I think one of the primary responsibilities we have in life is to not hurt people.
The thing is, not everyone agrees on what, exactly, that entails.
A lot of people don’t think that that responsibility to not hurt people covers saying cr*p online, for example.
It may not hurt someone physically, but what we say online can have serious repercussions.
And the more ‘influence’ we have — online or in the mainstream media — the more responsibility we have to consider the consequences of our actions.
The world is full of nuance and ‘what ifs’ and ‘but what abouts’ — I’m not going to deny that. It’s the way things are.
But I think that, in general, you have the responsibility to think about the ramifications of your words before you say them (whether that’s verbally or online or whatever.)
‘You’re asking people to censor themselves!’ — kind of, yeah.
I’m asking people to know when it’s appropriate to joke, and when it isn’t.
I’m asking people to understand that what you say to a crowd of small children is different to what you might…