Wednesday, March 31, 2010

"No one has the right to not be offended"

Apropos of complaining about things, here is a video of a British author saying some things. This is what he is saying:

It was a shocking thing to say and I knew it was a shocking thing to say. But no one has the right to live without being shocked. No one has the right to spend their life without being offended. Nobody has to read this book. Nobody has to pick it up. Nobody has to open it. And if you open it and read it, you don't have to like it. And if you read it and you dislike it, you don't have to remain silent about it. You can write to me, you can complain about it, you can write to the publisher, you can write to the papers, you can write your own book. You can do all those things, but there your rights stop. No one has the right to stop me writing this book. No one has the right to stop it being published, or bought, or sold or read. That's all I have to say on that subject.

42 comments:

  1. LEAVE RANDALL ALONE, HE'S A HUMAN BEING

    ReplyDelete
  2. sooo.. what do you wanna tell us here exactly? are you the writer in that case.. or is it randall...? please enlighten me

    ReplyDelete
  3. in so many words: if you don't like something, complain about it

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's... pretty neat, actually.

    So, Randall can churn his mediocre comics, we can still ragefully complain, and no one has to stop doing what they want to.

    Life is awesome, ain't it?

    ReplyDelete
  5. So, Randall can churn his mediocre comics, we can still ragefully complain, others can complain about the shit we're writing here, and no one has to stop doing what they want to.

    Life is awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous1: You are an idiot if you cannot understand the point we're trying to make here.

    ReplyDelete
  7. So, Randall can churn his mediocre comics, we can still ragefully complain, others can complain about the shit we're writing here, we can tell them they're being retarded, and no one has to stop doing what they want to.

    Life is awesome, ain't it?

    ReplyDelete
  8. nope. the text implies criticism of the "book", not the author!!!!!111.

    ReplyDelete
  9. So, Randall can churn his mediocre comics, we can still ragefully complain, others can complain about the shit we're writing here, we can tell them they're being retarded, they can develop creepy fantroll fetishes about our attempts to tell them they're retarded, and no one has to stop doing what they want to.

    Life is awesome, ain't it?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Rob, while I agree with the sentiment expressed to an extent, and heartily agree with the defense of free speech, I feel that the a person could make the argument here is not what one CAN do, or what others cannot prevent one from doing, but what one SHOULD do.

    The other says that no one has the right to live without being shocked, that no one has the right to prevent him from not publishing his book, and that no one has the right to stifle complaints etc. etc.

    This certainly does not mean one 'should' actively shock others or be shocked without purpose, that one should attempt to publish controversial material without reason, or create complaints without due reason.

    As always, ability mustbe tempered with responsibility.

    This means that the post contributes little to the argument for or against the site, as it will still leave the very large question of the merit of the site in doubt. It will only stifle the cuddlefish who believes that the site does not have the RIGHT to exist. I think (and hope) that contingent of users is small and it is likely that those few who do exist are actively avoiding accidentally ingesting their keyboards (because they are dumb, I don't know if that was clear) and thus are beneath meriting such a post.

    ReplyDelete
  11. ' I feel that the a person' -> 'I feel that a person'

    'The other says' -> 'the author says'

    'ability mustbe' -> 'ability must be'

    Goddam my tiny blackberry keyboard and my rugged, manly fingers.

    ReplyDelete
  12. well, first, I'm not trying to prove anything, I just thought it was interesting and relevant.

    ReplyDelete
  13. (apparently I make one-item lists now)

    ReplyDelete
  14. I like making one-item lists. Or ending your post with "funny story, actually". It keeps people guessing.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hey Rob, keep this in mind: You may have the right to write what you want, but I have the ability to take away your posting privileges at anytime! So don't clog my blog up with shit like this. YOU FUCKER.

    also, do you want me to delete that post you put here by mistake last week? i can do that

    ReplyDelete
  16. carl, I could just post the word 'butts' over and over again and it would be better than the shit you put up.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Butts Rob, you're really giving the butts end of the deal to Carl there, you might as well put your cigarette butts out in his eye or hit him with the butts end of a rifle... I don't think you know which side of your bread is buttsered on.

