# Things that "should" offend you but don't really. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 25, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-should-offend-you-but-dont-really/635819 "2012-09-25T20:43:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-should-offend-you-but-dont-really/635819/21 "2012-09-26T22:52:32Z")
On the other hand, I don’t mind second hand, thrift store, or re gifted gifts. For years my favourite jacket was a plum velvet “shirt” my friend saw in a thrift store, bought because she thought it was a dress, then gifted to me for a birthday when it was clear it wouldn’t work for her purposes. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-should-offend-you-but-dont-really/635819/22 "2012-09-27T02:39:27Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > I would have a very negative reaction to physical contact that personal with a stranger in any setting, but that’s me. But in a packed club you’re already all in everyone else’s personal business, intentionally or not. Obviously they still shouldn’t do it intentionally and they’re probably assholes, but I just don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-should-offend-you-but-dont-really/635819/23 "2012-09-27T12:33:44Z")
> [@geneb](#): > > I can’t think of anything that really offends me. > > In fact, I never have understood the current habit I have seen of people getting so supremely bent out of shape over every little thing. I guess it has been effective, though, as I tend to be terrified of offending people and, as such, don’t really do or say anything that could possibly construed as anything other than what I did or said. Not that it helps much. This is so true. I hope I don’t get lambasted here—I _know_ I was politically incorrect, but adrenaline causes strange things… One time the slightly older, **much** bigger kid next door came over and told me my younger son was about to get beat up as soon as he got off the school bus. (He told me who.) We were jogging toward to the stop and could see the bus. I was yelling “Hey! You Chinese kid! Don’t beat up my son!” Hiccup step. “I mean, Oriental!” Flashing lights because I wasn’t used to running like that, but I still had my wits about me. “I mean, Asian!” We got there in time to stop the brawl which petered out and never threatened again. But what was really funny was that, along the way, the larger kid kept saying “He’ll be okay, right? Because he’s \_\_\_ years old.” Although my son grew to be six feet tall, at the time he hadn’t got his growth spurt yet and was small for his age. Plus, he wasn’t that old. I kept telling the kid “He’s \_\_\_!” (Can’t remember the exact age.) And the kid kept arguing with me. “No he’s not! He’s \_\_\_!” I kept correcting him. Finally I wheezed “I should know—I’m his mother!” The kid looked at me like he’d never seen me before. I don’t know _what_ his concept of “mom” was, but I must have not been it. (I was really small back then; still short.) Anyway, it all worked out and I hoped none of the neighbors had heard me. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-should-offend-you-but-dont-really/635819/24 "2012-09-27T12:35:26Z")
I honestly can’t think of anything that offends me. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-should-offend-you-but-dont-really/635819/25 "2012-09-27T15:18:23Z")
> [@Blackberry](#): > > I don’t really care if a random guy grabs my ass at the club. I would care in any other context (even a non-crowded bar…it just makes a difference when everyone is all squished together anyway as opposed to walking right up to someone and doing it), but at a club…eh. I was the same way - eh, cop a feel, whatever rows your boat - but now that I’m married I make it clear that it’s _not cool_. I think it would be disrespectful towards my husband (whether he’s there or not) if I allowed it to happen without consequence. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-should-offend-you-but-dont-really/635819/26 "2012-09-27T23:30:30Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > “Misrepresentations” of witches/pagans in movies and popular culture. A) Don’t name your religious identity after an already established negative image if it bothers you so much and B) watching 2 hours of middle aged women sitting in a living room drinking wine, complaining about their jobs and burning sage would be really, really boring. Of course they’re going to add in flying broomsticks and sparks shooting from fingertips, the reality is far less ticket worthy. A few of the Wiccans I’ve known actually collect witches dolls, statues, comics etc. Back To The OP Mort Goldman on Family Guy. I always get the feeling I should be offended by stuff like ‘Hey, Mort, where’d you learn how to commit insurance fraud?’ ‘It’s right here in the Torah- next to how to write whiny letters to companies to get free products!’ But I just think it’s funny. ---
**Author:** ![feppytweed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/feppytweed/32/4280_2.png) [@feppytweed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/feppytweed)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-should-offend-you-but-dont-really/635819/27 "2012-09-28T04:14:06Z")
People insulting my mother. I know they’ve never even met the lady, and they’re just trying to get under my skin, but it just never sticks. People giving me the finger. Some people want to start a war if they’re flipped off… At MOST I just wonder “what the hell is that guy’s problem” and go about my business. Any type of name calling directed at me, I pretty much shrug off and offer a witty retort. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-should-offend-you-but-dont-really/635819/28 "2012-09-28T04:25:34Z")
My ultra-conservative friend calling me a “socialist” I know “socialist” is an epithet among the far-right in US politics. And when he uses it, he means it as a brutal insult (see: “red” in the 50s-60s) But when he calls me this, intending to insult and enrage me, I just kinda shrug. I’m not a proper socialist, but I don’t find the ideas of it or the countries that actually are offensive. When he does this, I just laugh and troll him on conservatives waging the “War on women.” ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-should-offend-you-but-dont-really/635819/29 "2012-09-28T14:58:29Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Take a look at the honker on our [Governor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Shumlin_2010_crop.jpg), and tell me that there are any circumstances whatever where he could not be said to have a “big nose”.. I like his nose. In fact, I think it’s his best feature. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-should-offend-you-but-dont-really/635819/30 "2012-09-28T15:15:58Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I don’t get out of sorts when someone calls me a bitch. For ME, it means the same thing as jerk, just people seem to see “jerk” as more masculine. > > I actually try to always use “jerk” just to keep it gender-neutral but I don’t think I’ve ever been “NO YOU DI’N’T!” if someone were to call me a bitch, or say I was being bitchy. > > Then again, I don’t know how often I’m ever called a bitch. Maybe if it were more, I’d be more offended. Seems to me that “bitch” is semantically drifting to gender-neutrality, anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-should-offend-you-but-dont-really/635819.md?page=1)