Guy Chapman aka JzG wrote:
One that particularly
annoys me is the tendency to overdramatise supposed death threats and
legal threats when the comments have no degree of credibility. A
credible threat of harm is bad, and reducing the currency of such by
saying that generic "Meh! I'll kill ya!" crap is a death threat
(rather than just simple stupidity) does not help.
Whe the expression, "I'll kill you," is used in a TV comedy nobody
seems to get upset or take it seriously.
Often some of our editors interpret much less explicit statements as
death threats or otherwise seriously offensive without recourse to any
kind of reality check. Sometimes it seems that there are people who
thrive on being offended.
Ec