Absent context, if you walked into a conversation and heard a person described as (this) which would be the most offensive term?

I get to hear all of these with some frequency, working as I do around a bunch of cable technicians, who as a class are not exactly the most enlightened human beings one would care to meet. (There are, of course, exceptions.)

At a certain point, for me at least, these all just part of the background noise, becoming more or less rhetorically equal as they are typically used. I'm far more sensitive to racial slurs, actually.

Dagnabit, mule mistakenly voted on my behalf (I was logged in earlier), and I don't know what he voted for. Regardless I would submit that absent context, as the poll specifies, I find "pussy" to be the most offensive. I'd say it was a toss-up between that and "gay" or "retarded" if I knew either of those terms was being used pejoratively. But, since it's possible to describe someone as "gay" and mean "this individual happens to be homosexual," and similarly "retarded" can be or at least used to be a clinically meaningful term, they would seem to be less offensive at face value than characterizing someone as a "pussy," which can only be pejorative and probably sexist.

Of course, by that logic, I suppose "cock" is similarly offensive, although I'm sure there's an argument to be made that pejorative terms derived from the dominant sex's genitalia are less "sexist" or some such nonsense. Can't we all just use "asshole" so there's no confusion, people?

You got a bigger problem than your gay retardedness if you walk into the middle of a conversation and decide to get "offended" by something you hear out of context. Mind your own fucking business, you pussy-assed nerd cocksucker.

you're asking THIS crowd? regardless, I'd be more offended if someone made any assumptions about /me/ because of my usage of any of those - be it serious and warranted, or just jokingly - without knowing the circumstances. I don't really find any of them particularly upsetting on their own, but perhaps I'm jaded. or perhaps "faggot" and "cunt" should've been included in the list, you wanker. : D

What about "cunt"? Has that been degraded to a benign status? Hold on, I've got to make some phone calls.

aka Acefantastik