Room for legitimate grievances

In reference to Michael Headley’s letter of last Friday (February 22), headlined Free Speech Must Be Protected, it seems to me that at some point people decided that they were going to be offended by everything.

The problem with this kind of prefabricated reaction is not that it emboldens haters but that it crowds out legitimate grievances. Everything begins to stink of politics, and people start sounding like a bunch of humourless protesters.

There is nothing wrong with calling out people for the things they say, but there is something fundamentally illiberal about a mob’s hounding people for every stupid tweet or making snap judgements about entire careers based on a few comments. Most often, the purpose is to chill speech. And I guess that’s what really offends me most.

Charles Knighton