Has something ever happened to you that instantly made your blood boil, or worse, crushed you to your very soul? Was it a snide remark? A malicious act? Or perhaps someone once made a super ignorant assumption about you? Whatever the reason, I think it’s safe to say we’ve all felt the heat of indignant anger at one time or another…but as they say, sharing is healing.
1. What A Sore Loser
I was playing a game with my brother and a few of his friends. One of them was losing, so he turned to me and just immediately ripped into me in the worst way. He made fun of how I look and my friends. He also said that my hobbies are lame and that he talks to all his other friends about how I’m a loser.
All of that happened in the span of like eight seconds, then he just turned back to the game, and we kept playing. It bothered me that no one else said anything or stepped in, and I just had to defend myself against those random insults. We weren’t even kids; we were all in our mid-20s at that point. I was just like, “Jesus, dude...” Yeah, that really bothered me.
2. She Couldn’t Keep Mum About It
My husband is 50, and I am 48. In April, I went for a procedure, but because of my MS, my husband usually goes with me to all my appointments. One day, the tech dealt me a brutal blow. She asked if he was bringing his mom for her procedure. It took everything in me to stay sane. I blamed the mask, the hair bonnet, and everything else because I definitely do not look older than my handsome husband.
People can’t always see how MS impacts the body, but on a good day, it’s just my memory.
3. She Got A Big Fat Paycheck
I once worked at a company where I had been for eight years and was the senior-most person on the team. I’d been there even longer than any of the management, and I was the first person they hired and the only one left from that time. I also had a massive knowledge base, so when my other teammates didn’t know what to do, I was the one they came to.
Whenever management was training new hires, they would have me stop by to say hi, and they would point out how long I had worked there. During my eighth year at the company, there was a two-week stint of time when we had a temporary manager due to some shuffling around of upper management. So during my first meeting with him, we sat down in his office.
It was only supposed to be a short one-on-one so he could get to know each person on the team. He took one look at me (an overweight 30-something woman) and told me that they were looking for team members to transition to another higher-paid team, but if I tried to apply, he would throw out my application, so I shouldn’t bother. Why? Well, his reasoning floored me.
Because “you’re fat, and fat people are lazy”. I’ve never been so insulted in my life. But I got the last laugh in the end. I left the company shortly after for a job that makes twice the money. Shortly after I left, I was part of a class-action lawsuit against them for some shady practices involving our pay (they were requiring we arrive 20 minutes early for our shift to “prep” for the day but weren’t paying us for it).
They lost the lawsuit, and we all got paid out based on how long we’d worked there. Guess who got the majority of the money.
4. A Tragic Situation
In November 2021, I had to go on a trip out of state for work. But when I got on my flight in the afternoon, my best friend of six-plus years—who had never, ever done me wrong and was easily the most amazing person I’d ever had the privilege of knowing—broke into my house that night to swipe my pistol. But that wasn't the worst part. She then used it to take her own life.
I only owned that pistol because I live in a bad part of town, and security systems are out of budget for me. She was the only person who knew I had it (as well as the reason why), and I always kept it hidden away and pretty much never took it out. Therefore, I had no idea she’d used it until some officers went to my mom’s house looking for me about a week later.
They wanted to “talk” because her fingerprints and mine were the only ones on the pistol. Immediately after they left, my mom called me and told me what had happened. So, I went to the place in my house where I’d kept it, and yep, it was gone. I couldn’t believe it. I was literally grieving and losing my mind, and now those officers thought I had something to do with it.
I had to prove I was out of the state at the time of the incident to get them off my back.
5. The Comeback Kid
This came pretty close to the “most offended I have been”. I was recently married and moved to Italy to be with my husband, who is Italian. I am Mexican. We were doing the rounds of visiting his relatives, and we went to see his cousin and his wife, and her mom (his cousin’s MIL) was there too. I already knew a bit about them since my husband used to give me general info about his family so I could be prepared.
My Italian at that moment wasn’t the best, but I could still understand and answer basic questions. Anyway, this lady (the cousin’s mother-in-law) asked me how many siblings I have, and I answered that I am the youngest of eight children. Well! This witch then proceeded to ask me why it is that poor people from poor countries have so many children!? Tsk, tsk tsk. To say I was angry is the understatement of the century!
In one of my proudest moments, I answered that my parents could afford to have that many kids. I also said that all of us have a degree, unlike her children, who only have two and had to immigrate to Germany. Even then, one of her kids is a mason, and the other used to sell underwear (BTW, those are great jobs, nothing against them)!
I then told her, “You better not throw stones if your home is made of glass”, which shut her right up! I am not usually one who has a quick comeback, especially with the added difficulty of speaking in another language. I also know that you should never hit below the belt. However, I’ve got to say that I still don’t regret it to this day.
That happened around early 2007, but it’s still fresh in my memory like it was yesterday!
