The Big Picture: Correctitude

[DPunch4]

I don't agree with everything you said. I don't want a black person taking a white persons role in any remake. Unless it's re-imagining the whole movie. You wouldn't cast a white kid as Michael Jackson when hew was 8.

Have you seen Shawshank Redemption?
Morgan Freeman plays Red - redheaded irishmen. I dare you to say that movie was not awesome.

I agree that Shawshank was a great movie but that kind if thing is a one way street. It's fine to turn a white character in a book into a black character in a movie but I dare you to show me an example of the reverse. I grantee the ACLU would have that movie shut down for being raciest and insensitive if it ever got put into production in the first place.

Captan picard played othello. (today is not good for grammar.)

 

[Semi-Human]

-snip-

Soooooo either way he what your saying is that he still wasn't hired coz of pc? you basically just conceded the point. The point wasn't why he was picked but rather that it had nothing to do with pc.


Did he say that no word should ever contain the word "man" no. Just that its kinda a dick move to call random people men. Oh MS word says so? and a little smiley added no less. Well thank you captain immaturity for your soundlogic.

Again he never said that all sexual harassment claims where bye definition valid. Nor that there was no middle ground but thx for the baseless projections

Did he ever say you couldn't criticize obama? No. His whole point was just that you shouldn't use stereotypes. So since you seem to agree with that wtf are you complaining about? Btw just what gives you the idea he has "a taste for fried food" to begin with"?


If you want to ***** about over board shenanigans then you might want to drop the habit your self. So far all you presented where strawman arguments

-snip-

...yeah because only ppl the only kind of racist is some one that go's al the way....its nooooo way possible to be slightly racist. Guess what if you pull the kind of shit bob was talking about you are a bigot and a racist, the only question how bad of a bigot or racist are you.

At no point did he say you couldn't make jokes about about our differences, nor that we should pretend where all the same. Fuck he gave plenty of examples of guys that did and praised them for it. Just that when you do that your at least addressing a actual difference instead of rehashing stereo types. If i make a "joke" about how black ppl are silly for walking around in animal skins with a bone through there nose am is, A) making a witty remark about the cultural differences. Or B) taking a cheap shot using a stereo type to judge a whole group of ppl baselessly and continue a bigoted point of view. You do the math. Most of your post where strawman arguements

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

I couldn't agree more with Bob. I've done the "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." shtick with anti-PC trolls since I started arguing with anti-PC trolls. It's really aggravating how people attempt to stifle criticism under the banner of free speech.

 

[Calbeck]

Wow. Not only is this video boring, it's also just wrong. Not only does political correctness exist, it's just gotten stupider over the years.

We've seen, in recent years, a teacher fired for using the term "niggardly" because an ignorant student screamed "racism" (it means being a cheapass, and predates the racist "N" word by centuries; the two terms have no relationship except in sounding similar). We've seen a student get flustered by the confusion inherent in trying to refer to African blacks as "African-Americans living in Africa". And so on.

Sure, there are those who've capitalized on the stupidity of this kind of doublespeak to make money and accumulate a following. And that's because they happen to be right, in pointing out that "political correctness" is nothing more or less than an attempt to sanitize language for little more reason than avoiding the possibility of offending someone.

Conversely, there are those who routinely derail conversation by invoking the concepts of political correctness --- i.e., "you can't use that term, it's offensive" --- to attack the person, instead of their argument. "You're a racist" is the most common angle, and just as knee-jerkily accepted at face value as Bob here complains about "PC" being accepted.

Sure, there are those who also try to use "PC" as a shield for their own very real racism and bigotry. But Bob goes overboard trying to pin the bad behavior on his preferred and select group of boogeymen --- even as he complains about the invocation of boogeymen.

tl;dr: "Political correctness" is an inherent double-standard that cuts both ways.

 

[Silva]

I agree, the term "politically correct" has been used for so long to justify the fears and bigotry of an ignorant part of the population by jeering those who bother to tailor their words as a course of manners and civility. It is the barbarian's taunt, not one of an intellectually advanced debater. Yet it dominates through mediums such as the talk shows of the Fox Channel.

We really do need to take a good hard look at ourselves when common manners becomes something that we mock. Is that how far we've sunk? Really? Then call me PC, I'd rather be PC than a bigot. I stand with Bob on this one, and I see no contradictions in his stance. There's a line between being politically incorrect and being completely out of line, and that line requires subtlety to identify. If you're too stupid to figure it out, don't toe the line so your ass doesn't get kicked. That's the rule of the jungle, and for once, when this matter comes into play, I think it's a good rule.

Manners aren't just a part of our civilisation and sophistication, after all. They're about survival.

 

[Darth_Dude]

Another instance was some councils in the UK wouldn't have a nativity scene for christmas as its un-PC and could offend Muslims - even though i don't think any muslims have ever been offended by christmas and probably enjoy the lights and decorations as much as christians enjoy the decorations from muslim celebrations.

Really? Speaking as a Muslim myself, I personally enjoy driving around town and seeing all the christmas lights, and I have no problem with the nativity scene or Christmas in general, a big part of being a Muslim is respecting other's cultures.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

Fuck you Bob.

Making a a joke "in bad taste" or one that "racially insensitive" does NOT automatically make you a biggot/asshole.

Actually, yes. Yes it does.

It most certainly makes you one or the other in the very least.

If you aren't being a bigot, then by default you're just being an asshole, and neither is really something a decent human being should aspire to be.

