The Ethics around Offensive Expression

I think there's been some muddled thinking, over the last several years, around offensive forms of expression.  Obviously, like anyone with a heart, I agree that it's unethical to deliberately offend someone.  Obviously referring to a black person by the N word or deliberately insulting someone is unethical.

The problem comes in when someone expresses a sincere opinion and people respond that they find it "offensive".  I don't mean just any opinion, either.  I mean, obviously, expressing male supremacy at a take back the night march, or something like that, is offensive however straight-forward the expression is, because, unless we're dealing with someone with very poor social skills, we can probably assume that such a speaker intended their comments to offend by the situation in which they spoke them.  And I'm not particularly sympathetic to Neo-fascists or Neo-nazis expressing anything, because they're authoritarian creeps and I don't particularly think they care very much about my freedom of expression.[1]

What I'm getting at is ordinary expression of opinion that does not have an ulterior motive and is not being made by authoritarians who want their right to speak, but won't extend that same right to others. 

In a democracy, it's critical that people be able to share their opinions.  We all need to be able to say what we think, without fear of retaliation, even social retaliation, because that's what makes democracy work.  Unless we can all express ourselves freely, whoever controls our expression controls the nation.  The ethics, here, is that people shouldn't express things with the goal of offending.  Also, people should be careful not to make prejudicial or ignorant statements about a group.  But, just because you don't like what somebody else has said doesn't mean that they've offended you.  We all need to feel free to say what we think without people accusing us of offense.

Also, there are certain forms of expression, like satire, that need to stand, in spite of being offensive.  Satire is offensive by nature.  If it's not offensive, it's arguably bad satire.  Satire is an art form that has a moral dimension to it.  It pokes fun at society with the goal of making us see ourselves in a different way.  This is an important part of any society.  In fact, I'd say that satire is a canary in a coal mine for a free society.  When we start oppressing our satirists, we know we're going in an authoritarian direction.  The best satirists offend everybody equally, because their goal is not to hurt or to pick on any particular group or person, but rather to create a dark reflection of society in its totality so that we can learn something about our society that we otherwise wouldn't see (or at least see society through someone else's eyes).  So, satire is a special case.  Society needs to give satirists a special pass to offend.  In return, satirists can work hard to offend everybody by showing us all our dark sides that we don't like to see.  So, they hold a special place in a free society.

So, in short, it's unethical to express something, if your purpose with it is to offend.  We should also be careful to avoid prejudice.  Satirists have a solemn duty to offend everybody.  Apart from that, we should feel free to share our opinions and stop whining when someone expresses an opinion we don't like.

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[1] Though, as a liberal, I keep falling back on that quote, usually attributed to Voltaire, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".