to think it's safe to say that there are a group of people that could be termed the 'Professionally offended'

[CanISawItOff]

Listening to people in RL reading threads online, reading the newspaper, watching the tv it seems there are a group of people who see it as their purpose in life to just be offended by, well, everything!!

AIBU to wonder where these 'professional offence takers' came from or have they always been lurking in the background?

I second that. Some of the gripes on here never cease to amaze me. Lighten up ffs.

On here the only time I have seen the term, 'professionally offended' it has been used as a stick to beat people with, when they take offence at something which is...well, offensive.

Need a bit more info I'm afraid.

Some people just take themselves and life far too seriously and see a smile as a 'sneer', a request as a 'demand' and simple friendly interest as 'nosiness'.

Give them a wide berth and they're offended because you're ignoring them...

YABU

You don't get to decide what is offensive to who

Just because an issue isn't important to you, doesn't mean it isn't to others

I also think accusing someone of being 'professionally offended' is incredibly underhand, dismissive and a way of silencing/mocking someone

Sorry hazy I didn't mean this to be a thread that people take offence at! It's just, well, some of the gripes you see in the press do make me don the face as they seem quite petty in the grand scheme of things. I suppose things like parent and child parking could be one.

bejeezus puts it well.
yabu
this is the stick that is often used to beat people with when they object to things like disablism.

What hazeyjane said.

YANBU. I love how the term professionally offended has already, well, offended some people.

Ah sorry i don't mean it in terms of major things that it's right to grumble at. I mean silly little petty things that they're determined to turn into a cause.

I love how i'm already apologising for my OP by post 12! :o

Honestly, I have only seen it used on here and it is nearly always with regards to disablism.

YANBU. Agree. Unfortunately some of them insist that if they are offended then whatever offends them should be forbidden or banned. I am beginning to fear for true freedom of speech. Sometimes, on here and in RL it's as if the "thought police" are well and truly in evidence.

Everyone has the right to protest if they find something offensive - whether or not the offence was intentional - but not the right to ban everyone else from expressing a view.

Yes but its what people say when people get rightly offended at something offensive!

I've actually never heard it used in any other context

All it means is you aren't offended by the offensive thing.

I agree with bejeezus.
BTW, is this a thread about a thread?

I am with hazeyjane. I see it used often on here as a response in a debate, when a point is being debated and the person who's used it has run out of intelligent things to say.

I think i know what you mean. I'm not talking about people who request that you are not offensive, that is fair enough.

But I remember setting up a feminist group in Cardiff that met at a disabled access veggie/vegan/organic cafe and after the first meeting getting a very irrate letter landed in my inbox from a woman who had once set up a similar group that had imploded in the local area, claiming I hadn't taken her needs into account as she was housebound. I was v pissed off as I had spent ages consulting people on the venue.

Then I got another irrate one from a rad fem who said I had failed to certify that my group was a 'safe space' for ALL women, not the rich students like me.

I gave up eventually as a group of the old guard got together to boycott us and I didn't want to represent these people.

No this is a thread about a conversation i overheard at the school this afternoon

I think i'm clearly walking in la la land as i've never seen it used on here and, as a disabled person, wouldn't want to be defending people who make life harder!!

Haven't you heard the phrase "Disgusted, of Tunbridge Wells"?

I have never met someone I could consider 'professionally offended'. I have met people who get offended at offensive things. Like others, I have only ever heard that term on MN and the majority of the time in defense of disablist or racist comments.

I doubt that it is the same people who fnd themselves personally offended by everything. What do you man? Are you referring to people who are offended by Frankie Boyle jokes about disabled children? People who disagree with John Terry's aquittal for calling someone a black cunt?

Is 'professionally offended' the new 'PC gooorn mad'? in which case, shouting people down from thier opinion or feelings is just as much an infringement on free speech as saying you don't agree with something as it insults someone.

You need to be more specific - or are you just prifessionally offended by the notion that people get offended?

YANBU - I was on a thread once where somebody became extremely offended at the phrase "Wine o'clock" because it might tempt people into drinking!

Some people use it in an attempt to excuse their utter cuntishness however.

Thems the ones ethel

The term professionally offended is everywhere

I've always taken it to mean people who take offence when there is none

You know the type who scream 'racism', 'sexism' etc when it absolutely clearly isn't?

In other words they study things in detail to see if there's any way possible to become even slightly offended by something.

I also think it gets used by folks who suffer from extreme lack of empathy and simply can't conceive of something being offensive that they don't think is offensive.