In America today, if your sensibilities are offended by something that has happened, you get an enormous amount of credibility and are taken very seriously.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Offendedness is just about the last shared moral currency in our country. And, I'm sorry, but it's really annoying. We don't discuss ideas or debate arguments, we try to figure out who is most offended.
I'm more offended when someone's killed on television than when there's something that's sensuous or sexual. So what?
When was the last time you were super offended? I might be like, 'That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!' Or, 'It's not my thing,' or, 'It was a stupid joke.' But there's such a sensitivity now. Political correctness has become really insidious.
We're so politically correct; we take things so seriously.
It's great that I get accused of not being politically correct. People need to take themselves less seriously. This world is so screwed up as it is, we've all got to relax a bit more.
It's really important to remember that most people in the public eye are human for a start and a lot of things that you read in the media get slightly misconstrued and manipulated.
Most people are not shocked that I am occasionally rude to journalists. They are probably amazed I don't punch one in the face.
In politics, the reaction to a controversy is very often more enlightening and important than the details of the allegations themselves.
I am continually fascinated at the difficulty intelligent people have in distinguishing what is controversial from what is merely offensive.
The idea of what's acceptable and what's shocking, that's where I investigate. I mean, you can't be on 'Top Gear,' where your only argument is that it's all just a joke and anyone who takes offence is an example of political correctness gone mad, and then not accept the counterbalance to that.