30 Times People Got Offended And Upset About Things Most Would Never Get Offended By, As Shared Online (2024)

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>Professor Greg Patton at the University of Southern California (USC) was telling students in a communications lecture last month about filler, or pause words, such as 'err', 'umm' or 'you know' in English.
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>Footage of his lecture, which has now gone viral, shows Prof Patton saying: "In China, the common pause word is 'that, that, that'. So in China, it might be na-ge, na-ge, na-ge."
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>Enunciated, na-ge sounds like the N-word, which led several of the professor's students to complain to the university. Responding to the complaint, the dean of the university, Geoffrey Garrett, told students that Prof Patton would no longer be teaching the course.
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>"It is simply unacceptable for the faculty to use words in class that can marginalize, hurt and harm the psychological safety of our students," he said.
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>The university says that Prof Patton "volunteered to step away" from his role amid the investigation into complaints made against him.

This is the stupidest thing to get offended over that I've seen in quite a while. And damaging to actual cases of racist terminology being used inappropriately.

FabriFibra87 , Luke Jones Report

Had someone get offended by me calling my brother "bro". They insisted that I was racist and that white people can't be related to Mexicans.

Like seriously lady. That's not how genetics work. We are 100% related and are a mix of white and Native American. Its not that unheard of for one biological sibling to come out lighter or darker than the other.

And even if we weren't related... Seriously? I'm racist for calling someone close to me my bro despite being different skin tones? Seriously?

Thank you for coming to my rant session. Have a good day.

WaYaADisi1 , georgia Report

I am a disabled person. My life sucks because of my disability and no longer being able to do the things I used to love makes me quite depressed sometimes. Some a*****e tried to lecture me about how I was ableist for wishing there was a cure for my disability. F**k me for not enjoying being in constant pain and possibly ending up in a wheelchair in the future I guess.

brandonisatwat , Steve Johnson Report

This guy at a Halloween party I was at was dressed in a giant bacon costume.

Some girl was *yelling* at him for being so offensive toward Jews and Muslims (she was neither Jewish nor Muslim). One of the Muslim guys at the party asked her what the f**k she was talking about but she didn't back down lol

I have no idea why people feel they need to go out of their way to be (inaccurately) offended on behalf of other cultures/religions

WooIWorthWaIIaby , Mike McCune Report

People get very offended that I don't like being touched.

vampyreprincess , Paul J Everett Report

At my wedding we marked the vegetarian items as vegetarian. This made the one vegetarian at my wedding (sister in law who hates me) fly into a catatonic rage because we are singling out the vegetarian food as vegetarian and not treating it as normal food. Then how the f**k are they supposed to know its vegetarian?

ooo-ooo-oooyea , Dan Report

Sporks.

I once heard someone say, *"The spork is 'the devil's utensil' because it is the amalgamation of the masculine fork and the feminine spoon and is trying to blur gender lines in society."*

-eDgAR- , bfishadow Report

_Happy holidays_ successfully triggered an entire demographic. I'm still amazed by it.

wehosh , JOHN LLOYD Report

One time someone got offended when I put on my seatbelt, thought I was commenting on her ability to drive.

SnooPaintings2137 , E'Lisa Campbell Report

A sandwich. I kid you not. My Ex husband was given a sandwich by our then 13yr old daughter and because she cut the sandwich he went off on a massive strop about how his sandwiches should never be cut etc. The poor kids face, she was crushed. It still winds me up no end every time I think about it.

tootasty1 , whity Report

I still remember in kindergarten when my friend and I were reading all the colors out loud on one of those crayola super packs. I got straight up yelled at and sent to the principal's office for saying "orange pizzazz" because the teacher said I called someone a "p**s a*s" and *would not listen* despite having the crayon as evidence.

After a 30min scolding and waiting for my mom to **leave work** to pick me up ***for my suspension***, she came in all apologetic. When I explained to her the whole situation, not the school's side, Ma went apes**t. I'd heard her say "s**t" once, that's the only swear I ever heard from her, and we had just been rear-ended in traffic.

