@Jeruba beg your pardon, @jaytkay. I misunderstood the intent of the question. I thought it was to give voice to private opinions that others might find offensive and not to deliberately insult one another
Actually, you understood the intent correctly.
If I came off as personally insulting, my apologies for overestimating my ability to convey kidding and teasing in writing. Something that is obvious hyperbole or ribbing in person can look serious and mean-spirited in writing.
Regarding the intent of the question – I think most of us are more prejudiced than we generally acknowledge. Religion, race, class, region, education, appearance, language, popular culture – there are endless ways we set ourselves apart and make ourselves feel we are in the superior position.
And that’s not always wrong. To pick obvious examples, you aren’t going to persuade me that my moral values are only as good as those of Klansmen, the Taliban or gang members who use neighborhoods in my own city as shooting galleries.
Now I’m not worried about offending the Klan. But my view of religion stated here would hurt the feelings of some my friends at the church-sponsored charity where I volunteer weekly. As someone who enjoys civilization, I happily leave those views unsaid at the church, nobody there is condemning me to hell and we enjoy each others’ company and we do a little good for our community.
When I wrote the question, I didn’t have lofty thoughts, just a vague idea of safely airing some rude ideas which we often pretend don’t exist in our own heads.
I find plenty of offensive speech in the typical Fluther political thread, but I found this thread to be surprisingly not horrible. In an admittedly twisted way, this was an attempt to have a civil discussion – no arguing, no defending, no finger-pointing.Some people found it appalling, I guess our tolerance for a little mayhem varies. It wasn’t perfect but I think people generally were pretty well-behaved.