Poll: Politicly Correct my A**

[harv3034]

First, the context.
I am in the middle of writing a Persuasive essay on Freedom of Speech on College Campuses (worst topic ever by the way). As part of this assignment, I have to read various articles on the topic for homework so I can use some of them for source material and/or supporing/counterarguments.
Tonight's reading is called "Bias-Free Language: Some Guidelines" written by Rosalie Maggio. In this essay, Maggio says that political correctness is very important and that we need to activly work to instatute it into everyday language. At it's core this is a good thing, but the way she wants us to go about it sucks away all the credibility of the argument and throws the article into "parady mode."

Maggio says that when refering to a group of mixed gener or a person of unknown gender, we must not use words and phrases that imply masculinity (he, sir, waiter, ect...). Again, hard to dispute, but later she goes to suggest the general removal of the letter combinations m-a-n and m-e-n from many everyday words.
Under this policy, we would also have to change a great many other words on the grounds that they might offend 1 person out of 10,000. Fat would become "big-boned" or "differently sized", Stupid becomes "exceptional", and Stoned would be re-branded as "chemically inconvenienced".To prevent the chance of seeming racist, we would need to change "black eye" to "mouse", "black mail" to "payola", and "black sheep" to "outcast".
And these changes would need to be implemented, not just in writing, but in verbal communication as well.


To me, this is utterly rediculous. But I want your opinions as well.
So, what do you think?

 

[silver wolf009]

I hold the same policy I have always held. To qoute the ancient prophet of the greek gods, Everything in moderation. Besides there should always be a line where common sense take over, I'm just a bit upset that the line is getting thinner and thinner every day.

 

[The Man With the Soap]

It's just the crazy, leftist subaru-hippies trying to infringe on our free speech.

 

[deth2munkies]

Your audience has everything to do with what you say. If you're addressing a bunch of parents and friends of autistic kids and you call them retards, you're gonna get angry letters. Effective communication sometimes involves levels of political correctness to get your point across without people focusing too hard on the specifics, but to the point where it obfuscates your message, or in private settings, it should be discarded.

 

[RatRace123]

No no no no no!
I can stand by not using derogatory words to describe people who are: Black, Gay, Mentally Retarded.

But the day you can't call someone out for being a Stupid Fat Stoner, is the day that I leave the planet, for fear that the insane amount of political correctness will result in a black bar forming on my genitalia.

 

[ElTigreSantiago]

Rediculous indeed.

I have found that using politicly correct terms makes things a lot more awkward than simply saying "black", for example. It throws it out there that you don't want to offend them and that you think you will offend them, it's just awkward for everybody.

And FYI, not every black person is an "African American". Like, what do we call black people living in England? African English? I know people that would call them African Americans simply so they don't call them black, even though they aren't American.

 

[guntotingtomcat]

Freedom of speech is idiotic. Political correctness, equally so.
Words can hurt, and should be moderated, if only by common sense. There is nothing to be gained by giving people the right to slander or make inflammatory remarks.
On the other hand, the government has no right or purpose whatsoever to dictate right and wrong in any context, including words and opinions.
The more we care about the use of a word like black, the more we emphasise the difference between white and black people. The more we emphasise it, the more we talk about groups, rather than individuals.

Also, fat people deserve it. Like alcoholics.

 

[harv3034]

It's just the crazy, leftist subaru-hippies trying to infringe on our free speech.

LOL

You have no idea how tempted I am to quote you in this essay I'm writing.

Would that be okay with you?

 

[skeliton112]

No. I never got how politically correct statements every did anything outside of politics...

 

[FinalGamer]

I find it more insulting when people use political correctness than just using the basic words. Fat is fat, stupid is stupid, people have to stop assuming that other people are just immature crybabies with thin skin. Call me a retard, don't call me mentally challenged cuz if you do, you can just fuck right off you wet-backed slouching *****.

 

[Cliff_m85]

Freedom of speech is idiotic. Political correctness, equally so.
Words can hurt, and should be moderated, if only by common sense. There is nothing to be gained by giving people the right to slander or make inflammatory remarks.
On the other hand, the government has no right or purpose whatsoever to dictate right and wrong in any context, including words and opinions.
The more we care about the use of a word like black, the more we emphasise the difference between white and black people. The more we emphasise it, the more we talk about groups, rather than individuals.

Also, fat people deserve it. Like alcoholics.

Breast.

Breast used to be an extremely offensive word. That's why we came up with the terms "White Meat" and "Dark Meat". To avoid saying "breast" or *shudder* "thigh".

Now that we use them all the time, they've lost their offensiveness.

