Political Correctness Gone Mad

[Alex_P]

The problem with complaints about political correctness is that they focus on the minor examples that seem ludicrous, taking them out of isolation and making them the poster boys of political correctness 'gone mad'. These actions complained about in the thread are often the actions of individuals or bored councils, not the country as a whole. Political correctness is not an entity stalking around stealing your freedoms.

Indeed.

Political correctness isn't even a real movement. The mainstreaming of "political correctness" is the direct result of social conservatives conjuring up a bogeyman to rail against. They were so successful that folks actually started to believe the bogey was real. Unfortunately, this gives "political correctness" more teeth and endurance than an actual movement because people are convinced that somewhere there is a magical PC Police that actually enforces this.

Yes, there are feminists, anti-racists, and queer activists who do actually campaign for more awareness of discriminatory language. In most cases, though, acts of PC stupidity people talk about are:
1. urban legends, often evolved from misunderstood jokes or malicious fabrications
2. misunderstood satirical works against "political correctness"
3. changes made for reasons unrelated to "political correctness"
4. the actions of some mis-educated administrative assistant, PTA member, or local official with too much time on their hands and absolutely no idea of how discriminatory language actually works

-- Alex

 

[teh_gunslinger]

We've had our share of that in Holland. We have little treats called "Negerzoenen" (There isn't an english word for them, according to Wikipedia they're "Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats"), which translates to "N-wordkisses" (with the exception that the word 'neger' isn't offensive in Dutch unlike the N-word is in English). Those treats appeared to have been renamed to just "zoenen" (kisses) because "negerzoenen" was offensive.

Eventually it ended up to be all a big hoax, though.

We have those in Denmark as well. I guess I would translate it to negro kisses though as it fits the Danish phrase better. But we also have jew cakes, so we may not be unbiased.
But these days the Negro Kisses are called Cream Cakes as not to insult people. We still call it jew cakes though.

I don't mind, on principle that we try to behave nicely towards each other and don't insult or hurt people in our speech. But I do think there is a trend towards people getting insulted over every damn little thing. It's becomming a real problem and the rules for what you can say changes all the time. By the time I finally adapt to some new PC thing they change it again and I'm back to being rude and insensitive.
And fuck it! I'll wish people as good Christmas if I want to (and I'm an atheist so it's not like I believe in it). They can just lighten the hell up. I don't snap and go insane if someone wishes me a happy rhamadan or good Kwanza or whatever other people choose to celebrate. I don't celebrate any of it, including Christmas.

 

[beholdmycape]

Political Correctness in general is retarded.

OIMFG WORDS!?

Not really. It springs from the right impulse, you'd be surprised by the power of words and language.
But yeah, it can get way out of hand. Common sense needs to be applied and that can seem in short supply sometimes.

Words have absolutely 0 meaning, unless you give it to them.

A language only exists because the words within it are assigned a meaning, often multiple different ones depending on context, tone of voice etc. If they had 0 meaning you wouldn't be able to express your opinion that they have no meaning.

You're ignoring the rest of what I said. Words have no meaning unless you willingly give it to them. If the source is some random fuckwit that's calling you names because of your race, creed, sexuality, or general appearance, then you know he's a fuckwit and nothing he says will ever be important. Ignore everything he says, and his words no longer have meaning.

What I'm trying laboriously to get at is that people are different, and with those differences some people will put down/oppress/belittle others because they need to feel better than them. Giving these people the power of valid opinions does nothing but help them. Ignore the fuckwads, and if they resort to violence in a desperate attempt to retain their perceived superiority, beat them to death with their own spines. Don't help them splinter humanity into different groups.

I agree with you that in a perfect world we would all happily ignore people who insult others based on their race, creed, sexuality etc but you and I know this aint a perfect world.

And sometimes, though it may hurt your feelings, if you're in the wrong and are unwilling to give critical words against you any meaning you may never realise you were wrong.
You cant just give meaning to the words you find acceptable.

 

[Agayek]

I agree with you that in a perfect world we would all happily ignore people who insult others based on their race, creed, sexuality etc but you and I know this aint a perfect world.

And sometimes, though it may hurt your feelings, if you're in the wrong and are unwilling to give critical words against you any meaning you may never realise you were wrong.
You cant just give meaning to the words you find acceptable.

My point isn't to ignore anything you don't find agreement with. You should listen to everything you hear. It's just if you listen to it and by any reasonable standard, it's a pile of bullshit and chips, you should reject it, and probably anything else that person has said. Use reason and sound judgment over whether someone has a valid point, and if so accept it and do what you can about it. Otherwise, throw it out like the useless garbage it is.

 

[beholdmycape]

I'll drink to that!

 

[Pandalisk]

From TVTropes:

The book The Language Police by Diane Ravitch provides many Real Life examples of absurd politically-correct censorship in children's textbooks and reading tests. Material forbidden by "anti-bias" committees included:

* Prehistoric creatures or fossils(because evolution could be controversial);

...

Oh but Material about god is alright is it? Jesus Christ..

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Mine is probably the rewriting the classic nursery rhyme to make it Baa Baa Coloured/Rainbow Sheep.

lol, they rewrote that song? that is hilarious!

Yeah, and they changed "gullible" to "credulously challenged".

Anyone who thinks political correctness is a bad thing, is a racist. End of.

Political correctness gone mad, is the favourite catchphrase of so-called "journalists" with hidden racist agendas. Did you know, you can't even scrawl racial abuse in excrement on someone's car nowadays, without the political correctness brigade jumping down your throat!

Stuart Lee explains.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K21e7po1Sro

You are my new best friends.

