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Offended?

I read a lecture by Salman Rushdie the other day. It was about the nature of free speech and democracy, and I think he had some very insightful points:

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. In democracies people get extremely upset with each other. They argue vehemently against each other’s positions. (But they don’t shoot.)

Also:

People have the fundamental right to take an argument to the point where somebody is offended by what they say. It’s no trick to support the free speech of somebody you agree with or to whose opinion you are indifferent. The defence of free speech begins at the point when people say something you can’t stand. If you can’t defend their right to say it, then you don’t believe in free speech.

I couldn't agree more. Many people seem to think that they have a right to never be offended. They think that when someone does something that insults or scandalizes them, they can demand that the offending behaviour be stopped.

As Mr. Rushdie points out, this is absurd.