Too many people now are offended, uptight and have to be right. I'm a poet BYW. I'll let Bobby explain it y'all, hope this doesn't 'offend 'anyone.
I'm sorry Silver, look on the bright side, you're in the popular group. Now when I talk to some people I go ahead and tell them it was nice talking to them, emphasis on "was". Because I know somewhere during the event I'm going to piss them off without even trying.
My SIL (wife's older sister) is very "overly sensitive". It's extremely hard for her to understand a joke. Then again, she doesn't get around people that joke around. The SIL grew up in a different way than my wife or her brother. While my wife and her brother were having fun on summer weekends at their mom's lake cottage, the SIL was back at home spending the weekend with church friends and in church.
I did not see anything that you posted that was out of line at all, @Marie Mallery . I think they were just teasing you that whatever you wrote was offensive. I have never seen you try to be offensive to anyone on this forum. Mostly, you just post songs that something reminds you of. We can all say something unintentionally, and have another person take it wrong and be hurt or offended, but there is no way we can know that will happen until it does. You are all good……
I took the talk about being offended as being in the non-serious mode but I'm sometimes tone-deaf when it comes to being offended.
I'm offended that I don't get offended about much. I'm missing out on something that one heck of a lot of people seem to enjoy hugely......
It's an odd thing about those of us who have some miles of experience. At this point, we should understand that nothing really matters much. Instead, there seem to be some number (not meaning anyone here) who get aggrieved at the slightest imperfection. I wonder if being the first generation to be raised in pure capitalistic "The customer is always right" and "Thou shalt never be inconvenienced" has caused some ugly narcissism. After all, we have been the largest marketing target in the history of Man, from Maypo and Barbie commercials to Depends and Geritol. It makes us easy to play...just the slightest disruption, and we revert to full blown "Do whatever it takes to make things better" mode. We should be setting a better example, not be something that others pray they never become. Gee, maybe that offends me
Since being offensive is causing anger, displeasure, or resentment in another person, then I can't say I have never been offensive or been offended. How can anything controversial be discussed without someone getting pissed? I used pissed because it covers anger, resentment, and displeasure all in one word that everyone understands. Now, as far as friendly is concerned, while the positive of outgoing and pleasant comes to mind, there is also the negative, being antagonistic. An overly antagonistic person is offensive, even though they pride themselves as friendly. How many times have we heard them say, "I was just being friendly. I have an outgoing personality? That is just who I am." It is my experience that people that have to tell others, repeatedly, how friendly they are, are in fact antagonistic. Even genuine friendliness, if taken to the extreme, may be an irritant to others.
It really seems like people genuinely get shocked when we say something to them. I don't know, but it sure seems like a lot of people today are afraid of people who are friendly and don't understand why any stranger would talk to them. Very, very seldom do we have a total stranger start talking to us first. Of course, when wearing our western attire, we aren't part of the "click" of Henderson. It's funny, but the people that we talked to up north (Carson City/Reno area) told us that the difference between there and here (Henderson/Vegas) is like day and night. "They don't know why anyone would want to live up here and we have no idea why anyone would live down there." As for saying something offensive, just how does a person know the personality of a stranger unless you talk to them? When first talking to them, you have no idea what is offensive or not to them. My wife, and her younger brother, totally know my personality/humor and have no problem with it. However, there are some family members of my wife, especially her older sister, who can be offended very easily. She will never understand/like "joking around".