[stepurhan]

Originally Posted by AFGNCAAP

You seem to assume that "offensive" is an absolute. It's possible that I realize, on a purely intellectual level, that what I am going to say is likely to offend someone, without me actually intending to offend. Hence, I preface it with "no offense (meant)".

I can understand what you're saying.

However, this leads me to two additional thoughts. If you know something you say is likely to offend someone should you be thinking about rephrasing it or not saying it at all? If you don't consider either of those is an option (and saying nothing is often a bad option) but you consider it's possible someone will take offense, why apologise for their reaction? If what you're saying isn't intended as offensive it isn't your fault if someone takes it that way.