Want to kill off an offensive word? Overuse it. Anyone called a 'fag' may get insulted if they only hear such an insult once a month or so, but anyone on Xbox Live just has it slide off their back instantly.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

The way to get rid of racism and sexism and religious persecution and persecution of people different than us isn't going to be solved by political correctness. It's through stop seeing someone as "black" or "female" or "Jewish" or "homosexual" first and instead judge them for what kind of person they are (kind, aloof, cold, cruel, energetic, stubborn...). Yes, using the wrong word in a sentence will worsen the attitude of the person who is listening to you. But if a person is fat or black, and you're are just pointing that out on its own, you should be able to say it so long as you aren't using an obvious slur.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I find it to be hilarious. If you don't believe me read George Carlin's book, "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?".

In fact, even if you do believe me go and read it. It's awesome.

PCness [i/]does[/i] sometimes annoys me though.

 

[Infinatex]

It's just the crazy, leftist subaru-hippies trying to infringe on our free speech.

LOL

You have no idea how tempted I am to quote you in this essay I'm writing.

Would that be okay with you?

What? Why subaru hippies? You mean as in the car, because I can't really see a political correctness advocate cruising round in an STi WRX lol

 

[JJMUG]

First, the context.
I am in the middle of writing a Persuasive essay on Freedom of Speech on College Campuses (worst topic ever by the way). As part of this assignment, I have to read various articles on the topic for homework so I can use some of them for source material and/or supporing/counterarguments.
Tonight's reading is called "Bias-Free Language: Some Guidelines" written by Rosalie Maggio. In this essay, Maggio says that political correctness is very important and that we need to activly work to instatute it into everyday language. At it's core this is a good thing, but the way she wants us to go about it sucks away all the credibility of the argument and throws the article into "parady mode."

Maggio says that when refering to a group of mixed gener or a person of unknown gender, we must not use words and phrases that imply masculinity (he, sir, waiter, ect...). Again, hard to dispute, but later she goes to suggest the general removal of the letter combinations m-a-n and m-e-n from many everyday words.
Under this policy, we would also have to change a great many other words on the grounds that they might offend 1 person out of 10,000. Fat would become "big-boned" or "differently sized", Stupid becomes "exceptional", and Stoned would be re-branded as "chemically inconvenienced".To prevent the chance of seeming racist, we would need to change "black eye" to "mouse", "black mail" to "payola", and "black sheep" to "outcast".
And these changes would need to be implemented, not just in writing, but in verbal communication as well.


To me, this is utterly rediculous. But I want your opinions as well.
So, what do you think?

Penn and Teller had an episode of bullshit about this or touched it in diversity. It is an amazing episode like all of the. As a policy it is stupid, we can get out feelings hut over words that are words. They only hold power of your dumb enough to let them to, we all learn some variation of Stick and Stones my brake my bones but words will never hurt me.

 

[Worgen]

It's just the crazy, leftist subaru-hippies trying to infringe on our free speech.

yeah, they should be like the rightist and just try and enslave and kill, sigh, what is the world coming to

 

[murderbunny]

Language should be without bias and I'm all for gender-neutral words when the gender is unknown. Calling a position a "chairman" does create an impression that the person in charge is - or should be - male ("How can a woman be a chairMAN?"). Sometimes it's an improvement. I like the term fire fighter a lot better than fireman. Fire FIGHTER. That's dynamic, powerful. FireMAN sounds like a dude who stood too close to an open flame.

Likewise, calling someone Native American or First Nation is fine, since Indian was a misnomer in the first place.

But then there's the stuff that's ridiculous. MANufacture has got nothing to do with man or men, the root is "manus" which means HAND. Heaven forbid I discuss a docuMENt. And what colour is my shirt? I'll give you a hint, it's not African American.

 

[demoman_chaos]

Against for the most part.
Certain PC is understandable, but it is getting out of hand. There are African-Americans, Latin-Americans, Asian-Americans, and whites. Yes there is the word Caucasian, but say it out loud and it is an insult to the white man parts (cauc-asian, get it?). Why aren't we honkeys called European-Americans, or rather Euro-Americans because the average American can't even spell Britain let alone European.

But to stop being unserious, PC is put in to prevent people from being offended. Problem is, it is subjective. What offends 1 doesn't always offend others.

 

[MasterOfWorlds]

I've been saying for a long time that political correctness is all fine and good until it prevents us from saying what we mean. It's sort of rediculous that the word "She" is used in a lot of cases where "He" used to be used when "They" would get the point across and not offend anyone.

I remember my first term of college english when my teacher said that he attended some talks by some other english teachers and one woman always said, "She" when she was refering to an unspecified person. Her whole talk was basically about how women get offended or should get offended if "He" is used in the same place.

After her talk, he went up to her and said he was offended at the use of "She" in those instances. My respect for him grew exponentially.

I mean, there are some things that I can understand, like not calling a black person the "N word" and things along those lines.

But not being able to call something as you see it borders on doublespeak (see the book 1984 if you don't know the reference). When you start limiting speech, you limit a person's ability to think, and that's unacceptable.