But people got offended all the time back then. The Christian Right found the gay agenda everywhere. Offhand I just recall teletubbies but there was even some cereal brand some called gay. I read
The Satanic Panic (just one of the reasons I cringe at the "believe everyone who makes an accusation" as "believe the children" in the 80s did a lot of harm to innocents, including children themselves, and there was also the "recovered memory" delusion/scam), and damn, Tipper Gore was morbidly fascinating (I also read
Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society ). I recall when I was a child that
this happened, and it was reported on the news as a thing that had the neighbors up in arms (I recall it because it was the only time my parents bought pepsi and had me, age 7, struggle to read "sex" and laughed as if it was the most hilarious thing when I did while I was baffled by the whole thing). Offended people were easy to hear from. Politically correct was a thing as well, but not like today (and used to be treated as a big joke).
These days it's different people offended over different things. I think conservatives have found out that their harping on ridiculous stuff did them more harm than good and now restrain themselves and allow a PC culture to do their side more harm than good (Bill Maher talks on that a lot), though maybe it's just that most of conservatives throwing ridiculous hissies is getting overlooked because of the current hissies in vogue for the last few years.