6. As Cold As Charity
I was working as a cashier to save up money before law school, and our store was trying to solicit donations to some charity. We were required to ask each customer if they wanted to donate a dollar or whatever. So, I asked a mom and her daughter, who were both clearly upper-middle class. Acting as if I didn’t exist in front of her, the mom gave me a nasty look and said something so insulting—I'll never forget it.
She immediately said to her daughter, “Some people just don’t have any class, so gross”. Her daughter, who also refused to acknowledge that I was standing right in front of them, agreed with her mother and acted like she was exasperated by my behavior. Then they both left, all because I asked if they wanted to donate to a charity.
Being a cashier opened my eyes to just how terrible a person can be to someone they perceive to be beneath them. I only worked there for a year, but I have enough stories to last a lifetime.
7. Don’t Feed The Troll
I was the only white male (but not the only American) working at a Chinese buffet. I would constantly have patrons comment how “nice it is to see another friendly American face”, but this one took the God dang wedding cake with the little bride and groom. I was sitting at a side table, making silverware and napkin rosettes for the evening ahead when this guy came up and introduced himself as a minister.
I consider myself Christian, which may make me irrational, but it doesn’t make me a freaking monster. I’m not sure when those two things became universally synonymous, but it seems to be the case on both sides: Naturalists tend to think I’m a bloodthirsty predator just back from the Crusades, and other Christians seem to think I’m “in” with them, and won’t mind if they express bigoted, misogynistic, xenophobic, messed-up stuff.
So, this guy told me how glad he was to see “a good, English-speaking, God-fearing man” in this restaurant. My manager, from China, was beaming because he either didn’t know that this guy despised him or because he was taking this jerk’s cash in spite of his intolerance. But either way, the minister wasn’t done with me.
As my manager walked away, the guy went a little further: “Be careful with that soul of yours there, son. It’s okay to work with them, but don’t make friends”. My blood turned to snow in my veins, and I was suddenly aware of the grim expression on his face. “I try to make friends wherever I go, sir”, I replied. He said, “Well, you’re wasting your time and endangering your mortal soul. Let me ask you a question: Where is hell from here”?
I answered, “It depends on who you ask”. I saw the conversation had been let off its leash, and it was now headed into the surreal. It was messed up, but (short of making a scene in a restaurant) I had chores to do. Also, my manager would be more offended by me telling this guy off than he would be by the stuff spurting out of this jerk’s sphincters.
But the guy continued: “No, son. In the Bible, it’s down. It’s deep in the earth, in the fire and dirt. It’s upsidedown down there. The opposite of goodness and right. And what animal do you know that hangs upside down”? I stayed silent. “A bat, son. Try to think faster. And what color is a bat”? I saw the horizon, the shoals upon which his ship has wrecked, the conclusion to which he was trying to lead me.
I replied, “Bats come in a lot of colors, sir; they are red, brown, and even white”. At this point, I was trying to make it plain that I was not playing along with his little game—that I was not part of his peak-hooded little contingency. Still, he droned on: “Don’t be dumb, son. Bats are brown, and they hang upsidedown like things are in hell”.
He then proceeded to rattle off Revelation 13:16, which reads, “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads”. Only, he said, “on the backs of their hands”, referring to the “white palms” often seen in contrast to otherwise dark skin. He stated that the other employees were “marked by the devil”, and that they had no souls (in a humorously ironic twist, I was the only ginger there).
At this point, I was just stewing in rage. This jerkface thought enough of the people with whom I worked to accept their hospitality, to eat food prepared by them, to smile and wish them a good day. Yet, he believed they lacked what he felt made someone a human being. I started to tell him the old story about the man and his dog trying to get into heaven. If you haven’t heard it, it’s pretty cheesy, but it made the point that I thought he was a jerk.
At least, it would have if he hadn’t interrupted me to continue his rant. Such is freaking life. He then finished his lecture in a conspiratorial whisper because my manager was returning, still beaming. “Think about what I said, son. Keep it in mind”. I answered, “I don’t think I could forget it, even if I wanted to with all my heart”. He reached out a hand to shake mine. I stared at it. My manager prompted me, “[Ika] our very fine customer would like to shake your hand”.
I shook it, and it felt like a red hot iron across my palm. Like it was trying to crawl into my skin through my fingers. I had to tell my manager later why my expression was one of disgust.
8. No Happiest Place On Earth For You
My mother took my sisters and my middle sister’s BFF to Disneyland but couldn’t afford to also take me. That’s heartbreaking to a 17-year-old—but it got so much worse after I discovered the dark truth. She’d used my college savings (100% money I’d worked for) to pay for it all.
9. A Hard Row
It was a comment from an old high school rowing coach. I was in my senior year and had rowed for seven years at that point, and I was the team captain as well as the one that pulled the best scores on the team. I loved the sport with everything I had and looked up to my coach like family. I had been struggling with atypical anorexia, and because of how bad it was getting, I had severe symptoms like fainting, extremely low heart rate (around 40 bpm when I was up and about), and a lot of other nasty stuff.
