William Oliver writes:
The bottom line is that if someone desperately wants to be offended,
they will find a way. Conversely, if someone doesn't want to be
offended, it's almost impossible to offend them.
This seems to be a mysterious secret to a lot of people. Many years
ago, I realized that being "offended" was completely up to me. I made
the conscious decision not be be offended by anything anybody said to
or about me, unless it served some particular tactical purpose. It was
amazingly liberating.
I framed pretty much the same concept but in a different way. Some time ago
I decided upon the following personal policy, or a principle: from now on my
permission is required before anyone can offend me. If they did not get a
personal permission from me to offend me, then they cannot offend me.
From that point on, nobody offended me unless I gave them explicit
permission to do so, first.