CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – I have the right to offend you.
And if you’re offended, turn off the radio. Stop reading my blog. What you can’t do is burn down my house, or blow up my car. We respond to words with words, not violence. That’s one of the things that separates civil society from barbarism.
Salman Rushdie has a bounty on his head for 35 years. His book, The Satanic Verses, was deemed blashpamanous by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, who openly called for his assassination. But Rushdie is not Iranian. He’s British. If his book offends you, don’t read it. But radical Islam isn’t bound by global norms. Last week Rushdie was stabbed during an appearance in upstate New York. There were celebrations in the streets of Tehran.
Other death threats have been carried out surrounding The Satanic Verses. The people who translated the book in Japan and Italy were murdered. A publisher in Turkey was attacked in his hotel. He escaped, but the explosive device that was thrown into his room started a fire that killed 16 others.
Now consider how the world has changed since 1988.
Today people are doxxed or gas-lit for being offensive. Write something or say something that’s deemed politically incorrect, you’ll be fired. You’ll be declared unfit for radio or TV. Social media will ban you. Power has shifted to the offended-class, and somehow they believe in the right to not be offended. There is no “ignore it” or “change the channel”.
After the Rushdie stabbing, a reporter interviewed a book store owner. Someone threw a rock through his store window and injured one of his employees because he dared to sell The Satanic Verses. He was asked, ‘would things be different today?’ The question was irrelevant. His answer: Today there wouldn’t be a publisher with the balls to even print the book.
He’s right.
Salman Rushdie is brave. And easily offended, loudy complaining snowflakes have turned others into cowards.
I’m Chris Conley.
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