This is going to be kind of rambling and all over the place but here we go.
The world is a different place than it was 10 years ago. Ask anyone, and they'll give you their personal list of the major things that have changed. In particular, though, you'll find one thing echoed by what seems like a limitless number of people, though said in many ways: people are too sensitive now/everyone gets offended over everything/people can't take a joke/Political Correctness is killing comedy/etc.
Take your pick of any of those, but they all boil down to the same thing: people have become very vocal about the things that bother them. This is a stark difference from the world I grew up in. When I grew up, you kept thoughts that made you different from the crowd to yourself, that way you didn't get ostracized or beaten up for them. (For the record: this becomes more true of a scenario based on the region of the world you live in. Having grown up in the 'burbs south of Detroit, I feel that my situation was probably still much better than someone in the bible belt or, say, the middle east.)
When I was growing up in the 90's, and even into the early 2000's, people's worlds were pretty much just their social bubbles. That bubble tended to just be the people you know. Sometimes that would branch out to include people on the internet, but it was mostly within small, closed communities (chat rooms, instant messenger, etc.) As such, if someone held beliefs that would but them at odds with the people in their bubble, it's a safe bet they'd keep that to themselves, for fear of the bubble bursting and they be left alone.
As we moved into the late 2000's and through today, through the advent of social media, public comment boards, and the blogosphere, people now can step outside of that bubble and find people that feel the way they do, they can learn that their thoughts/beliefs/feelings are shared by others. This gives people more confidence to stand up and say something where they previously held silent, because they know others out there that will back them up.
There's also access to so much more information and news sources than ever before. Suddenly you don't become a conspiracy theorist for saying things like "black people seem like they get mistreated by the police a lot", because you can cite sources that you might not have found before in say, Missouri.
What's happening as a result of these changes is that people no longer have the same fear of being cast away for their thoughts. Where before a woman might sit silently during a rape joke at the local chucklehouse, despite the fact it offended her or brought back horrific feelings of the past, she can now go to the internet and post her thoughts. While this can go many ways, at the very least a dialog exists, it doesn't just die internally.
The problem with that scenario is then you will inevitably get people who will make such statements as "it's just a joke", "lighten up", or "people just don't have a sense of humor anymore." These often can be summarized up thusly: "it bothers the hell out of me that my jokes could be considered hurtful because up until now I never cared about how my words might affect others and this changes everything." Or, it could be summarized as the most dangerous word on the internet: privilege.
For decades, people just kept their problems to themselves. They didn't speak up when things bothered them. Historically, it's not until something comes alone that helps validate their beliefs that they start to speak up. The civil rights movement is a perfect example of that, as suddenly people felt like they had support when they said "enough of this." The internet has provided that validation to many.
The biggest issue with this are the people who get bothered by this. Suddenly they're being faced with the reality that maybe their worldview isn't aligned with the way things actually are. They're unable to accept that they may be held accountable for the things they say. They simply can't fathom how people can't tell when they're joking. It's not that people are just now being offended by it, it's just they are just now TELLING YOU that it offends them.
Examples of this crop up now more frequently than ever. "Feminism is destroying games", "The confederate flag isn't a symbol of slavery", and "SJWs are the devil" are just some examples of this. All of these are examples of deflective verbiage intended to not address the problem and instead pretend like this is the fault of the people complaining, not with the system we operate in.
Many people have been comfortable for years with zero accountability on how what they say or do might affect those around them. The fact is that this is no longer the case. You can and WILL be scrutinized for your beliefs and views if they bother someone. Instead of immediately blaming them for being offended, take a few moments of your time to try and understand WHY it bothers them. Engage them. Discuss, but don't accuse or deflect.
It comes down to empathy. You don't have to have firsthand experience with something to know why it affects someone. And you can still be funny and entertaining without relying on offensive humor. It just requires a bit more creativity... and a bit more thought.
I know this was kind of a brain dump, but it's something I've been thinking about for a couple of days now and wanted to get out there. Discussion is always welcome.
