Poll: Are you offended if someone insults you?

[Bamba]

Lets say someone insulted you and said you're ignorant, pathetic, stupid, a jerk, an idiot....and other insults like that. How do you feel? Are you offended and let it affect your life, or simply ignore or at least attempt to ignore it and the person that said such thing to you?

Personally for me, it depends on the situation, what in particular they said to me, and whether what they said to me is true or not. But in general, yes I do get offended, but I usually try not to let it interfere with my life.

What about you all? How do you feel and react when someone insults you?

 

[Daystar Clarion]

It depends on who says it.

It they aren't my fiancee, parents, grandparents, or close friends, then I couldn't give a fantastical flying ferret fuck what they think of me.

And if they are any of the above, I'm more likely to get upset than offended, because the only reason they'd say something like that is if it had an element of truth to it.

 

[FavouriteDream]

I really don't give a flying toss. Unless I respect the person, then it means very little to me. If a loved one of mine or a close friend said that, it would break my heart but if it was just a random person or an acquaintance? I'd reply with a chuckle and say "thanks for your opinion" and I doubt I'd ever think about it again.

When I was younger it would have bothered me a lot more but throughout the years I've become fairly disillusioned by shit like that.

 

[Phasmal]

It depends on who it was and what they said.
Random shitheads on the internet don't matter to me, but if it was someone I knew it'd probably annoy me a bit.
And then if it was a friend or family member I'd probably confront them about it.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

No, I think it's hilarious. I just smile at people and do nothing because hey, they will probably think they are right, I'm wrong, and the sooner this happens the better because really, why bother. I have better things to spend my time and energy on.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Ehh maybe. I am a bit on the emotionally delicate side at times. I don't often give people a reason to insult me anyway, (because intentionally light-hearted posts 100% of the time are overpowered) so when somebody actually does end up insulting me I start to wonder why and work myself up over it if it was anywhere near true Obviously, randomers on The Internet throwing the word "******" around like it's going out of style are more funny than offensive so they don't count.

It's even been a while since some dick on XBL randomly sent a ragey salt covered message on a hilarious UMVC3 win though. I've noticed how to deal with that now though, you be unbearably nice to them adding winky and smiley faces and they eventually stop. I guess playing LoL with Padding has rubbed off on me a bit.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

Depends on whether it's somebody in a position to know what they are talking about(i.e. not some random shithead over the internet), and also how accurate the insult is.

Naturally if it hits close to home it's going bother me quite a bit.

 

[Bamba]

Guys. I want to tell you a little story. A few years ago when I was in high school, there were girls in my class that always said things that are completely wrong about me. They said Im an idiot and a jerk and that I dont deserve to have any friends. They said that to nearly everyone and people believed them and then I couldnt make any friends because of that.

I didnt know what I was supposed to do about that back then, so I just ignored them until I left the school.

Tell me please guys. What would you do about something like that if it happened to you?

 

[piinyouri]

Depends on who it is and what they say.

 

[Cheesus Crust]

It depends on who says it.

It they aren't my fiancee, parents, grandparents, or close friends, then I couldn't give a fantastical flying ferret fuck what they think of me.

And if they are any of the above, I'm more likely to get upset than offended, because the only reason they'd say something like that is if it had an element of truth to it.

Yeah, definitely agree with this. Depends on who says it and how they say it. Sometimes when people say bad things its because they're trying to point out a problem. I'm not offended so much as I am worried and upset.

 

[Realitycrash]

Define 'offended'. Many people would claim that being 'insulted' and being 'offended' is largely synonymous.
Do you mean 'do I take offense if someone intentionally throws an insult my way?''
Why no, I do not. Am I, however, offended by certain insults, and by certain people? Yeah.

 

[bojackx]

I'm very hard to actually offend. I get far more annoyed at the fact that it prevents interesting conversation than whatever they say.

If the things they say aren't true, I'll just tell them they're not true.

If what they say is true, I agree with them.

 

[Benpasko]

Not at all. I tend to be very insulting to people I respect and/or friends. It means I respect you enough to know you won't react like a babby when I joke like that.

 

[TheFunPolice]

I don't think anybody has ever actually tried to genuinely offend me. It might have something to do with me being Home Educated and not present in the company of hundreds of people I don't know on a daily basis

Obviously my friends and sister say those kind of things to me all the time, but we all just have a big laugh about it because it's just the way our humor works. I can imagine if somebody was to generally try and hurt my feelings, I'd just laugh it off and be the bigger person ^_^

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, my natural response is to get offended should someone insult me. It will usually roll off my back within the next few minutes though.

It also depends whether I deserved the insult or not. If someone is being unnecessarily shitty to me out of the blue, you can bet your ass I'm gonna be holding a grudge. I never forgive or forget uncalled for hostility.

 

[RustlessPotato]

in my group of friends it is considered impolite if we don't insult eachother (mind you, we never make fun of eachother for things they can't do about). So no, it doesn't bother me

 

[Heronblade]

Are we talking insults by word or deed?

In the former case, more often than not, I simply get amused by the attempt

Some moron called me a KKK member once, if I recall correctly it was in response to me implying that reverse racism is in fact still racism.(gasp!) I just started laughing, he got confused and basically ran off.

My reaction to the latter case varies based on context, but a lack of any detectable reaction is most common.

 

[CCountZero]

I can't say I get insulted all that often, but on the rare occasion that I do, I generally just ask for further explanation.

I've been in situations where the person insulting me turned out to be what I might call an "undesirable", but most of the time I believe that people have an, in their mind, perfectly valid reason to pose such an insult, and I believe that any sensible person should try and understand what that reason is, and how it came to fruition inside the mind of the person posing the insult.

Naturally, a random person in the street shouting some obscenity at your back is to be ignored. That seems a given. And in my experience you can't argue with racism or anything involving religion.

But a person who talks to you, and on the strength of the conversation names you ignorant, or stupid? I'd certainly want to know why, mostly for my own sake, but certainly also for his. What if I find a flaw in his reasoning, that might change his mind? I could potentially learn something myself, but perhaps more importantly, I might be able to change another person for the better as well.

All of this assumes that the person I'd be dealing with is open to a reasonable discussion, of course, but I generally find that most people are, as long as at least one of the parties is constantly focusing on keeping things civil.

 

[michael87cn]

There's no such thing as ignoring an insult. Not reacting to it - sure, but everyone has an ego, and insults hurt an ego like a punch hurts flesh. It's how human beings work.

Unless you're an internet tough guy, then you're like the superman of the digital world.

 

[Dave In A Cape]

Depends on the situation.

If someone insults me I typically don't care unless it's pretty bad or they are obviously trying to provoke me into a fight, In which case I don't back down from a challenge as you find most people don't think you have the balls to do anything and will typically run/back down making themselves look foolish and cowardly.


If someone insults my friends or people I care about, then yeah, I have a issue with that and will typically warn them to get lost or I will be forced to make something more of it.

Most of the time you can just shrug things off without it affecting you, but you should never be made to feel bad about stepping up to show you are not a pushover or afraid to protect those you care about.