Gary Oldman is an amazing actor, and he must know it. If only because of the way in which he freely used racial epithets and profanity while unloading on political correctness in Washington and Hollywood.

In an interview with Playboy, the actor defended what many called the racist and homophobic remarks made by actors like Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin. He asked what would happen to him if he, for example, called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) a “f***ing useless c**t,” and excoriated modern society for building up figures as heroes which he sees as having no cultural value.

On modern culture, Oldman ripped into helicopter parenting. He said that parents are treating their children as though they are “the center of the f***ing universe.” This, he says, fosters a sense of narcissism in children which leads to “depression and anxiety.”

“Our world has gone to hell,” Oldman added.

“I think we’re up s**t creek without a paddle or a compass,” Oldman said of modern culture. “Reality TV to me is the museum of social decay.”

“Who’s the hero for young people today?” the actor asked. “Some idiot who can’t f***ing sing or write or who’s shaking her ass and twerking in front of 11-year-olds.”

Modern political correctness, which Oldman calls a “f***ing joke,” has contributed to what he sees as the current cultural rot.

The actor defended Gibson who was virtually blacklisted from Hollywood after he made what were considered anti-Semitic remarks.

“He got drunk and said a few things, but we’ve all said those things. We’re all f***ing hypocrites. That’s what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word n***** or that f***ing Jew? I’m being brutally honest here. It’s the hypocrisy of it that drives me crazy.”

“Mel Gibson is in a town that’s run by Jews and he said the wrong thing because he’s actually bitten the hand that I guess has fed him,” Oldman added. “But some Jewish guy in his office somewhere hasn’t turned and said, ‘That f***ing kraut’ or ‘f*** those Germans,’ whatever it is?”

Oldman said that the backlash Gibson and Baldwin faced after they made insensitive comments is a reactionary instinct which can be primarily attributed to prominent liberals.

Well, if I called Nancy Pelosi a c**t — and I’ll go one better, a f***ing useless c**t — I can’t really say that. But Bill Maher and Jon Stewart can, and nobody’s going to stop them from working because of it. Bill Maher could call someone a f*g and get away with it. He said to Seth MacFarlane this year, ‘I thought you were going to do the Oscars again. Instead they got a lesbian.’ He can say something like that. Is that more or less offensive than Alec Baldwin saying to someone in the street, ‘You f*g’? I don’t get it.

Oldman described himself as a libertarian. “But you don’t come out and talk about these things, for obvious reasons,” he admitted. On the current administration, and the prospect that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may succeed President Barack Obama, Oldman was not sanguine.

“What can I say? I feel we need some real leadership, and it’s nowhere in sight,” he observed. “Look at what’s happening right now. John Kerry going off to China to talk about North Korea? What’s that going to do? The ludicrousness of it. What a waste of money. You’re going to go to the puppeteer and say, ‘Can you help me with the puppet?’”

“So this interview has gone very badly,” Oldman conceded. “You have to edit and cut half of what I’ve said, because it’s going to make me sound like a bigot.”

Playboy did not oblige.

“I’m defending all the wrong people. I’m saying Mel’s all right, Alec’s a good guy. So how do I come across?” he asked. “Angry?”

“It’s dishonesty that frustrates me most,” Oldman concluded. “I can’t bear double standards. It gets under my skin more than anything.”

As of this posting, the reaction to Oldman’s exceedingly honest interview has been muted. No doubt, however, every anti-defamation group on earth is drafting their apology demands.