"How about c**t?! Can he say c**t?! Cuz you're all being c***s right now! This is f*****g ridiculous!" And just went off while I'm sitting there all :o and the principal is just red af.

I got un-suspended on the spot, but she pulled me out of school for the day anyway. We had a lovely day and she explained very well how I shouldn't swear like that unless absolutely necessary and I've exhausted all civility. "When being civil simply isn't working, sometimes you might have to call someone a p**s a*s."

The next day at school, I learned that I now had the stigma of being the kid who got the crayola super pack taken away :(

BlottomanTurk Report

One of my coworkers was surprised and said “Oh my god”.

A religious coworker overheard her using ‘god’s name in vain’ and reported it to HR. They had to have meetings with HR and the managers about respecting people’s religion. The lady said ‘oh my god’ she didn’t wish for the death of Christianity for f**k’s sake! It was ridiculous.

Kyla_420 , Ken Sutton Report

Using a walking stick. I was in a car accident a few years ago and it f****d my leg up. Since then i've been using a walking stick. I was walking to shop (pre-pandemic) and an old bloke gave me the dirtiest look i've ever seen.

"What do you need a cane for? you're only a kid..."

He actually got quite pissy just seeing me using a stick. Like, my dude, i'm just out trying to buy some milk, i don't need your s**t today. (i didn't say that out loud, i just said it to myself after i got home)

Ace-Of-Shovels , Alan Levine Report

Ex of mine once flew into a shrieking rage because while he was driving, someone swerved or did something surprising, and i gasped out loud.

Apparently that meant i didn't trust him and our entire relationship was in question.

The amount of rage for the level of infraction was...upsetting.

ETA for those suggesting I was overreacting and the annoying one, he was a terrible, aggressive driver. And we lived IN BOSTON.

EDIT2: I'm reminded of the time he reversed the car out of a spot by turning the wheel sharping and gunning the engine, smashing the entire side of the car into the concrete pillar next to the parking spot. That was my fault too, for not warning him he was going to hit the pillar. I gasped that time too, despite being warned that gasping was a sign of distrust in the relationship.

Slow creep. Slow creep of s****y behaviour until the frogs boil to death not realising how hot it was. Fortunately, i woke up before i boiled to death.

Khayeth Report

Maybe 22 years ago, I had a phone interview with a baking company. I didn’t care to have my peers know what I was up to so I took the call on my cell phone in my car. The call was crystal clear and no technical issues.

At one point, they had mentioned the weather and asked how it was where I was. I told him that I was sitting in my car and I could see that it was actively snowing and what not. The interviewer asked me, “are you taking this call on a cell phone?”
I told him I was. Then he asked me if I thought that was appropriate. I asked him what he meant by that. He said he thought it was kind of rude to take a formal call on a cell phone. I told him I would be more than happy to conclude the interview if talking on a cell phone was an issue. If he was interested, I’d be happy to continue it the next day when I’d be at a desk. He again repeated how rude he thought it was that I had called from a cell phone and that there was no need to continue the interview process. I disagreed with the first point but did agree with the second.

To this day, I wonder what the hell he was talking about and where he was coming from.

anon , Tim Parkinson Report

I was at the vet with my cat and he sneezed. This was apperently very offensive to an elder woman (she was there with a corgi) and she started screaming at me for about 30 minutes about pet hygiene.

anon , Lisa Zins Report

I told my my sister in a PM that it’s “1st” not “1rst” after she posted something on Facebook with the spelling error. She flipped out saying how I’m a “bully” and I need to “appreciate that her spelling is more unique”.

Edit: She’s 27

anon , frankieleon Report

I managed a small, new team that had no procedures or policies, so I set about instituting some. "I mean, you never know, I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and then no one would know how to process these requests," I told them, when asking for their feedback and for them to write up how they did their tasks. Then we would come back together and decide best practices in a meeting.

Little man filed a complaint to the manager for my use of "violent imagery" and said that he felt threatened. It was a whole thing. Ultimately, he got fired. F**k him, byeeeeeeeee.

Edit: Well, this blew up, lol. For clarity, he didn't get fired for this one incident. He was a horrible employee with real issues having a woman in charge.

Mamapalooza Report

Straight male here, married with three children. I have a gay brother in law and a gay niece. I have attended gay pride rallies, I have two gay pride shirts.

I have been called out several times for being a “poser” - a straight man wearing a gay pride shirt. Almost got in several fights so I stopped wearing them. :/

kmskitter Report

It's specific to France. In french we have a way to address for a man (Monsieur), a married woman (Madame), an unmarried woman (Mademoiselle) and we use to have one for an unmarried man (Mondamoiseau) wich disappeard from official paperworks since i don't even know when.

In the name of gender equality, "mademoiselle" was also removed a few years ago from official paperwork. Also in the name of gender equality some employee were told to not call young women "Mademoiselle" anymore and to go with "Madame".

So the trick is, some women will get offended when called "Madame" because it makes them feel old and some women will get offended when called "Mademoiselle" because it's sexist. Clerks a doomed.

EDIT : apparently it's not specific to the french language

chinchenping , Krzysztof Belczyński Report

We used an app at work called Bonfyre. One person refused to use it because bonfires are for witchcraft and pagans.

dixiedoo48 , Dheeraj Dwivedi Report

I had a coworker who got mad at me because I asked her not to tickle me.

(a) That's inappropriate at work; (b) we're not children, we're not in a relationship, we're not family; (c) I DON'T LIKE BEING TICKLED.

She flipped out and said everyone likes being tickled and I was being mean to her. Happily my boss had my back.

Edit: this happened over a decade ago, I don't work with that woman or for that company. In fact, even the company doesn't exist anymore.

I am also a woman.

The coworker was very young and immature. This was her first job, her first time in a professional environment, and she really had no clue about professional workplace behavior. I wasn't upset because she truly thought she was being friendly.

But I still don't like being tickled.

xelle24 , Lena Report

I got in trouble in kindergarten for saying the word dead. Apparently it was too violent.

Noterest , Quinn Dombrowski Report

When I was a child, my mum paid for something with a cheque. The cashier remarked that my mum had nice hand writing
My mum flew off the handle, and we had to storm out of the shop in outrage.
To this day, I have no idea what happened.

mozgw4 , Pete Report

My dad loves to tell the story of how, shortly after they were married, he and mom went to get some fast food. As they pulled up to the drive through window, my very conservative mom saw a sign that said "Condiments available upon request" and said "OMG, that's disgusting! WHY would a restaurant feel the need to give those out!?" She had misread it and thought they were giving out condoms upon request. 😂

bearlybreeding , M S Report

wearing a mask in public

stormfaucet , Sue Thompson Report

A f*****g picture of an eye. We have an organization-wide theme every year and all the PC's on our network have the same background and theme which can't be changed. So this year's theme is "Vision is 2020" and the background was a zoomed-in picture of an eye in really awesome colours. Two women on staff wrote letters to complain that the picture was "heathen" as it drew from "Illuminati" imagery and paid tribute to the "all-seeing eye of Eqyptian deities". They wined and complained to such an extent that the picture was eventually changed to shut them up and let the normal folks get back to our actual work.

dead_PROcrastinator Report

I once listened to my boss try to lecture the Fire Marshall because he was talking about something being flame retardant (her reasoning was you should just call it fireproof because retardant was an awful word.). It was one of those times where I really should have tried to stop her but instead I just stood off to the side probably making a surprised pikachu face.

AbortRetryImplode , Angus Fraser Report

The guy who got offended in a council meeting because someone used the term "black hole".

Sepia_Panorama , Yuri Samoilov Report

I worked at a restaurant and we put up some Halloween decorations. We had to take them all down when someone found the glittery skull decoration offensive.

thepurpleskittle , Jon Seidman Report

Note: this post originally had 38 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.

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