Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertoad
...I anticipated that objection, ... such as the right not to be offended.
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Actual problem is rarely discussed. Why is Trump so popular? Because he is routinely offensive. Most adults respect a bully; not the honest and informed. Throughout history, that is how ignorant bullies - who are destructive to their supporters - are so popular and gain so much support and power.
It goes right back to a fundamental problem. Many adults are still children. They make conclusions from their emotions - fail to use a pre-frontal cortex.
An adult acting like an adult will first collect facts and then make a logical conclusion. Supporters of bullies make an immediate conclusion from their emotions. Automatically believe a first thing told. And then are so emotional as to deny any realities and facts that expose the lie.
We all saw this with Saddam's WMDs. Facts clearly stated WMDs did not exist. But fears, lies, and other emotional hype even claimed Saddam was a threat to the US mainland.
Obviously that was impossible. Even countries adjacent to Iraq said he was not a threat. But emotions were embedded in so many who made decisions based only in their fears and other emotions.
That explains why offensive speech is so dangerous. Even successfully used by Hitler to define Jews as evil. It was so easily used by Hitler to justify racism - a superior blue eyed, blond haired superior German race. Those lies were believed because so many adults thought emotionally like children.
Obviously those claims were bogus to adults who were thinking like adults. It also explains the entrenched and obviously ignorant support for The Donald.
It is not just Trump who plays this emotion card. Bernie Sanders was doing same. Yes, his objectives were admirable. But his solutions had no basis in reality. Even his supporters, when challenged to explain their support, would recite myths. A classic one was the Federal Reserve is a private corporation harmful to the economy.
Tea Party was created on another lie - that TARP was evil to enrich the elitists (ie Rockefellers). Basic economics were irrelevant to their emotions. Many adults think like children - making offensive speech so dangerous.
So we address offensive speech rather then the reason why offensive speech creates so much evil. Unfortunately, it is not possible to require adults to think like adults - even if they use emotions to create a crime - like the launch of the Challenger. It usually takes something like murder (ie drag racing on public streets) to address this problem.