Nothing Personal

After a great talk with ramblingsoul, doug, and [identity-protected] last night at Mag:net Katipunan, I came across this quote from a Salman Rushdie interview at the Guardian which I thought was serendipitous:

I may not like the things you believe and, by the way, the fact that you believe them makes me think less of you as a person. I may despise you personally for what you believe, but I should be able to say it. Everybody needs to get thicker skins. There is this culture of offence, as though offending someone is the worst thing anyone can do. Again, there is an assumption that our first duty is to be respectful. But what would a respectful cartoon look like? Really boring! You wouldn't publish it. The nature of the form is irreverence and disrespect.

Quite apt, I would think, given the fatwa pronounced on Rushdie.