# I am getting tired of the PC Police on this board. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 18, 2003, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016 "2003-05-18T05:12:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/21 "2003-05-18T06:46:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CuriousCanuck \* > \*\*Let’s keep our poor example thread guy out of this as much as we can. If you have to pile on, pile on me. \*\* Okay, here’s the deal. I have only been in SDMBs for a few months, but I’ve never in that time seen a pit thread that said something to the effect of “That Nigger/jap/fag/wop that…”. It’s no more acceptable to use a person’s fat with which to insult them than it is to use their race, religion or sexual orientation. And it does not MATTER if a person can or cannot lose weight. It’s still JUST as bad as a racial slur or gay slur. To say which group has more of a right to complain about the treatment they’ve received is just ludicrous! If you did that well then. … Jewish people would be able to say to gay people "huh! You don’t have right to complain, MILLIONS of us were gassed to death!! to what? a paltry few thousand of you that get discriminated against? And only a few of you have gotten killed in comparison to OUR suffering. And so on and so forth. It’s not the use of the word fat as a descriptive phrase that is being “PC’d” against in most of these pile-ons. In fact, if some of these anti-PC people would read PAST the first few sentences in a person’s post they would see that many of the fat people themselves say just that. It’s the then comparing the being fat to being lazy, out of control, evil, bad… ad nauseaum, as if the being fat is what the problem is, rather than the person’s actions. As if one is directly related to the other. THAT is what causes a majority of these pile-ons. But the “anti-PC” people are too busy screaming “JEEZ, too PC” to notice what the message is. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Wrong\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b782af/32.png) [@The\_Wrong\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Wrong_Girl)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/22 "2003-05-18T06:48:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by A Monkey With a Gun \* > \*\ ***The Wrong Girl** , are you telling me it is never OK to use the terms “fat” or “ugly” as insults? Can ANY insults be based on physical appearance, or must they all be based on the character of the intended victim? If so, I’d have to say that gives you a rather limited repetoire. > > Additionally, the insult’s relevancy to the topic is, in a word, irrelevant. Insults are the icing on the rant’s pastry. They are there for added effect. \*\* If you feel the need to say something like “that fat bitch rear-ended my car,” that’s fine. My issue (and I hope I’m making this clear, I really do) is that when you go ON AND ON about the physical characteristics of the person you’re insulting, and the physical characteristics don’t have anything to do with the person’s actions, be prepared to get asked why that person’s hair/skin/body type/whatever had anything to do with what they did to you. I agree that insults should be the icing. To extend your metaphor, I feel that when they start to make up the bulk of the cake, the OP is going to run into problems. It’s not the insult I have a problem with, it’s the frequency, and I think that’s what you (and the OP in **this** thread–see, **CuriousCanuck** , I’m not completely OT) aren’t understanding. Perhaps I didn’t express myself clearly enough. However, I hope I have now. ---
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/23 "2003-05-18T06:51:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CanvasShoes \* > It’s no more acceptable to use a person’s fat with which to insult them than it is to use their race, religion or sexual orientation. > > **And it does not MATTER if a person can or cannot lose weight. It’s still JUST as bad as a racial slur or gay slur.** > > To say which group has more of a right to complain about the treatment they’ve received is just ludicrous! (Emphasis mine) I’m sorry, but I just do not understand how you can honestly think that. ---
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/24 "2003-05-18T06:54:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Wrong Girl \* > \*\*not the insult I have a problem with, it’s the frequency \*\* That, I happen to agree with to a certain extent. To argue / rant / whatever in such a fashion detracts from your arguement. granted. But to suggest that one is a bigot for usingthe insult at all is what I have an issue with. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/25 "2003-05-18T07:09:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by A Monkey With a Gun \* > \*\*“Hugely obese, skanky, horiffically ugly” is an insult. He’s not allowed to insult the woman who hit and run? If he insulted her by calling her a “goat fucker” and used that theme throughout the OP, no one would have said a peep, although sexual activities with farm animals would be equally irrelevant. However, since he had the gall to use her weight as an insult, all Hell broke loose. > > He also used the term moronic. Should we call him out on his insensitivity to the developmentally disabled? \*\* I would say so. I just dumped someone two weeks ago. After dealing for weeks with his obsession with making jokes about vaginas(weird for a homo), he just had finished making yet another misogynist comment(You shop with 'em, you don’t sleep wth 'em.) when he immediately said that something was “retarded.” That was it. It was the final thing for me to tolerate. I told him that he had to leave. I don’t think it is acceptable to use slurs. I’m not talking a joke between friends who understand what is meant. I am talking about slurring others when one is mad. He couldn’t understand that saying something was retarded was the same as some kid saying something they dislike is gay. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/26 "2003-05-18T07:13:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spooje \* > \*\*Then you get 2 assholes for the price of one, each feeling totally justified. > > I’m reposting what I said in one of the fat-bashing train wrecks: > Now if tolerance and understanding is our goal, is acting like an asshole the way to achieve that? Is that a good approach to changing someone’s mind? > > I don’t think so. I mean, sure, it _feels_ good, but I think it inspires the original asshole to cling to views and label the secondary assholes as , well, assholes. \*\* At first, I was going for over the top ludicrousness. Then I was incredulous at his attitude and his desire to hold onto his “right” to be a bigot. After a couple of follow-up posts, I saw that he was a real “winner” and figured it was pointless to stay. Were my words constructive? No, of course they weren’t, nor were they meant to be. I wanted to mock him. He chose to see it as some competition. Pointless. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/27 "2003-05-18T08:02:26Z")
