Is "being offended" just an excuse for personal failure?

I think peolpe who are way too easily offended must have a giant bug up their arseholes.
A good idea would be to have the offending arachnid “surgically removed” by means of a giant sink plunger!

I dunno…some people take everything way too seriously, which usually leads to complete and total disaster. They just have need to lighten up some.

I’ve apologized to jellies before who I thought I’ve offended, which proves that, once again, we need a sarcasm font.

They don’t get “over being offended” if they were truly offended by something offensive being said or done. They are entitled to their feelings.

I don’t think it necessarily holds up anything. If anything, the offensive person is the one who is holding things up!

I am always very careful not to tread on another jelly’s toes. Then I remember they don’t have toes.

@Joker94 The ~ symbol means you are being sarcastic here on Fluther.

@josie I don’t think it is an excuse for personal failure. I think it can be indicative of a narrow view of the world, anger problems, and an unwillingness to hear someone out about what their intent and meaning really is behind what they said. But, yes, I think it also might be a way for someone to stay stuck in their own mess rather than moving forward. I think it depends on the situation.

@JLeslie I finally picked up on that, but this was one situation where someone else didn’t use it, and I got the wrong vibe from it. After we PM’d, I actually went back to the response and laughed lol

I think it’s just good manners not to offend people. I would rather apologize when it’s not needed than assume they’re not offended when they really are, therefore not apologizing and having someone think I’m a callous douche.

It takes a lot to offend me but I will always be offended by racism and homophobia, or any other similar kind of blinkered prejudice.

I don’t think complaining about being offended helps anyone though. If you’re offended by something, don’t moan about it. Act on it.

@downtide What if the person meant no offense? They just chose bad wording.

Then the action should be to educate that person on better use of language.

@downtide I agree with that. Sometimes I worry people who are offended don’t give someone the opportunity to explain what they meant, or to learn why it is offensive. Not you, I am talking generalities,

Because they feel intimidated and need validation that all is cool and sometimes that is not made sufficiently clear for them to move on.

Actually, standing up for something you believe in and letting others know when they offend you is something that isn’t weak or cowardly, quite the contrary. There are no ‘these day’s or ‘old days’, people have always offended people and continue to do so – however, when you don’t feel anyone will care or you have low self-esteem, you don’t say something because you don’t think you can enact change. As a person, I find many things offensive because I am a person of fairness and justice and our society isn’t but you wouldn’t say I’m a failure given how much I have accomplished (on both personal and professional fronts) in my relatively short life.

Being offended is probably a natural thing. I think how it’s handled is where it starts webbing around. I don’t really see a relation with offense and failure though.

It is unlikely to move on after being offended. Most people just want to hear other apologizing or something before continuing doing their job or similars.
It’s just convenient to get offended and not continue the work or having to explain. “well man/maam I am offended !!”.
It’s a perk. You just say three words and don’t have to bother with other explanations.

@Hibernate Generally speaking though, if someone says they’re offended, an explanation is warranted (unless it’s something well known like don’t say nigger or faggot). And if I find something offensive and say so, I usually explain why it can be read that way.

While your point of view is partially true never forget that one someone says they are offended they won’t want to participate anymore in giving explanation or so. At least the people I do when they say they get offended they need some time off or away from the person who offended them before reaching out and explaining. This is not a general case but there are two sides of everything.

Yes. Especially in the case of Bruce Banner who is too lazy to go bodybuild in the gym so he uses any pitiful excuse there is to be offended so he could turn into this massively ripped asskickin badass monolithic Hulk. Shame!

That I’m not offended by this silliness doesn’t mean I don’t wallow in personal failure.

Interesting topic. Question that arises is offended a roadblock word or a borders word? In the previous decade or two the word tolerance was set up as word that was meant to belittle. To say the speaker was too small minded. Is offended kind of like that? Too shut some one down sw say “sorry if I offended you”

I haven’t read all the responses, so I apologize if this has already been said. I think getting offended is sometimes a productive act, not a counterproductive one. If somebody says something ignorant, and I get offended and explain why that statement is offensive, and the person says “huh, I never thought of it that way” then what we have achieved is educating someone about what life from a different point of view is like, and that is always useful.

Emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion, emotion! Danger Will Robinson, emotion alert! Danger, danger!

Many people have a tendency to take a phrase or a word and build the Great Wall of China out of it. We get told all the time we need to be respected, that when people get what they think is a whiff of disrespect, they are off to the races. If I got bent every time I thought or felt I was respected her, I would always show up with a chip on my shoulder as big as the USS Nimitz.