I tried to keep rowing for as long as I could, even though my performance and strength started declining. Eventually, my doctor told me that my heart wouldn’t really be able to handle any more sprints/relay races on the reg and said that I shouldn’t push myself too hard. I was super disappointed to hear this because sprints and relay races were my favorite thing to do in winter practices, and the whole team knew it too.
So, during my next practice, I told my coach that I couldn’t row sprints anymore, to which he replied, “Why not”? I tried to explain to him that because I wasn’t eating enough and was losing weight so rapidly, my heart was starting to suffer from it, and my doctor had told me not to do them anymore. Well, my coach then decided to call another girl on the team (who was extremely skinny but was just kind of genetically like that) up to us. I'll never forget what he did next.
When she stood next to me, he said, in front of everybody on the team, “___ is way skinnier than you, and she has no trouble doing sprints”! It was so humiliating and fueled the “eating disorder voice” in my head so badly that I left the room crying after quitting on the spot. Multiple other girls on the team quit that day too, and I went to treatment soon afterward.
When I was told that I was essentially walking around with one foot in the grave, I committed to getting better, and I’ve since been recovered for around three and a half years. I’m over it now, but in the moment, it felt earth-shattering to hear. It hurt so bad because it came from someone I really trusted, and it happened in an environment I had put so much into and considered such a safe space.
I still love all the girls who were on my team with me, but I never did go back to rowing when I got back from treatment.
10. He’ll Pay For His Misogyny Later…
I was on a date with a guy a few years older than me. We were at a place he’d frequented regularly during his college days, but it was my first time there. At the end of the date, I offered to pay. I asked him how this specific place worked when it came to paying (like, if the waitress came over or if I was supposed to go up to the hostess at the front) because, again, I had never been there before, and it was the type of place that could go either way.
He responded to this with a chuckle and asked, “What, is this the first time you’ve ever paid for yourself”? As someone who has paid for nearly everything on my own since age 14, I don’t think I was able to hide the offense and shock on my face.
11. A False Friend
I just moved to a new state six months ago, and the only person I would have considered a friend told me: “You’re ugly, and I’m only friends with you because you’re ugly, and I don’t have to compete for attention with you”. Another person was there and asked her if she really just said that, and she was like, “...Yes? Doesn’t that make sense”?
I was pretty crushed. I’m a 31-year-old mom of two very young kids, so I have no delusions about being exceptionally attractive, but I don’t think of ANY of my friends as ugly. I feel like a freaking idiot even wearing makeup now.
12. It’s Always Better To Be Transparent
I transitioned MTF—and my family's reaction broke my heart. I raised my dad’s partner’s kids partially for a decade or more before this. I loved them more than anything, and I always wanted to be a mum and knew it was my only real shot at raising kids, even if only in a partial, more distant context. But after I came out as trans, I was told that I was sick and disgusting, and everyone was banned outright from acknowledging me as trans at the threat of financial abandonment.
I have minimal contact with family now, and 20 months into transitioning, I’m still treated like a guy. The teens have been kept away from me because they would be supportive of my transition, so now they’re restricted to quiet moments of kindness with me when nobody is around. Fortunately, no strangers are mean to me anymore. All my friends accept me. Yet, I’m still so sick and gross and disgusting to my father.
I’ve lost the only thing that kept me going, even after I held back from transitioning for so long. The very idea that, despite looking after and caring for people so much, by merely changing your identity and actually liking yourself for once, you can suddenly be seen as some perverse threat that could taint those around you...Yeah, that offended me a little.
13. It’s The Teacher Who Needed To Be Schooled
I was extremely involved in athletics when I was younger, but I always had a near equal desire to learn about the world around me. If you had to put a name on it, I’d probably describe myself during that period as a nerd who happened to be good at sports. I’ve always been captivated by the subject of history, in particular. I love it. So, upon learning that my school was going to offer AP European and American history the next year, I was PUMPED. Everything about it sounded awesome.
I was legitimately looking forward to that summer ending because I couldn’t wait to take those classes. But on the first day of European history (it was a small school, and the same teacher taught both courses), my teacher asked me to stay after class to talk to her. Nothing could have prepared me for this conversation. She said, “You know I like you, (my name), but I’m worried you may not have understood what the purpose of this class actually is”.
I answered, “What do you mean? It’s European history. It’s pretty self-explanatory. I would assume it entails learning about the history of Europe”. She replied, “Yes, but this is AP European history. These classes were designed to challenge our best and brightest at this school. I think you need to consider that before committing to taking this class for an entire semester. We’re going to cover a lot of material, and we won’t be able to slow down if somebody falls behind”.
I asked, “Are you saying I’m not smart enough to take this class”? She responded, “Well, in my experience, people like you often have a hard time keeping up in these classes. I just don’t want to have to see you set yourself up for failure”. So I asked her, “What do you mean ‘people like me’”? She explained, “People that have interests other than academic success, like most athletes, for example”.
