Word: offenders
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This is the reason I have written polemical philippics: I have sought to counteract rampant prejudices. While I stand by my previous writings and their cogency, my first end was not to persuade but rather to offend your sensibilities. For with offended sensibilities comes indignation and with indignation a desire to refute. But to refute an argument successfully, even or perhaps especially a contrarian argument, requires understanding. And if one attempts to understand a contrarian argument, one might even come to appreciate or agree with it. In a word, one might lose a prejudice...
Usually when we speak about journalists displaying courage, we mean they have the courage to pursue difficult stories that offend powerful people, or the courage to write a story that cuts against the conventional wisdom. KARSTEN PRAGER, our colleague here at TIME, had that sort of courage in abundance. But throughout his life, which ended when he lost a fight with lymphoma a few weeks ago, he showed a deeper, personal bravery that made him someone very special indeed. As a German boy of eight, he and his mother and siblings made a perilous escape west out of occupied Czechoslovakia...
...English 10b section, I meet many of my fellow UC representatives, who glance at me curiously, many asking if I'm Muslim. Otherwise, I receive polite and almost overly respectful glances, as though people with whom I normally goof around are now afraid to offend me with questions--or even eye contact. Yesterday I felt like a spectacle, but today I feel invisible...
...experiment, but I still receive curious glances from the staff. Again, I am impressed by the silence, and respect that the silence implied. Nobody asks me why I'm dressed the way I am, except for the polite query, "Is it a special holiday today?" Nobody wants to offend at Harvard, but it leaves me feeling rather lonely. I find my friends, though, and eat a weary meal...
...Parker and Stone's most shocking invention is actually autobiographical. That is very revealing and confirms what one suspects while watching the show: that its creators are not simply out to offend people but are exploring the surreal terrors of childhood. The show would not be so funny, and its outrageous humor would not be shaded by such fear and poignancy, if it weren't an imaginative re-creation of authentic experience. Speaking to the Aspen audience, Stone said, "Face it, fart jokes are funny." This is profoundly true, and no one would want to take these jokes away from...