I am sick of the word "offence"

"Oh, you can't say that, it might offend XYZ" - how have we allowed the concept of offence to gain such importance? It has now supplanted any normal attempts at communication, conversation, even basic stating the obvious is now increasingly restricted - this absurd "offence" mantra is now trotted out seemingly as a complete and unchallengeable assertion to control the way we interact with anyone who might remotely be considered a "minority".

Well, perhaps there's a reason why minorities are, by definition, less prevalent and widespread than majorities? Maybe they picked the wrong path to follow, the one that led or contributed to their poverty, their lack of education, their inability to speak, spell or punctuate properly, their failure to create any wealth for themselves or their families? Had they chosen to improve themselves, and actually applied themselves with some effort to that end, then maybe they wouldn't carry around so much "offence-baggage" as sad worthless inadequates who must be protected from the truth?

There's also a difference between offence, and simply stating the obvious. We allow adjectival fascism to control us - a man who can't see is blind; to call him visually challenged is insulting dross, it implies that he regards his lack of sight as a challenge to overcome - how do we know that? He might (probably not, but perfectly possible) be happy with his heightened senses of hearing, touch, smell. He might not want to regain his sight - he is blind, and if that offends him to hear those words, well, tough. I am sighted, he is blind - I am not offended by being called sighted, why is he offended at being called blind? The answer of course is that he is not offended - he has had offence imputed upon him by do-gooding interfering nannies who do him no favours.

Worst of all is the most heinous of crimes, offending Muslims. Well, sod Muslims. Their particular brand of hate-filled intolerance, invective and prejudice is the single greatest cause of misery on this planet, and I rank them along with all organised, controlling religions in that - special mention for Catholicism as one of the worst, too.