By the end of the conversation, I was basically biting my lip to hold back tears. It just felt so awful to be stereotyped before having a chance to prove that I didn’t fit that mold. Being as I was only a 15-year-old kid, I allowed her to convince me that she was right. I dropped the classes the next day. I lost a lot of passion for education that day and gained a lot of insecurities about my intellect that were still present six years after I graduated.
14. In Bad Faith
My uncle showed up to his non-religious father’s (my grandfather’s) funeral with three uninvited church high-ups. My family, besides him, is not religious. He then proceeded to give a long, preachy, churchy speech at his non-religious father’s non-religious funeral—simply to try and advance his career by impressing these three uninvited people.
His mother banned him from speaking at her funeral in her will after that stunt. I already generally disliked him (he’s a self-centered hypocrite who takes advantage of people), but this event made her outright disown him, and I now attempt to avoid all contact with him if possible. He is the one person I know in real life who makes me genuinely angry.
15. That Man Needs A Reality Checkout
This wasn’t directed at me, but I was very offended. I was in a Target checkout line waiting for my girlfriend to finish paying for her stuff. The cashier girl—who looked to be possibly Hispanic—in the line next to me had no people at her cash, so she was just standing there minding her own business. Then, an older gentleman walked up to her line with a full handbasket and set it down on the girl’s counter.
She began to say “Good afternoon” when the guy suddenly cut her off, and said, “No, I’ll go somewhere else where they hire actual Americans”, and walked out the door. The poor girl looked like she was about to cry and could only mutter out that her dad was from Panama, but she and her mom were both born in America. Sometimes I hate living in Texas.
16. Family Matters
I’m adopted. So is my sister. My parents couldn’t have biological children because my mom survived ovarian cancer. My dad’s brother and his wife had a biological son who passed when I was very young, and my dad’s twin brother passed before I was born. My uncle (whose son passed) passed about three years ago. But just over a year ago, my first son was born. Everyone was excited. It was my parents’ first grandchild.
Almost a month to the day later, my dad passed from lung cancer complications. When I called my widowed aunt to tell her, the first thing she said was, “Well, the bloodline has ended”. I was completely taken aback. She’s normally a very polite and thoughtful person. She had never treated me as anything but a member of the family. But here she was, talking to me on the day my father passed as if neither I nor my newborn son were real members of our family.
Coming from someone who had married into the family, it was a very strange thing to hear. It’s like she was basically saying that her son, who passed over 30 years ago, was the last true heir to our family’s legacy, and since he passed, it was just a matter of waiting for her husband and my father to go before the family line was ended. We don’t really talk much anymore.
She was shocked when someone “reminded” me to call her last week and let her know that my wife and I had just had another child a few months ago. Wonder why I forgot?
17. Straight To The Heart
I was born with a heart defect that’s worsening as I enter my thirties. I hate being told, “I don’t look disabled, do more cardio to fix it, or stop breathing so loud”. The worst comment, though, came from my autistic friend. Completely tone-deaf, he turned to me and said, “Don’t be mad, but I wish I had your disability instead of mine”.
As if my disability was so much simpler: all the hospital visits, surgeries, the other kids passing in the hospital whom I made friends with, the devastating experiences, being left out of activities, being unable to do sports, etc. I know autism isn’t easy, but that made me so incredibly angry.
18. Living A Lie
I was gobsmacked when my mom told me that she was a good parent and that she “tried her best”. Her “trying her best” included throwing me into the catbox, making me live outside because we lived in filth due to her hoarding, and hitting me for every little infraction/supposed infraction. I’ve never been so offended by someone telling me such a blatant lie.
19. Unbelievable
In my senior year of high school, I was the victim of a hit and run. One of our “senior privileges” was that we were allowed to have an off-campus breakfast together as a class at a local restaurant once per grading period before returning to school. I lived pretty close to the restaurant, so I was almost always one of the first students there, and the only other customers were the old people eating breakfast.
One morning as I was pulling into the parking lot, a truck backed out of a spot perpendicular to me and hit my truck. He didn’t stop. One of my friends witnessed it and ran after the truck and jumped on his tailgate, trying to get his attention, but the driver never stopped. After my buddy jumped off, we told our principal about it.
He called the county sheriff’s department, and they sent over a deputy to take our statements, but for some reason, he didn’t believe our story. He then told us to go back to school, and at the end of the day, we would both take a polygraph. If it indicated that we were lying, we would both be apprehended for falsifying our report.
He made us sweat it out the whole rest of the day. At the very end of the afternoon, the principal pulled me out of journalism class. He had the deputy with him, who apparently had finally decided to do some actual law enforcement work, and traced the vehicle description and the partial plate that we got and found the driver who hit me.
