If you haven’t seen someone somewhere on your social media complaining about “censorship” and how they want their “free speech” back and so on, then you’re one of the lucky ones. So many people have been riding the “you’re offended, so you must be attacking my freedom of speech” train.

Lately, calling for reprimands on people for being egregiously offensive has been a rising trend. Like people vocalizing how using the n****r word, using faggot, using retarded, or using any of those clearly derogatory and offensive words are not appreciated in the least. Finally normalizing the idea that we’re all humans and people won’t like you if you feel the need to deny their comparable merit as one. They're also making a clear effort to make us nicer as a people.

Now, somehow the people who use these words think that someone else--a fellow citizen--telling them that word is uncalled for, rude, and “Hey, I don’t agree with you using that word,” is somehow a revocation of their freedom of speech. Is a bill being pushed into law that states you must face a fine or jail time at the cost of uttering those phrases? Is the government somehow putting up an institutional consequence for your language? The answer is no.

Everyone else has just as much freedom of speech as you have that you think is being threatened, along with freedom to think. Specifically, their freedom to think you are rude and probably some other things, because you think utilizing derogatory terms in a casual, offhanded or heated manner is appropriate. People telling you their opinion of you and your choice of slurs is not censorship or a threat to your freedom.

Referring to people by slurs is a key element to disrespecting people and to not caring about people or their feelings. Yet, the people utilizing them seem to care enormously about how other people feel because of how much power they give to the people who don’t agree. Also if you’re using derogatory terms, you really don’t have any room to care because you clearly don’t give anyone else anything close to the same courtesy.

The bigger problem, I think, is how scary it is that people cling so strongly to words that have only had widespread use as derogatory words. If you think offending people is a right, a right precious to you, then what does that say about you? What does it say about us as a population, that so many people feel that way?