John 'Giok' MacKenzie posted:
I suggest you take anger management therapy, and while you're at it, you might perhaps take a course on linguistic idiosyncrasies. You might then discover that not all words mean the same to all people, and a little consideration for others is no bad thing.
The tendency to leap to the offensive position at any perceived opportunity is not an attractive character trait
G.

1. Don't mistake my criticism of your misinterpretation of my post as "anger." I save my anger for worthwhile targets that have a real-life effect on me, such as, say (to keep this on topic) McDonald's and its advertising campaigns, various abuses, etc.

2. If this is simply a miscommunication, then I apologize. But please explain to me how any dialect of English can confuse "taking offense" with "giving offense," because this strikes me as strange. I said that taking offense and demanding an apology for words said on an online forum is stupid. Then I followed it up with a random comment about Scottish food (which I actually like and have no serious problems with), which you somehow interpreted as committing the same act I was criticizing others for. How is making an outrageous, completely unfounded, and clearly facetious comment about Scottish food equivalent to taking offense to words posted on the internet? Because as far as I can tell, in the situation you were describing, this theoretical Scot would be the one committing the act I was criticizing others for. If this is a matter of differing usage of the same words, sure, but I have many friends who use Commonwealth English, and this is the first time I've encountered this particular idiosyncratic difference.

3. I think saying you failed to understand my post is justified, because to all appearances, you failed to understand my post. All the rest was for rhetorical effect. Finding ways to imply that a person who disagrees with you or says something completely unfounded is somehow mentally disabled is a pastime of virtually every public discussion group I've seen online since the mid-90s when I first got online.

If I took offense to people using words I didn't like while posting on public discussion forums, I would have many long, full days of taking offense. But you have to decide what's important.

I post the way I do because it's fun, and I hope for a reply in kind. So I suppose we really are "speaking different languages." It seems obvious to me, but I suppose I have to explain to you that I didn't mean any but the most basic comments I made, which are, again:

- You did not appear to "get" the "point" of my post
- Taking offense and demanding retractions in an online forum is not only bad form, it's silly in the extreme.

Does this make more sense to you? I'm sincerely sorry for any defect in communication that caused this misunderstanding.