It turned out the driver was an 86-year-old man. He got home, saw the paint from my truck on his bumper, and assumed he backed out of his spot too far and hit the building next door. I'll never forget the look on the deputy's face. Then the deputy tried to shake my hand and offer me a shallow apology for not believing our story. I knew just how to put him in his place.
I said, “It’s one thing for you to not believe me, but you also threatened a witness with incarceration for no reason”, and that I was not accepting his apology until my friend accepted his first. So then the three of us went and pulled him out of class so the deputy could also apologize to him.
20. What A Low-Life
I started gaming during the COVID lockdown to get some social interaction. I made some really good friends, and the one I’m closest with is, unfortunately, terminal. Still, we have plans to meet, etc. But a group of us had an altercation over some in-game stuff a couple of weeks ago, and the main instigator just completely lost his cool.
He wasn’t winning his debate, so he said the most unspeakable thing to my friend, “Look at your life. You’re so pathetic. You know you’re going to die before you ever get to meet her, right”? It was such a low jab, and it was all over petty in-game politics. We’re all in our 30s as well.
21. Brutal Honesty
I am not afraid to lie if I have to, but as a person, I believe in a spiritual and moral obligation to be honest, even when it hurts. So, as you can imagine, the one thing that offends me more than anything is when someone accuses me of lying when I am not. Well, my stepmom and father called me one day and asked me if they had ever hit me or the other kids growing up.
I was like, “Yeah, but we probably deserved it”. Like, no big deal. We were kids, and it was a long time ago. Well, they flipped the heck out: Acting as if I was crazy, calling me a liar, and saying I was delusional (apparently, my other siblings were also delusional). I was so thrown off by this, but I was also so greatly offended. Like, oh heck, no.
You’re gonna tell me I’m delusional after the God dang horrors you put me and my brothers and sisters through? To be honest, they whooped our butts and put us through so much mental and physical torment that it’s amazing none of us tried to off ourselves…Oh wait…Yeah, no, that happened a few times. If anything, I downplayed it, like, “Oh yeah, it was normal”.
I didn’t realize how messed up my upbringing was until I went to college and found myself surrounded by people who never had the twisted family stories I had. I’m going to write a book one of these days, and it’s going to be so brutally honest. I’m going to have to clean out my closets one of these days.
22. Packing Some Emotional Baggage
I discovered my mom and sister planning a vacation together. They came over to my house and began talking about their upcoming trip—and past trips they had taken—very casually in front of me. It suddenly dawned on me that they had gone on several trips together and never even thought to invite me or even tell me about it.
Later that day, I mentioned to my mom that it hurt my feelings that she didn’t even think to tell me when she and my sister took trips together. Her response: “Well, we all have different relationships”. I asked her what that meant, and she told me they didn’t know if I liked to go on vacation. Um, what? Who the heck doesn’t like to go on vacation?
When I reminded her that she didn’t even ask me, she totally dismissed me and said that they’d think about inviting me next time. I can’t even describe how much that hurt. I spent the rest of their visit trying not to break down sobbing. I’m still extremely hurt, not only by her comments but also by her flippant attitude toward me.
23. How Unchristian
I told my parents I was no longer Christian, and they were weird about it, but that’s a whole other story. Anyway, the word spread throughout my family, but it especially enraged my uncle. He decided to confront me about it during my grandfather’s funeral….and by confront, I mean he decided to be a jerk to me and basically just yelled at me for a few minutes until my brother intervened.
I was crying and literally just repeated over and over, “I don’t want to talk about this”. Imagine being a 60-something-year-old man chewing out a 14-year-old at a funeral simply because you don’t agree with their religious views, especially over something the kid didn’t really want you to know in the first place, while they beg you to leave them alone.
I’m still on bad terms with him even though it’s been almost five years because that was just such a jerk move.
24. A Call Into Question
My brother cheated on his wife (my best friend). When we found out, I told her I would support her in any decision she made. Stay with him, amazing: divorce him, I claim her for family vacations. I never took my brother’s side, but I did show him kindness (he was crushed by his eff-up, and he legitimately wanted her back, and we are the only family he has other than our mom). They decided to work things out.
She would call me for advice (I’m a therapist), and we organized get-togethers. But because of her super high anxiety about all my brother’s lies, he wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone without her there (except for his therapist), and all his texts were (and still are) mirrored to her phone. We live five hours apart, so the only contact I typically had with them was by phone.
Then suddenly, he stopped talking to me with no explanation for six months. I recently found out it was because I was put on the “do not call” list even though she still called me. The kicker? She and I had remained close during those six months, yet she’d pretended not to know why my brother stopped calling me.
25. Consider Beating A Hasty Retreat
I was an 18-year-old dancer hired to sensually perform at a party at a frat house. Three other dancers and I had some guys on stage (yes, the frat house basement had a stage) whom we were instructed to thrash. I was never into the nonconsensual thing, so I was going easy. But then, one of the frat brothers came up right in my ear, close enough to kiss me—and whispered something that sent a chill down my spine.
