On the other side of the issue we have people who seem to look for things to be offended by, you need to dance around topics because if you dont someone will get hurt and that is frustrating.
Now I was bullied for 6 years (And possibly a bit before that if you count teachers trying to make me 'fit in'), so my knee jerk reaction to people being "offended" is "If I could handle it for 6 years why are you throwing a hissy fit over this?"
I dont think the offended party is always in the right, sometimes they are making a big deal over nothing, sometimes people are saying stupid things and handwaving it as nothing, and sometimes it was a joke, sometimes it was a piece of criticism that came out wrong, sometimes the offended person cant handle criticism and it wasnt the offending partys fault at all.
The thing about words is that they only hurt if you let them, while sticks and stones hurt anyway. Not that it is always easy to deal with hard words, I would know, you end up building walls and other ways of defending yourself, but in the end words only hurt you if you let them, and you dont need to.
I dont know, it is not all black and white. I realize that rant led nowhere. Have a nice day everyone.