“…being offended is pointless”

I’m doing something I haven’t done, possibly ever on this blog. Backdating a few posts because of things I’ve written on social media that really need their date as a part of the context of when I wrote it.

Have been seeing “…being offended is pointless” and similar sentiments lately, usually when being told “there are more important things to worry about”, and I disagree.

While outrage can definitely get out of control, people don’t go looking to be offended. But being offended, to whatever degree we choose to express that feeling, is also our Spidey-Sense, our Seventh Sense (Rogue/Ms. Marvel), our Danger Sense, because we’ve seen how ignoring the little things is bad. And to be honest, so has everyone, now.

A lot of these movements that now get nothing *but* press, started as little things, on social media, on reddit, in person, and when people were offended, they were told not to be so sensitive, reporters were told “there’s really no story there”, and now we got MRAs and nazis everywhere and a supremely unprepared president.

When marginalized voices tell you some shit is fucked up… listen. Don’t talk over them, don’t talk down to them, don’t tell them they’re being too sensitive or that there are bigger concerns (since their concerns don’t affect you)… LISTEN.