He said, “Hurt him like he attacked your sister”! To this day, I still remember it as the worst thing that anyone has ever said to me.
26. That’s God Awful
My grandpa passed three years ago. The funeral was complicated because half of his kids had left the Mormon church and half were still in it. My mother was completely cut out of the planning and actual proceedings because our immediate family left about 10 years ago. Regardless, we’d expected that the ceremony would take place at the church and basically involve a bunch of sermons.
What we didn’t expect was that the convicted man my aunt is still married to would be the one giving the main prayer and talk. The entire thing was about how he hoped God would forgive my grandfather in heaven for being so mean to him and how he knew that God would put my grandpa straight and that he would be justified.
No joke. For over 20 minutes. In church. At his FUNERAL. I was trying really hard to keep myself together because my 10-year-old baby cousin was sobbing from grief and anger while hugging me. I also knew that causing a scene by interrupting my horrible uncle at the pulpit would get my mom and all my immediate family kicked out.
He has terribly hurt young children and yet he is still in the church and has the “priesthood”, so my grandmother believes that he’s a good godly man and her leader by default, while her actual non-felon children remain pariahs, just because they left. The cherry on top of the whole event was that my grandmother, my awful uncle, and my aunt, all forgot to contact anyone to arrange any sort of armed forces honors at the graveside.
My grandpa was a vet. He was buried in painful, awful silence. My mother wasn’t even allowed to share memories of her father or speak at the funeral. Thinking about the whole thing still makes me livid.
27. You Know What They Say About People Who Assume…
I was at my apartment complex pool, and I was hanging out with my in-laws, who live in the same complex. There were lots of people from all walks of life (there are close to 200 apartments and a few pools, but still, there were a lot of mixed groups). I was with my family. Everyone was communal and having a great time. But then, we started talking about movies.
I like movies. I have worked for a movie theater since 2001. I know stupid stuff and find things interesting. Anyway, a woman in the group started asking questions about movies, and they happened to all be movies I’ve seen. Suddenly, I became an idiot savant. Then, I was “special”. Then, she straight up said I was neurodivergent and asked me what type of autism I have and where I am on the spectrum.
I have a cousin who’s autistic, and he’s freaking awesome. I love him, but I am not. Not that there is anything wrong with that, there isn’t. But screw that witch for saying I might have something to explain why I remember stuff. Screw her for insinuating that my ability to remember details is a “sign”, and screw her for asking me about that stuff in front of 30+ people. Like I said, there’s nothing wrong with having autism, but screw you if you think it’s okay to ask literally anyone about that.
28. What An Eh-Hole
I spent Canada Day with my friends (family friends). I was really close with my friend and looked forward to the day all week. We were inseparable for years. We spent the summers together, making plans, joking, camping, and living life. But that day, she completely betrayed me. She spent hours making plans with others and then, with her mom’s approval, ditched me to meet up with them.
Everyone carried on like everything was normal. It hurt.
29. A Hairy Insult
One year ago, I was diagnosed with PCOS. It made me quite sad. The biggest insecurity I have is the fact that some facial hair is randomly growing on my chin. I spend a lot of time getting rid of it. One day, I was talking with my friends in class, and one of them (whom I wasn’t very close with) looked at me and said, “Ewww, you have a beard”, and made a disgusted face.
It made me so sad, especially since it was only like two weeks after my diagnosis. I talked to my other friends about it, and they said that they had no right to judge me and that they loved me anyway, and that it changed nothing about our friendship. It turned out that the guy who mocked me was a randy crypto-bro jerk, and everyone is trying to avoid him now because he can’t talk about anything but himself and cryptocurrency.
He made fun of so many people that nobody likes him anymore.
30. Oh, But Have You Tried Deep Breathing Exercises?
I’ve had asthma my whole life. Us asthmatics are constantly getting told that we’re being overly dramatic or are faking it. We also tend to hear, “It’s not that bad”, that we could run if we “tried harder”, and do we really need that stupid inhaler? I also have celiac disease. “Can’t you just pick out the croutons”? Nope, sure can’t. Ten milligrams of gluten is enough to make my immune system attack my small intestine.
On the other hand, last year, I developed a pretty awful headache condition, and I had to go to the ER at the hospital where I work. I was getting a CT performed by a CT tech I work with all the time, and when he realized I’d been coming to work every day for five weeks with an unrelenting headache with a level of four to six pain, he said, “HOW? How have you managed to put up with that”?
No choice, that’s how.
31. The Teachers Need A Lesson
I was 16 and heavily depressed after my sister’s brain tumor surgery about eight years ago. My sister had severe incurable brain damage, including loss of eyesight, short-term memory issues, and problems speaking and with her balance. In school, however, my teachers were downright evil. They told me that I was a stupid person for being depressed about such a thing and that it was not a big deal.
