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@fallen-archie wrote:
Why is it that a comment about a Jewish person immediately is leapt on as racist, or a person of native African decent has one skirting round trying not to offend when in reality all you want is to have a mildly funny conversation free from ill intent.
I think some are so sensitive they jump on a situation involving a celeb and go for the jugular. Why? Why must we walk on eggshells constantly editing a statement because it might be taken the wrong way.

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no-one has to walk on eggshells to be genuinely funny.

If you want to have a "mildly funny conversation free from ill intent" (intent of what exactly?) I'm sure you could do it with your friends, in private but doing it on prime television, that is sold around the world is a different matter.

Whether we agree with it or not - purely as an common example - the use of the "N" word is generally not permitted or tolerated, not because of how we feel about it but because of how and why it was used as a form of abuse for so long by others.

So, if Mr Clarkson had used that word - as an example - would you be still supporting him and saying there is no harm in it or it's just mildly funny free from all intent?

You may say it, but it would most certainly not have been used 'free from any intent' at all - and the ways he has spoken about people, the words he deliberately chooses to use are just as offensive to others.

It's simply not good enough to say that people have to put up with his behaviour.  Where does it end?  If he is allowed to get away with it, then everyone else can and go on to do more and worse.

So it's not about his 'little funny quips or gaffs' - it's about him and his grossly infated ego that has led to him believing that warnings and respect for others don't apply to him.

If he was a nobody, nobody would care that much, if at all.

But in his position, one of giving reviews and advice on tv - which has long been known to have an impact on people's lives and how they think etc - he has a responsibility to make sure he gets it right and doesn't take cheap pot shots at those who cannot defend themselves in any way.