Funny as your post was, I had no reason to believe you weren't deadly serious until the last sentence.

 

[Xan Krieger]

I'll be honest. I read every reply on this thread and I cried. It's that bad. I refuse to ever be politically correct and if people don't like it they can throw me in jail. Political correctness offends me and that's why I won't use it. I will not offend myself to please other people.

 

[Signa]

I have mixed feelings watching those Stuart Lee videos. On one hand, he is obviously 100% correct. I'm too young to remember anyone acting in those depraved manners (black spot), so I really do have no place to say "political correctness gone mad." But on the other hand, I hear of things like my airport having to take down all their Christmas tree decorations because a Jewish rabbi complained that it wasn't sensitive to his beliefs. He did have a point, but it ended up costing thousands of dollars to then remove the decorations. It was truly one of those "gone mad" issues that people are complaining about. Sure, one side needs to show some sensitivity, but the other side needs to meet them half-way. You can't cater to everyone 100% without stepping on some one's toes.

 

[NDWolfwood5268]

When I was little, me and my classmates were supposed to sit with our legs crossed on the floor. This was know as "Sitting Indian style". Now, it is offensive. The children must sit "criss-cross Applesauce"

Ok, I'm sorry, but FUCK THAT SHIT! When all the hippy multi-culturally accepting morons are in a circle dancing and holding hands singing 'Bah Bah Colored Sheep', me and my friends will still be calling each other racial and derogatory slurs in public for fun.

Here's a bit: We have 2 'Dan' friends in our circle. One is white, one is black. We call each one by their color, i.e. Black Dan and White Dan. Black Dan even jokes with us when we say 'Pee Wee Herman is whiter than you, dude!'.

Black Dan likes the most obscure anime and Fantasy Star Online. He listens to anime CD's and debates the usefulness of different server technologies. Stereotypical white kid hehe >.<

 

[Jamash]

When they changed black coffee to coloured coffee. I was almost sick.

Ha, that reminds me of someone I knew who was so racist that he wouldn't drink black coffee!

He was the boyfriend a friend's of a flatmate, and his whole family was racist, so he was a proper institutionalised racist - he'd been brought up that way and couldn't see anything wrong with is point of view.

Anyway, one night it was my turn to make teas and coffees and we'd run out of milk, so I said to him,
"We've run out of milk, will you have yours black?".

He shot me a look of pure hatred and disgust, and said defiantly with pride "No mate, I don't have anything black!"

It was so funny I just burst out laughing and had to leave the room.

My God, he was such a wanker, in every conversation with him he'd try and steer the topic onto something about race, or foreigners or rap music, anything so he could start a tirade of his racist rhetoric.

I also felt kind of sorry for him, because he was a complete product of his upbringing and family, and couldn't even give any good reasons as to why he didn't like black or foreign people, except that he didn't like them "cos' they're different". He didn't even have any genuine malice or hatred, he was just totally conditioned into that way of thinking by his family, he was like a relic from a bygone age.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

That Stuart Lee is just another profiteer diffusing discussion with insults and presumptive logic. Political Correctness can be good or bad the way a gun can be good or bad. His presumption that Political Correctness is what ended racism is absurd. His suggestion that Political Correctness should be instituted in every case because of the imaginary benefit he ascribes to it is equally wrong-headed.

We just want mutual respect and equity. Suggesting this is best achieved by changing "black" to "African-American" is fucking petty.

 

[rekabdarb]

your not african american, your BLACK. and if they still fight you, ask them if they have a duel citizenship/have even been to africa
your not asian american, YOUR ASIAN. there is a problem here because most asians have actually been to someplace in asia so your boned there
Latino American, yet again just ask duel citizenship

I think PC is retarded, fuck i'm white not caucasian or however you spell it
but what's worse is that i'm aryan (and have german blood in me... same with Jefferson Davis blood[thats the president of the confederacy who don't know]) so if i say 1 unpc word i'm fucked

I dunno, around here we tend to burn people at the stake for heresy on capitalization/grammar charges first.
[/plantation owner descendant who knows about treading lightly]

define here?
and i'm assuming that your ancestor was the owner

 

[Nmil-ek]

African American is offencive aswell isnt it? I had a black co worker who always prefered being called black, A: he's british and has nout to do with Africa, B: hes not American either.

 

[soren7550]

I once saw this thing in the paper about a month back on how people who make real estate ads could be fired for using terms such as 'nearby park great for children', 'good eatery a short walk away', 'family area', 'stair access' and 'pets welcome' because people who don't have kids, people in wheelchairs, and people who have a fear of dog will all be extremely offended. : |

 

[Zildjin81]

Ba ba rainbow sheep have you any wool....... Yep, I saw that in the news.

 

[Deguasser]

Because black is offensive now.

Black is offensive now?
That is dumb.

 

[pirateninj4]

In New Zealand feminist groups got manhole changed to personhole. I feel this is kind of retarded because we still use the word mankind, not personkind.

Lies... I know because I live there

*you got me*
My life is over.

 

[tmnnerd]

on the whole black coffee/coloured coffee thing i think we have missed the point, and indeed the most racist aspect of cafes because, even though they are often in the same bowl, "white" and "brown" sugar are kept in completely seperate packs. this doesn't engender a sense of intigration within the sugar community as a whole. what i like to do is take a thimble down, pour 1/2 "white" and 1/2 "brown" sugar in and shake it up before adding it to my coffee (fairtrade of course) thus ensuring a truly harmonious caffinated beverage.




im joking of course; i dont even have sugar in my coffee.....

 

[Gestapo Hunter]

Isnt this the american way? using your freedom of speech to silent other rights?