There are a lot of understandable reasons a person might take offense to something, but sometimes, people get upset about really silly and insignificant things.
With that in mind, Reddit user u/AdRealistic878 recently asked, "What is the most ridiculous thing you've seen someone get offended by?" I was already rolling my eyes after the first few comments:
1. "Making a joke about Anne Boleyn. Apparently, it was too soon. I wish I were joking."
2. "Me growing a beard. According to my brother's mother-in-law, only junkies grow beards, and that's so they can hide their drugs in it. I kid you not!"
3. "When I worked at McDonald's, they discontinued the Smarties McFlurry for a short time. When explaining to anyone who ordered one, you'd have thought I threatened their family or something with how offended people were."
—u/SarcastiKatt
"When I worked at Speedway, we went through a donut shortage on certain kinds of donuts, and people really acted like we had just shot their childhood dog right in front of them because they couldn't get their special donut."
—u/pb-crispy
4. "I've seen people get very offended by a South Welsh accent. Accusing people of being racist and faking Indian accents when they're just speaking in their native accent. The internet is wild."
—u/Broshida
"I saw a post where a Japanese person was dressed in traditional cultural attire with some internet rando accusing them of cultural appropriation."
—u/Friesenplatz
5. "Being asked if they're okay when found crying in the most public of places you can find someone."
6. "I had a girl I used to work with become incredibly angry when I told her that her grand plan to open a commune where everyone worked the land and all the money made from working the land was split evenly, and everyone lived in a tent, was essentially communism. Her argument boiled down to, 'No, it's not because I'll be in charge of it,' and she didn't see the irony in that statement. 😑 When her friend backed me up, she faked being sick and went home three hours early. 🤦♂️"
—u/Crap_Robot
7. "A pisshead woman got angry at me when I worked at the co-op in 2016 because I said I didn’t like dark chocolate. I mean, what difference would that make to her life?"
—u/Jakechalace
8. "Not me, but the nut rage incident. The vice president of Korean Air (daughter of the CEO) was in first class and got furious that she was served nuts (like the peanuts you get on a flight) in a packaged bag rather than a wooden bowl. She made the flight attendant kneel, beg for forgiveness, and reportedly hit him, then forced the plane to return to the gate since she'd just fired the captain. Crazy stuff."
9. "For me, my name. I answer to my middle name. Some people just can't wrap their minds around the concept of people going by their middle names instead of their first names. You really gonna argue with a person over their own name?"
10. "A week ago, some lady screamed at me for moving their shopping cart 10 cm."
—u/Daealis
11. "My ex-sister-in-law throwing a fit and quitting a card game for her husband's use of the word 'renege.' She was adamant that it was a racial slur. For context, she is a tiny white girl who grew up in the rural Midwest. And thank god she is the ex..."
—u/BRCRN
"I used 'renege' at work once and noticed my coworker's body language. She kind of stopped and pricked up her ears. I was thinking, great, she thinks it's a slur. I never used it again, except when playing cards."
12. "My wife dumped me. She had some sort of midlife crisis. I moved on. A few months later, she was furious when she learned that I was dating someone she didn't like."
13. "A lady I work with got offended because I wear dresses in winter."
"She'd hate me, lmao. I don't even own any pants."
14. "I was out for lunch with a colleague at a local pub, and we were discussing a news story from the morning about a bus crash. A woman at a nearby table took great offense to this and stormed over to us and demanded we stop talking about it in public. We both just stared at her, not entirely sure if she was serious. She was. We carried on discussing it, and she flounced out."
15. And finally, "Someone else wearing a mask."
—u/stumanuke
What's something silly you've seen someone get offended over? Share it in the comments below.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.