Some even said that I was making excuses to not study the lessons and that I was being a terrible child to my parents. I was so mad that I left the school for the rest of that year.
32. He’s Having Nun Of It
My old boss and I were making small talk one Monday morning, and he seemed kind of down. I asked if he was doing okay, and he said—in the most pained and broken voice I have ever heard from any human being—that the new church he’d been attending (he’s Catholic) found out that he’s gay and asked him to leave. This was about 10 years ago. Now, I’ve been an atheist for about 40 years.
I thought I’d become entirely too cynical to be surprised about religion and about what some churches are capable of doing, but I was stunned silent that day. Stunned and deeply, personally offended—my old boss is an amazing, giving, kind person. He’s one of the best people I know. I’m still offended.
33. Time To Punch Out Of Work
My place of work had a meeting where management was going on about ensuring we would not have Narcan available on hand because they thought it would hurt their image or that it would be “enabling addicts”. My cousin had just passed from an opiate OD a few weeks prior. I could have punched the president in his freaking face. I wish I had, even knowing the consciences.
The inhumanity people will show toward problems they’d rather pretend don’t exist is just disgusting.
34. I Guess The Boss Will Just Have To Manage
My friend’s dad had just taken his own life, so I took a red eye that night to support the family and took the next couple of days off work using my vacation time. The whole thing was so tragic. My boss called me three times while I was at the funeral—which she knew about—to ask me questions she could have easily asked other people. Like, completely non-essential, non-important tasks. But that wasn’t what made me really mad.
Fast forward to the next week, the administrator called me into her office. She said that they’re low on staff, and I was going to have to take on another supervisor’s duties and help assist the other locations. I informed her that it was too much work (an insane amount) for the little amount I got paid and that I needed a raise.
This administrator had the balls to say, “Oh. Well, one-last-hoorah. I know you just came back from that funeral, so you’re really over-emotional about everything. That’s why you’re taking offense to this, so I’ll excuse you. I actually think bereavements can be good because they bring your own emotions into the light, and you can get clarity on what problems you have and how to solve them”.
The funny thing was, I wasn’t even rude or angry in my tone; I was just sticking up for myself instead of being my usual pushover self! But this just FLOORED me. She had no right to comment on my own life or on someone’s passing and try to morph this into a corporate metaphor to tell me not to ask for a raise.
Not to mention that this was AFTER they kept harassing me at the funeral. I was so offended. I literally felt my blood boiling. I just said, “Yeah, I kept thinking at the funeral that all that really matters in life is the time I spend with my loved ones, not my job”. Ugh. I quit around three months later.
35. A Brainless Neurologist
I was misdiagnosed for over a year and told that I had the ability to control my seizures, despite eventually being diagnosed with epilepsy. I am fully conscious during myoclonic seizures, which last anywhere from 10–20 minutes. I was told by my neuro that I had the ability to control them, and I tried to do that for over a year before being diagnosed and put on medication. The frustration that I had thinking it was all my fault is something I wouldn’t ever put on anyone.
36. That Escalated Quickly
Last year a friend of my girlfriend obviously had a crush on her, but she always was straight up about it. She told him it wasn’t going to happen even if she wasn’t in a relationship. But this just made the guy try harder. It got to the point where she was afraid to go out with her friends without me because he might be there. One night, she was with a few girlfriends, and they ran into him.
He was touching her and flirting with her. She asked me to come to help her. I got there, and she told me what he was doing. I told him he needed to stop doing this. He laughed and said, “I don’t even want your harlot. I’m just messing around. Why can’t you take a freaking joke? Are you stupid”? I have a short temper but somehow managed to hold it back and just tell him to buzz off.
He then started following us around, still talking trash the whole time. It was almost funny at that point but also really, really pathetic and annoying. Then he said that since I’m “a fairy and won’t fight me, I’ll beat the heck out of your brother”, who is two years younger than me. As soon as he said it, I lost it—and nailed him in the nose. He was taken aback and was a bit disoriented. I hit him again in the chin, which took him to the floor.
I was boiling with rage and continued wailing at him, but had to stop because I was getting worried that I was going to seriously injure this kid, and I didn’t want to get in that much trouble. I wasn’t so much offended that my feelings were hurt, but I was pretty dang mad. I’ve never lashed out and actually hurt someone before.
37. Race Mockery
I get offended when people say xenophobic things about my East Asian home country to me, only to then gaslight my entire heritage by saying that I don’t look like I’m from there, so how could they have known? Like their rude comments were somehow my fault and that I’d tricked them into saying something prejudiced by not having a monolid-strong epicanthic fold.
This happens pretty much on a weekly basis, but it’s become more common over the past few years.
38. He Needs To Shut His Pie Hole
A stranger (a friend of a friend) sat next to me and my girlfriend in the cafeteria (both of us are transgender). He started eating our food and then asked me if I was a boy or a girl. I answered “boy”, which is the truth, and then he turned to my girlfriend and said, “Does it really have a schlong”? My girlfriend shook her head no, and the guy went into a rant about how disgusting and scary “trans people” are and how he thought they should all perish, or at least not be allowed to talk to any “normal people”.
