While the name of this page is Tastefully Offensive, it’s clear from reading through the posts that most aren’t actually disrespectful. They might be blunt or brutally honest, but that doesn’t mean that they deserve to be met with pearl clutching. This conversation does beg the question, though: who has the authority to decide what is offensive?
When it comes to what’s offensive, that’s a nuanced topic that the majority of people won’t agree on. I’m sure if you ask your 90-year-old grandmother, you’ll get a different answer than you’d hear from your five-year-old. And, of course, it depends on the situation you’re in. Making an off-color joke might be okay around your best friend, but you definitely won’t want to do it in front of your boss.
According to a survey from the Pew Research Center, Americans have a hard time agreeing on what’s offensive. In fact, they can’t even agree on whether or not it’s okay to use “offensive language,” as only 60% believe that it’s important to avoid it. Meanwhile, 61% of Americans believe that most of the country cannot agree on what is considered racially insensitive.
65% also say that Americans can’t get on the same page about what language is considered sexist. However, 60% of Americans do believe that people are too easily offended by the language that others use. And only 39% believe that people need to be more careful about the language that they use.
It’s been established that offensive is in the eye of the beholder. So let’s discuss one potentially offensive action: swearing. Did you grow up in a household where your mother and father swore like sailors? Or were you required to put a nickel in the swear jar for saying things like “stupid”?
According to a survey from YouGov, 57% of Britons admit that they swear almost every day. And over 60% of British men say that they curse most or every day. Meanwhile, nearly half of the country doesn’t have a strong opinion on swearing, while 17% actually view it positively. On the other hand, however, a third of the nation looks down upon cursing. So be careful who you decide to speak freely in front of!
As far as where Britons believe that it’s acceptable to swear, YouGov reports that the vast majority are okay with it at home by yourself, in response to physical pain or with friends in private. And over half say that it’s okay at a soccer match or with friends in a public place. But the majority believe that swearing is inappropriate at work, in a place of worship, in front of kids or in a shop, if it’s directed towards a member of the staff.
While it’s great to call out offensive jokes and hate speech, some people think that we’ve swung a little bit too far in the opposite direction. In fact, one poll from the Cato Institute found that a whopping 71% of Americans believe that political correctness has “silenced discussions society needs to have.” At the same time, 58% of Americans admit that they have political beliefs that they’re scared of sharing with others, for fear of receiving backlash or getting canceled.
We certainly shouldn’t be afraid of sharing our beliefs, especially when they’re just opinions that we’re not claiming to be facts. But it can become dangerous when "opinions" turn into hate speech that starts spreading rampant online. A 2022 poll in the UK found that 84% of Brits are concerned about the amounts of harmful content that they’ve been seeing on social media. And 78% wish that companies would be crystal clear about what kind of content is allowed on their platforms and what isn’t.