    I hear the scuttlebutts is that your headbuttsing is butts a show for the buttsheads on this blog. This is pretts butts BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS.

    ReplyDelete
  18. rob this post is just utterly false

    and i know you agree with me because you're a filthy liberal

    ReplyDelete
  19. actually I happen to be a supporter of free speech above all else so uh nope

    ReplyDelete
  20. Rob your butts comment evoked more amusement in me than in any other comment/post from this blog ever.

    Kinda pathetic, right?

    ReplyDelete
  21. 4:19, you're right, it is kind of a shame that you have the emotional maturity of a six-year-old

    ReplyDelete
  22. I love the queenie handbags at dawn atmosphere this blog has,

    Never change, xkcdsux

    also good content sometimes too

    ReplyDelete
  23. So, Randall can churn his mediocre comics, we can still ragefully complain, others can complain about the shit we're writing here, we can tell them they're being retarded, and no one has to stop doing what they want to.

    Life is awesome, ain't it?

    ReplyDelete
  24. Wow, some guy just pointed out that saying stuff isn't illegal. oh my god that's so deep.

    ReplyDelete
  25. i wouldn't expect you to understand

    ReplyDelete
  26. god Rob that last post sounded like a twelve year old with her fists clenched into balls and the beginnings of tears running down her cheeks in response to her mother asking "what's wrong?"

    ReplyDelete
  27. hahaha, okay, keep telling yourself that

    ReplyDelete
  28. No one has the right to be amused by this comic, either, yet here you've devoted hours and what...5 spam blogs to reviewing a comic you hate reading?

    Are you also sockpuppeting yourself in the comics? And then talking to yourself like an ITG? Wow.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Er, "comics" should be "comments."

    ReplyDelete
  30. "And if you read it and you dislike it, you don't have to remain silent about it. You can write to me, you can complain about it, you can write to the publisher, you can write to the papers, you can write your own book."

    ReplyDelete
  31. I think you missed the point of what I was trying to say. This blog has all rights to exist, and I applaud its existence.

    I am simply amused by the amount of effort going into disliking a stick figure comic, and further amused by your attempts to make it seem like a contentious position.

    I seriously doubt anyone is shocked by mediocre ramblings about how bad Randall Munroe's jokes are.

    ReplyDelete
  32. you think this takes effort?

    ReplyDelete
  33. "Some British author"...are you fucking kidding me? It's not like Philip Pullman's unknown!

    ReplyDelete
  34. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understatement

    ReplyDelete
  35. Why should we trust him? He's been saying "The Book of Dust" would come out "this year" since 2004. Screw you Pullman.

    ReplyDelete
  36. I'm an xkcd fan (please don't kill me), but you made me happy by mentioning Philip Pullman. Just thought I'd mention it.

    Also, before anyone says "if you're an xkcd fan why're you here?" or anything like that, I'm here to see if there's any comic you can't ruin for me.

    ReplyDelete
  37. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_dimension

    idiots

    ReplyDelete
  38. no you, as nothing on this page concerns dimensions

    ReplyDelete
  39. no, don't you see? the existence of a fourth dimension renders this entire conversation meaningless!

    ReplyDelete
  40. Heh, this looks like the blog writers have a -bit- of an insecurity problem about what they're doing... and want very badly to justify it to everybody else.

    "See you guys?? This famous author agrees with what we're doing. So it's ok then you guys! What we do is ok cause he says so."

    Heh... and yeh I'm aware that that's possibly not the case in reality, but that's sure as hell what it looks like from this side of the screen.

    ReplyDelete
  41. aww, and you were all doing so well, too. I was really impressed at everyone's ability to refrain from making the "LOL THE AUTHOR AGREES WITH ME THEREFORE I'M VALIDATED" troll. and Harry had to go and be a tard and say the stupid thing and ruin it for everyone. why you gotta suck so bad, Harry?

    ReplyDelete