What happened to everybody's thick skin? It used to be that people really didn't get offended, now however, everybody gets offended by the least little thing.

…Okay, that was a lie. All puns were intended.

Want literally anything else? That…hm. That might be a little harder. I…guess you could probably find it on Google, but only if you’re willing to put in the work.

But these losers have always existed in America—indeed, they’ve been present ever since the literally puritanical days predating our nation’s founding.

Can ringing in the ears be a sign of spiritual awakening?

*No pun intended.

That being said, I do want to note that the question is not entirely unreasonable, considering that the truly obscene* corpus of obscenity law is not only “still on the books” in America but is just as popular as ever—albeit only in certain circles. In fact, in some places, the judicious* and liberal* abuse of obscenity law is actually making something of a comeback and—to the surprise of no one—is coming mostly on the backs of religious conservatives.

Americans used to be so petty, fragile, and “thin-skinned”—and also weirdly racist—that studio executives were genuinely nervous about depicting two straight people kissing. We were so “thin-skinned” and “easily offended” that, thanks to parental complaints (and governmental transparency regulations), you can actually read a redacted version of the official—and I cannot stress that word enough—official FBI investigation into Louie Louie (The Song). We were so incredibly uptight and puritanical that it was considered potentially scandalous for Lucille Ball to appear visibly pregnant on camera—by her actual, real-life husband—while playing a fictional character married to (and pregnant by) a fictional character played by her actual, real-life husband.

China accuses US of ‘severely violating’ trade truce - Financial Times

Remember George Carlin’s comedy routine on “Seven dirty words you can’t say on radio and TV?” That wasn’t just a bit or the punchline a joke—that was (and still is) literally the law.

And for the record, you don’t even need to go that far back to find a time when Americans were literally threatening to take legal action against comedians for the heinous sin of offending the delicate sensibilities of “polite (mostly white) society.” Long after we stopped censoring comic books, and paying actual FBI agents to listen to the same record track over and over again for hours on end at various speeds, straining their ears to discern if there was even a whiff of obscenity on the master recordings, there are still laws on the books that attempt to codify what is—and is not—considered “obscene,” as well as when, how, and “by whom” it can be viewed (if at all). The end result of this—and the ongoing litigation over it—has been an exhaustive (and ever-expanding) canon of United States obscenity law.

And it’s worth remembering that as shrill though these “think of the children” s***p***ing t***l***ing c*********s might be, their hypocritical protestations are borne more of desperation than anything else. They are increasingly strident in their pious and holier-than-thou screeching precisely because they know their power is tenuous, their influence waning, and their popular appeal is positively phantasmagorical.

How did you know you weren't the narc?

Want some hate speech? Twitter has you covered.

But thanks to the advent of the Internet, satellite radio, podcasting, filesharing, VPNs, and subscription streaming services, each and every form of obscenity, indecency, and profanity—yes, those are legally distinct…apparently —is now just a few Twitter/X posts away, in all their delicious flavors and all the colors of the rainbow, often whether you wanted it or not.

Original Question: What happened to everybody's thick skin? It used to be that people really didn't get offended, now however, everybody gets offended by the least little thing.

If you’re an atheist, what would be your motive in spreading atheism, and why would you care what others believe?

Want some porn? Again, call up the Twitter/X app —or your Congressman if you live in Florida.

Side Note: Don’t even get me started on the morass of morality codes associated with showing a married couple—both real and fictional—in the same bed.

To be fair, I suppose it’s possible that OP is writing from a country with a much longer (and stronger) history of free speech protections and tolerance. But at least here in the good ol’ US of A, people have “thicker skin” now than they ever have before, as evidenced by the fact that we are no longer literally—literally—prosecuting and jailing comedians for “obscenity.”

What are the most shocking facts about the Bollywood industry?

As much as part-time actor-comedians and full-time douche-bags like Adam Corolla, and that guy from “The Hot Chick” might complain about how “you can’t tell jokes anymore” without offending someone—usually on a public platform where their complaints about “de-platforming” can reach a wider audience—it is an undeniable reality and an objective fact that we are actually living in the golden age of both comedy and freedom of speech. (Which is also why they’re so “triggered,” for the record—although they’ll eat ground glass rather than admit it). But that’s not actually something we should be “proud of,” so much as a reflection of how genuinely awful things used to be.

(Side Note: We’re also not prosecuting people for using the “wrong bathrooms”…anymore. They lost that court case …again. Oh, wait. Never mind. )

My ever-loving sibling in Christ—what in the name of Expurgation are you talking about?

Hello, I have a question about astral projection. I started to get interested in this a little while after my mum passed in april. I thought I may be able to see her and speak with her if I managed to achieve astral projection. Since this interest, every time i sleep on my back I go into sleep paralysis. However, I cant progress into astral projection because it is very scary for me as I feel like I'm suffocating when this happens. I panic and force myself to wake up. This only ever happened about once a year before this. It sometimes lasts a long time. This has happened about 3 times per week since my mum died, as mentioned on a previous post. I no longer try to go into it anymore(due to the suffocating feeling), but it still happens. I read that sleep paralysis is the pathway to astral projection. Why has this started to happen so frequently since simply taking an interest in it? Is this connected to the afterlife? I am concerned about it as I now cannot seem to stop this happening. Could it be my mum trying to communicate? Im asking due to more knowledge around this in this group.