m not sure that there are any stupid people, though I’m willing to discuss the concept. There are many well-meaning people whose ideas are les than ideal. Does that make them stupid? And why do we have to denigrate the individual if we don’t like their ideas? (That’s something I’ve been trying to work on.)

We do seem though to be living in a society where volume plays an important role. If someone says they are offended by something or somone, all it seems to take is repetition and shouting for the offended person to be able to silence the “offending” viewpoint.

In any society there are always going to be competing viewpoints. Does anyone have a “right” not to be offended? And does that right allow you to silence others?

A healthy society is full of debate, of differing viewpoints – even those that are offensive to some.

How healthy is your society?