Thread: No pun intended
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Old 06-22-2008, 04:29 AM   #20
AFGNCAAP
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Join Date: Nov 2003
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Originally Posted by stepurhan View Post
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?
Of course, you should think about it. But, as you admit later, there often will be legitimate reasons to do neither eventually. Also, I'd argue that by adding "no offence" in such cases (again, if it's not something you overuse as a stock phrase), you at least acknowledge a possible controversy, which is, after you decided against rewording or remaining silent, least you can do to prove you're not an insensitive clod.

Quote:
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.
As should be clear by now, when I say "no offense" I feel like flashing a warning sign rather than actually apologizing for anything, so it's a moot a question for me personally. That said, in the past I have apologized for things that I didn't feel were my fault per se. Haven't you?



Finally, just to provide an actual example to all my philosophical ramblings, this is the most recent time I said it on AG. Does it really look like "a great deal of offence was intended, but please don't punch me"? I should hope it's clear from the context that "no offence" here equals "don't read too much into it" or "it's nothing personal, but...". Basically, I wanted to address previous poster's comment, but also make sure my general observation is not misread as wishing ill on that particular project.
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