Taking Offence

*Advanced warning! This post may contain the words: dick, knob, willy, cattle prod and goats cheese*

A funny thing happened to me on Twitter this week (aside from the usual offers of free iPads and invitations to 'cam' from scantily clad robots).

Somehow I managed to get under the skin of some Mitt Romney supporters. For those of you who don't know, Romney is the Republican Party's presidential candidate who will take on Barack Obama in this year's US election.

You may remember him from a recent visit to the UK where he generally appeared to not have a clue as to who he was talking to, nor what about. Famously, shortly before they commenced, he said he was concerned that London wasn't ready to host the 2012 Olympics. Well, let's just say, “In. Your. Face.”, to that ridiculous accusation.

It's fair to say that, like quite a few people as it turns out, I don't like the guy or his policies.

What with it being the week where he received official approval from the Republican Party to face off against Obama, I decided to tweet something along the lines of:

Dear USA,

Please don't vote for Mitt Romney because we all think he's a bit of a dick.

Yours sincerely,
Everyone Else.

Now, I imagine that during his time in various positions of authority, he will have faced far worse chides and insults. Admittedly my tweet lacked much in the way rational, persuasive argument against him becoming president, but that wasn't the point.

There are far more intelligent commentators who could give you a list of reasons exactly why Romney and co are actually dicks. My tweet was intended purely as humorous way of essentially saying, "I don't like Romney" (as if anyone should care what my view was).

To be honest, I'm not really bothered who wins the election anyway. I'd rather it was Obama, but it's not something I have any influence over. I won't be knocking on any doors asking for support or wearing a rosette with a donkey on (unless the Democrats want to fly me to the States, put me up in a swanky hotel and pay me to campaign for them, in which case I'd happily spread the word & persuade people not to vote for any Republican penises).

Anyway, the tweet got a few re-tweets and a some people found it funny in the way that was intended. But as it turned out, one lady in the US was deeply offended by me calling Romney a "dick". This wasn't at all kind apparently, for he was a good man with great values.

I was really tempted to point out to her that I'd only called him "a bit of a dick", which is surely not quite so bad. It's more like calling him a foreskin or something. But I resisted - her bio pointed out that she was a vocal follower of Jesus and I wasn't sure how she felt about foreskins or the lack of them.

What really struck me about this was just how rattled a Romney supporter seemed to be by the (attempted) humorous tweet of a British man thousands of miles away with barely any influence in his own household, let alone the political system of the US.

It would appear that some Romney supporters are really tetchy about him being criticised. Something that is surely born out of the insecurity of knowing deep down that, although he wears your party's colours and elephant thingy, you have been lumbered with a bit of a knobber.

I do find it really interesting what offends people - especially on such an open, public forum like twitter which is hardly conducive to serious debate. It can be tricky to get the humour in a tweet across in just 140 characters. I'm confident that people who know me in real life will get my tweets as they are generally an extension of the kind of nonsense I come out with most days. But I suppose inevitably there will be some people who either don't sense the intended tone, or even if they do, still get offended by it.

I do find it hard to empathise with genuine victims of offence as it's not something that happens to me very much at all. In fact I'd say that in rare circumstances I am 'troubled' by some people's comments but hardly ever offended (in the way I understand the word anyway).

Romney aside, this week I also tweeted something that I knew some people might take offence at. During the Paralympics opening ceremony, Professor Stephen Hawking gave a speech. I tweeted something along the lines of "Did Stephen Hawking just mime that?".

I didn't get any response to it either way, but did wonder if it may have troubled some. The reason I felt comfortable to share this though was because a) having seen Stephen Hawking on various TV shows and interviews, it's evident he has a fantastic sense of humour and I genuinely hope he'd laugh along with it. And also b) the real joke is not a jibe at him and his electronic voice machine, but at the many acts who mimed at the recent Olympic closing ceremony.

Obviously one can never please / entertain / insult / offend people all of the time. But I reckon so long as your remarks come from a place of honest integrity and right intent, then anyone who does get offended by them are just a bit of a dick anyway.