Why not just say, “this must be a big issue to them”? Why do you feel the need to prove that these things don’t offend you, and that thus they shouldn’t offend others?
EG, offending somebody -- because it is so subjective -- should simply be that, they are offended. END OF STORY.
But right now being offended is as if you walked up to somebody and spit in their face, or worse punched them. And the actions being taken by those who "offend" are on par with actions you would take had somebody physically attacked another person.
It's come to a place now in society where even silence can be taken the wrong way. I've been accused of being politically incorrect over the years because I refuse to cotton to certain things the mainstream embraces, but I refuse to budge. My convictions are mine and mine alone. I don't try and change other people's convictions. But... if you stand for nothing, you fall for anything.
This is like a gay person saying "I'm not 'offended'. I'm sick and tired of anti-gay sentiment invading every aspect of life."
Your lack of introspection is showing through. You want to be able to say and act however you feel is appropriate — which is fine —, but you don't want other people to be able to call you out for what you say and do. This makes no sense, because those people are just saying and acting however they feel is appropriate — by calling you out.
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
People will judge you for what you say, the same way that you judge others for what they say.
What it seems here is that, while you judge others, you demand for the right to not be judged by others.
Isn't it a near perfect sleight-of-hand to subvert societies into celebrating weakness as the ultimate virtue, turning it into straight up a currency for power used to nuke a narrowly defined "anyone" from orbit?
Edit: Added 'narrowly defined' to the last sentence.
A couple of years ago, I worked with a large team and there was a gay man on the team who was constantly yapping on about gay this and gay that, almost like he was looking for disapproval among the ranks. He then decided to do a legal union with his boyfriend and invited everyone. Those who did not attend were berated, verbally accused of this and that. I counseled everyone to simply ignore him and not take the bait, which ended up being sound judgement, because he took his leave shortly thereafter. I never engaged in ad-hominem attacks or retaliated against this man. I just refused to play his childish game of attacking people for some imagined reasons.
Linus, Theo, and other large project leaders deal with actual idiots all the time. Serial idiots. Sometimes in the real world you have to step on toes to get someone's attention. It can often be done in "nicer" ways, but sometimes you have to "nuke them from orbit" just to be sure.
Recently, my British uncle told me of a story about a woman in England who went apoplectic about a new tissue range having the marketing slogan "man-sized" tissues. Who cares? It's marketing. The company actually caved to please this woman. I would not have done so. My tissues, my slogan. Don't buy them if you're offended.