# Do you have to be offended by personal insults for them to count

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-to-be-offended-by-personal-insults-for-them-to-count/546229>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [July 10, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-to-be-offended-by-personal-insults-for-them-to-count/546229 "2010-07-10T17:16:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 10

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**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-to-be-offended-by-personal-insults-for-them-to-count/546229/10 "2010-07-10T21:16:59Z")

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What **Giraffe** said. It’s not practical or a good idea for us to enforce the rules differently based on how thick an individual poster’s skin is. After all most of the time we have no way to tell if a poster is going to be offended by a particular comment or not.

> [@Oakminster](#):
>
> **Rand Rover** got called out by name, and his riposte was relatively mild. If **Wesley Clark** gets off without a warning, then **Rand Rover** should, as well.

**Wesley Clark** ’s post was a bad idea in my opinion, but he didn’t insult **Rand Rover**. **Rand Rover** unambiguously insulted **Wesley Clark**. The situation doesn’t sit very well with me either, so I’ll see if any of the other moderators get a different reading on the situation than I did.

> [@Rand\_Rover](#):
>
> Fear Itself has posted an insult toward me in that very same thread. Let’s see what happens . . .

I assume you’re interpreting this part as an insult, but I don’t see it:

> [@Pros and cons of raising the retirement age](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pros-and-cons-of-raising-the-retirement-age/545587/53):
>
> Of course, you find that annoying, because you believe the natural order is for the wealthy to exploit the poor, but social systems always find a way to equalize an imbalance of power.

**Fear Itself** describes your beliefs in a way I assume you don’t like, but that doesn’t make the post an insult.

> [@mhendo](#):
>
> I think i should be able to describe the libertarian worldview and libertarians as “selfish” and “utopian” in a GD thread; i don’t see why a libertarian shouldn’t be able to describe redistributive policies and those who advocate them as “violent” or “coercive.”

He can describe the policies that way if he wants to. The problem is that made his comment at **Wesley Clark** , not at the policies in question. He called him “a violent person” who “[lacks] the courage of your convictions” and who “[isn’t] man enough to come take my stuff yourself.”

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