If your father died and I went to the funeral and started cracking wise about the circumstances of his death, that would certainly make me an asshole. If he was black and I started going on about how he is now in that big Chicken n Waffles in the sky, sure I might not be marching down the street in my KKK Robes, but that doesn't mean that the comment, and therefore I for making the comment, am not being racist. Hell, to even contemplate such a stereotypical joke demonstrates a certain thought process by the thinker wherein in order to come up with the joke, they had to tap into an incredibly insensitive place and hone in on a stereotype that they have already established as being married to the race of the target of their joke.

As for the difference between Jerry Jackass who spouts of dumbass comments on internet forums in a hopeless attempt to be "shocking" or "witty" and say, George Carlin is that in the course of his racy, controversial material, Carlin was always attempting to provide a commentary on something observed in society. Just like Ricky Gervais, sure the guy SEEMS mean and rude in his comedy, but really he's just pointing out and saying the things that we've all THOUGHT but never dared to say as a way of getting his own contemplations across. They use it as a medium to push forward provocative thought.

Making jokes about black people and chicken simply because YOU think its funny regardless of the situation at hand is not an attempt at any sort of commentary, its just plain old being an asshole, which is apparently pretty vogue these days.

However, everyone has the right to say whatever they want... just be intellectually honest enough about it to acknowledge that there is no real attempt being made at relevance, its just people being jackwagons for the sake of being a jackwagon.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

I have to say, I think this is the first time I've completely and honestly disagreed with Bob, in either Big Picture or Escape to the movies. I mean, we haven't always seen perfectly eye to eye (while it was definitely sub-par, I didn't hate The Expendables nearly as vehemently as you did, for instance) but I've always agreed with your general points, or at least understood where you were coming from.

But this? This is absolute garbage. I'm half expecting a "gotcha" big picture next week talking about how your really not THIS thick.


Gonna use a few examples from your bit here, and lets start with Thor. I'm assuming your Black-Thor picture was a reference to Idris Elba as Heimdall in the new Thor flick. As someone who reviews movies for a LIVING, I kinda expected a little better insight into the workings of Hollywood, but I'll lay it out for you. Hollywood didn't pick a black man for a white role because Elba fits the role perfectly or because of his great chops (don't get me wrong, loved him in Wire, not a fan of his other works though.) No. Hollywood picked a black man for a white role, in order to increase the ticket sales to black people, and as a nice added bonus, to give a little "controversy" and free publicity to the thing. The problem is, no amount of good story writing or superb acting is going to make him feel like anything more than "token black guy" in a role that he REALLY shouldn't be in. How about this: show me a movie about Shango, with the lead role going to Justin Beiber or some-such, and see the reactions you get.

Flip side: Mr Jackson as Nick Fury. Doesn't really bother me. Nothing about Fury's character seemed particularly "white" to me. Samuel L Jackson is a good actor and lends credence to the part. Plus the comic writers planned it out and did the swap well in advance, in the comics. Another one, Michael Clark Duncan as Kingpin in the Daredevil movie. Okay, so the movie wasn't all the great, but Kingpin was originally a white character. MCD fit the role in every physical way except the melanin level, plus the man is a great actor, so away you go.

So what makes you sure they picked him for the Thor movie purely to appeal to blacks while those other movies didn't? Maybe they thought he would be good for the role. Although I'm not familiar with the man or with Thor so you could be right for all I know.

I take it you aren't familiar with Idris Elba's body of work? The man is WELL respected for the roles he's played and is one of Hollywood's up and coming super stars. His recent mini-series, Luther, is a for sure award winner. The guy quite honestly has the chops to actually PLAY Thor, if people wouldn't shit a ton of bricks if he'd been cast.
The same went for Donald Glover as the New Spiderman. Donald Glover would have honestly made a hell of a peter parker... the guy is a phenomenal young actor, he's got the personality down to a science... his only problem excluding him from the role: by an unlucky stroke of misfortune, he happened to be born the wrong color.

The real tragedy of the modern world is that here we are in the new millenium, and even though everyone likes to "claim" racism doesn't really exist anymore except in a few backward remote "redneck" strongholds in the back woods of "America", the reality is people still can't get past someone's skin color. Now I'm not going to say that such a thing makes such a person a card carrying member of the "I hate negroes" party, but if it isn't racist to say "Peter Parker can't be Black cause his fictionalized character is white and we HAVE to stick to that forever and ever", then we have no real concept or definition for what "racism" is.

 

[Belano]

The best Big Picture video so far. Really enjoyed this one.

 

[Normandyfoxtrot]

I think you may be going a bit over the top on this. There are certainly situations where political correctness is ridiculous, for instance, the Ba Ba Rainbow Sheep thing, or people complaining that black is an insensitive term. Sure if someone specifically asks me to not call them that I won't, but it doesn't make them any less black. Should I start complaining when people call me white?

The man has a point.

wrt Bob's "words mean things", it's a little counter-productive to throw out descriptive words in favour of inaccurate and verbose words. A white guy born in Africa who becomes a US citizen is literally an African-American. A black guy whose family has been in the USA for four generations isn't.

Efficiency is a piss poor reason to avoid simple niceness.

How is "Black" anything but descriptive?

Most notably? a cultural assumption of something being impure or evil if it is black for one. for two it's not even correct.

Black can be associated with non evil things. Does anyone associate tuxedos with evilness? How about black ties? No they both are symbols of elegance.

Only a troll would try to argue black always symbolizes evil.

Quick, you see two knights one in black plate and one in silver plate which is the bad guy?
Look, I'm not trying to be cute, but rather you like it or not context doesn't remove the sort of base knee jerk societal reactions that do occur.

 

[Griffolion]

I have to say it's good to see Bob being a proponent of shattering the barriers brought up through the thinking of previous times (as he mentioned).

But am I a bad person for only watching Lisa Foiles because i fancy the pants off her? D: