No offence, but I would like to interject and say that is a terrible life lesson IMO. You shouldn't have to dance around other people and constantly worry how they're gonna respond to everything you do. If you react to someone a certain way, that's all you; your interpretation your reflection, your responsibility. Someone can act however they like, whatever they do is an expression of themselves (whether it's an honest one or not), but no matter what, you have a choice how you respond to it. Maybe not how you feel about it, but saying someone else should be responsible for how someone else chooses to react to their expression is a victim mentality that results in one normally perpetually blaming everyone else around them. If that's the comparison you want to bring up, perhaps "legally" things wouldn't get so ridiculous if people just took responsibility for themselves instead of finding ways to blame any one else for everything "bad" that happens to them. I'd prefer this interpretation as a life lesson. 
Hey, listen, this is definitely a mature outlook on things, but sadly the world doesn't work this way. Say you're at your job and you compliment a co worker on a shirt she has. Guess what? If she thinks you were sexually harassing her, you're going to get in trouble. True, someone can act how they like, but this is a selfish way to think. You, me, or whomever is not the only person in the world. Everyone takes things differently, everyone comes from different backgrounds and such. Being aware of other people is important. If you say the word "fag" in public, and someone takes offense to it, is it HIS fault? No, it's yours. It's up to you to have a professional attitude. Nobody's blaming anyone else, some people just have feelings. Sounds cliche, I know, but it's true. I'm extremely down to earth, but I'm also a person. I'm sure there's something out there that makes you tick. That makes everyone on this forum tick. We're human.
I appreciate your response and I can see where you're coming from. But let me further explain myself regarding what I said if you think it's a 'selfish attitude', I suppose it could be seen that way. But might I add, I think people should be able to act however they like, without it being at the expense of someone else. So you can do whatever you like, but as soon as you somehow 'harm' someone else (note; not the same as 'offend' in the context I am using), then you have to take responsibility for that because expressing yourself should never have to be at the expense of anyone else. It's as simple as treat others the way you want to be treated, so if you prefer to treat everyone equally then this shouldn't be an issue (unless one has some kind of superiority/inferiority complex then one should probably find out why they feel that way). Now, if you're just expressing yourself with no ill intentions, and someone else gets 'offended' by misinterpreting what you did/said through their own insecurities, that's on them, their problem.. Wait, is that not how the world works? Damn, might aswell keep dancing around other people and conforming to their expectations while they blame you for crap you didn't do.
Yeah, there's stuff out their that makes me tick. But if something makes me mad, whatever it is, says more about me than the actual thing that's making me mad, because I'm responding to it this way and I'm responsible for my actions. So I can't blame it for anything that I'm feeling. I can only perhaps try and recognise
why it makes me feel this way and learn from it. IF I feel close enough to the issue that I feel some kind of moral authority to step up, then I'm making it completely about me, I'd be demonstrating an aspect of myself for better or worse. I would like to think I'm not very easily offended because I believe in freedom of expression, people should be allowed to joke around, and there's a playful or silly side to everything depending on your point of view if you don't want to take everything seriously. But people that are tragically serious about some things, are easily offended by otherwise harmless acts instead of the things that actually should make them mad, like deliberate inequality or something like that. Also, words shouldn't offend. If you really think about it they're not even physically capable of "harming" anyone (if they're not maliciously directed personally, but again, they say more about the one directing their intent). They're only symbols, although they're quite capable of reflecting ones insecurities.
How do you know how "so and so" will react? How do you know how ANYONE will react? Just because it doesn't bother you, doesn't mean it won't bother someone else. Not everyone gets offended by the same thing, you know. If I said to someone "man, you run so damn slow" (for example) and it got them upset (for whatever reason), I would instantly say "Hey, my bad man, if it really hit you like that, I apologize". True, sometimes we just don't know. That's why we can always learn, and just going around saying "it's not my problem" is a very conceited way to go through life.
Listen everyone, all I'm saying is to be aware that everyone is different. If any of you are one of those rare people that don't care about other people's feelings then I'm wasting my time.
If I said to you, that's a despicable fluffy fluro hat you're wearing today and I hate you for wearing it. Would you be offended? Probably not because it wouldn't make any sense to you if you're not wearing a fluffy fluro hat and you'd wonder what the hell my problem was. But if you're afraid that what I said might be true, then it becomes your insecurity. If you actually are wearing said hat, it's still obviously starts out as my insecurity if your hat somehow upsets me. Being offended means you're afraid it
might be true, but you don't need anyone to tell you anything if you're honest with yourself and not in denial about who you are, then who cares what someone else says? I hope I'm making the slightest bit of sense here and I appologise to the OP for getting completely off topic with this.
tl;drNo point in blaming other people for anything, take responsibility for yourself and others will be responsible for their-selves. If you feel something that offends you is true (whether there's malicious intent or not) then you might not have been honest with yourself about something and someone's probably reflecting it back at you through themselves. If it's nothing to do with you, then why be offended unless you want to play their game and make it your business?
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