You're so right, Bee-Dubya-Ell. It IS presumptous to think that one knows what another would find offensive. That's why it's better just to do and say absolutely nothing, precisely because we don't know what might offend people!

I had an uncle like that. He had no opinions about anything and never spoke out about anything. He was a clerical worker who collected many kinds of moths and butterflies, thus risking possible offence, I suppose, but as far as I know, no one was offended by that, because very few people even know he was doing it. When he died, there were 45,000 moths and butterflies carefully preserved under glass to be dealt with, and it was quite a chore, I can tell you...or it would have been, but we got the Provincial Government of Prince Edward Island to take them all, in case they might need them someday for a huge public moth and butterfly display. It took a week for the government lads to move them all. They are still filed away in warehouse 32-b in Charlottetown.