Rushdie: “Defend the right to be offended”

Salman Rushdie, forever one of the great voices of reason of our time (and a damn good read his books are too):

The idea that any kind of free society can be constructed in which people will never be offended or insulted is absurd. So too is the notion that people should have the right to call on the law to defend them against being offended or insulted. A fundamental decision needs to be made: do we want to live in a free society or not? Democracy is not a tea party where people sit around making polite conversation.

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