Kate Hawkesby: Welcome to the year of being offended, by everything

Gordon Ramsay sparked outrage among vegans after a joke on Twitter. Photo / Getty Images

I see Gordon Ramsay has offended vegans.

Did he not get the memo that this is the Year of Being Offended? The Year of Moral Outrage?

These are not times in which we can make jokes, use irony, be sarcastic, or indeed even toss out a throwaway line. The place you are least able to make light of anything is, of course, Twitter.

Unfortunately, Ramsay chose this most earnest of platforms to make an attempt at a joke. He tweeted in response to a fan who sent him a picture of a vegan lasagne, that he was a member of Peta: People Eating Tasty Animals.

I’m a member of PETA ! People eating tasty animals...... https://t.co/t9xCuVWDtq

— Gordon Ramsay (@GordonRamsay) February 2, 2018

Oh dear.

Cue the moral outrage. He was lambasted by vegans and accused of hating on them, told he was anti-vegan, and anti the "vegan movement". And even the real Peta weighed in, giving him a serve about being out of date. The virtual pile-on that is Twitter continued, until there was such a cacophony of vegan versus meat lovers, that I almost forgot what the original affront was about.

The upshot was, his tweet was liked 151,000 times, re-tweeted 44,000 times and commented on by 45,000 people. Moral outrage has traction. It didn't help, I suppose, that Ramsay has form. Two years ago, when asked if he had any allergies, Ramsay replied, "vegans".

And then there was the internet meltdown over "Lady Doritos". An alleged "throwaway line" from a staffer at Pepsi Co resulted in reports that Doritos was bringing out a special silent chip just for women.

Less crunch, and in a smaller packet to fit in a handbag.

For three days solid this raged round the internet like a wounded bull blinded by orange Dorito dust.

You name it, they were offended by it. Wailing from all quarters. Turns out, or so Pepsi Co claimed, it was "fake news". Lady Doritos, it said, were not a real thing.

"Doritos already makes a chip for women, they're called Doritos," the company said.

So what was that? Genius marketing? Certainly if you want to get worldwide internet coverage and free column inches, appealing to the morally outraged seems the way to do it.

And then yesterday, You Tube phenomenon and seemingly perpetually bewildered Logan Paul, Tasers a dead rat.

Not particularly wise given his recent disastrous Suicide Forest video and the fact people were already hot on the offence button regards him, but still, it was a rat. A dead one at that.

Vermin.

Their live brothers and sisters have makeup and medicines tested on them on a daily basis. This one was at least dead already.

But social justice warriors don't need too many facts, nor do they need context.

Don't get me wrong (people will anyway). The morally outraged can be an integral part of any society, and often do a lot of good. But they'd do themselves a huge favour, if they could stick to being outraged about genuine events, real issues, and those that affect more than one dead rat.