I was shaking with rage and just wanted him to go away, so I threw an apple at him. He still shows up sometimes to eat our food.
39. What A Jerk Move
I was offended after being told “I’m not that epileptic” by a friend of mine. I don’t think she meant it badly, but being told by someone—who doesn’t have epilepsy—that my disability isn’t actually that bad just put me in a sour mood.
40. Rude Customers Are Always In Store
I was working at Walmart when a man and his kid asked me where something was in the store. I didn’t know, so the man turned to his three-year-old kid and said, “When you grow up, don’t be worthless like him”. I gave myself an extra break that day.
41. Time To Step Away
One of the most offensive things that happened to me came from my evil stepfather. He used to tell me that I was just like my “real dad”, who abandoned me at a very young age.
42. Next Time, Show Them Your Finger
Back when I was at school, a few of the kids used to put their fingers under their noses and shout “Adolph H” every time they saw me. Ahh, the joys of being the only Jewish kid in the school (or the town, for that matter).
43. Just Throw The Whole Mom Away
My “most offended I’ve ever been” moment occurred when my mom said to me, “God, you can’t do anything right, can you”? I’d just told her I had tried to take my own life six months prior.
44. No Kidding
I’ve had many nasty comments said to me about my appearance over the years, mostly by complete strangers, but the worst were the ones I’d get when I was pregnant. “Are you sure there’s just one in there”? And “You need to eat less”, etc. I only gained 29 lbs, which is considered healthy.
45. An Ugly Friendship
A friend of mine called my wife ugly. I guess he could tell it made me upset because he tried to save it by saying, “Just kidding bro. I would totally screw your wife”.
46. Playing Your Cards Right
I was once mistaken for a lawn maintenance worker while I was out working on my own yard! To be honest, I don’t know if the woman was prejudiced against my skin color or just plain stupid. I’m thinking the latter; even prejudiced people can understand and acknowledge that minorities can own $675k, 2,800+ square foot homes!
Anyway, there I was when a Cadillac suddenly pulled up. A woman stuck her head out the window and asked me, “Do you speak English”? I saw where this was going, so I played along. Eventually, she asked about a price. So, I got a card from my truck, wrote “$100/hr, four-hour minimum” on the back, and took it to her.
She looked at it, questioned my sanity, and then gave it back. I then turned the card over to the front and handed it right back to her. My card read, “Phoenix Fire Department” with my name followed by “BS and MPA”, and then written underneath it read “Battalion Chief, Fleet Operations”. The woman looked at it, turned red, and drove away.
Pexels
47. Caught Between A Rock And A Hard Place
I was working at McDonald’s when this guy in the drive-thru got angry at me because of a mistake with his sandwich. He proceeded to go on a rant about how everyone who works at McDonald’s is lazy and stupid and that we should be required to answer the “rock test”. Then he held out both his hands, one stretched into a flat palm and the other hand in a closed fist, and asked, “Which hand is the rock in”?
I was in shock. I honestly didn’t even know what to say. He started gesturing his hands to me to show that his question wasn’t rhetorical; he really wanted me to answer. So I picked the fist, and he was like, “Wow, you really needed to think about that one, huh”? Then he drove away. It was stupid of me, but I broke down in the walk-in fridge a little bit later—full-on crying tears.
Service jobs are awful. Most people don’t treat you with the dignity you deserve. You definitely earn that extra break.
48. Nasty Neighbor
My husband and I were walking through our neighborhood with our four and seven-year-old sons. Both are autistic, with my older being more severe (he’s cognitively more like 18 months old). We passed a neighbor, and she waved to us and wanted to say hi. We talked about the weather for a few minutes when she suddenly pointed at my older son and said, “So, what’s wrong with this one”?
I answered, “…Nothing’s wrong with him”? She replied, “I was a teacher for 30 years. I know something’s wrong with him”. She then pointed at my younger son and asked, “Is this one okay”? She said these things right in front of them, where they could hear it. I’m still angry at her to this day, and I give her house the finger every time I pass.
49. Boy, Bi
My girlfriend and I are bi and in a lesbian relationship. My girlfriend’s brother had a friend who, after meeting him for the first time and exchanging three sentences, started saying stuff to us like, “Why are you doing it with women? You should screw a man; that’s way healthier for you! You should just be screwed properly by a man, and that will show you”!
So, we said stuff back like, “YOU should be screwed by a man”. When he reacted with disgust and surprise, we told him, “Yeah, how does it feel to be told who you should do it with, and more importantly, who to love and be loved by, you jerk”! I was angry for a solid day, and my girlfriend’s brother got angry about it too after we told him and talked to him. Later, he told us that his friend was very ashamed. Well, he should be.
Sources: Reddit, ,