Ever notice how people who bitch about the world being too “PC” are always the ones who are offensive loudmouths with no tact whatsoever? Sorry, Canuck, but a woman’s weight has fuck-all to do with whether or not she hit your car. You could benefit from being a little _more_ PC. Just accept the fact that you fucked up and quit arguing about it. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/28 "2003-05-18T08:12:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CanvasShoes \* > Okay, here’s the deal. > > I have only been in SDMBs for a few months, but I’ve never in that time seen a pit thread that said something to the effect of “That Nigger/jap/fag/wop that…”. > > It’s no more acceptable to use a person’s fat with which to insult them than it is to use their race, religion or sexual orientation. > > And it does not MATTER if a person can or cannot lose weight. It’s still JUST as bad as a racial slur or gay slur. No it clearly is not. Fat people are not killed for their state of being. They are not beaten to death for that sole reason, nor are they subject to the systematized exclusions that race especially, as well as religion have been. Fatness is a lifestyle issue, too much fucking calories, not enough burning them. Americans seem to have elaborated a culture of boundless excuse making and endless victimhoods, but being fat is not remotely comparable with any of the cited discrimination. Fucking idiocy. As much as I despise the phrase PC, this sizism idiocy and excuse making culture clearly desserves the label. ---
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/29 "2003-05-18T08:14:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by blowero \* > \*\*Ever notice how people who bitch about the world being too “PC” are always the ones who are offensive loudmouths with no tact whatsoever? > > Sorry, Canuck, but a woman’s weight has fuck-all to do with whether or not she hit your car. You could benefit from being a little _more_ PC. Just accept the fact that you fucked up and quit arguing about it. \*\* Where was I being loudmouth? Where did I fuck up? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/30 "2003-05-18T08:26:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by blowero \* > Sorry, Canuck, but a woman’s weight has fuck-all to do with whether or not she hit your car. You could benefit from being a little _more_ PC. Just accept the fact that you fucked up and quit arguing about it. Wasn’t his bloody car, he was taking exception to the “anti ‘sizist’” reaction to the linked thread, not his own OP that one. ---
**Author:** ![Reuben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@Reuben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reuben)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/31 "2003-05-18T09:53:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > \*\*Oh, Christ, there’s an original insight. When the fuck are people going to get it through their improbably thick skulls that being tolerant doesn’t require you to smile and nod when some asswit is insulting you. Being tolerant means treating people the way they want to be treated. And if someone wants to act like an asshole, then it is perfectly okay to treat them like an asshole. \*\* I guess you’re calling me stupid, although God knows why you feel the need to be so rude. In the uber-tolerant spirit of your post I’ll see your “improbably thick skull” and raise you a “reactionary nitwit”. Who said anything about tolerance meaning smiling and nodding in the face of insult? What you seem to think of as ‘tolerance’ is in reality anything but. Your disgusting pc brand of ‘tolerance’ invariably manifests as any excuse, however contrived and offensive to common sense it may be, to hysterically harangue and sactimoniously sermonise. You wouldn’t know real tolerance if it bit you on the arse. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/32 "2003-05-18T09:57:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mockingbird \* > \*\*At first, I was going for over the top ludicrousness. > > Then I was incredulous at his attitude and his desire to hold onto his “right” to be a bigot. > > \*\* But that is my point. His desire to ‘hold on to his right’ seemed, at least to me, to be inspired by your over the top ludicrousness. (Which, BTW, really seemed like an attack.) He at first seemed to be willing to discuss his word choices, and _may_ have seen the error of his ways. It’s possible he could have been enlightened. It’s not _as_ possible now because I’m sure he feels attacked. My point is that when attacked, our first instinct is to defend our position, right or wrong. And since nobody wants to be proven wrong, certainly not by someone who is attacking them, we sometimes dig in and convince ourselves we’re right. Think about it: What may have happened if it were gently pointed out to **Ken** that what happened to him was indeed foul, and we felt for him, but that his comments on the woman’s appearence weakened his rant and may hurt some feelings here. Maybe that would have gotton through to him? That’s all I’m saying… ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/33 "2003-05-18T10:51:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Ever notice how people who bitch about the world being too “PC” are always the ones who are offensive loudmouths with no tact whatsoever? Ya know, it’s funny, but I _was_ just thinking that it’s really easy to go for someone’s throat when all you use to judge them are examples of their behavior at their worst. 'Course, I would NEVER accuse you of being judgmental. I’m not a Judgist. ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/34 "2003-05-18T11:17:56Z")
I know this is a subject where emotions tend to run high, which is why I’ve always been reluctant to speak up before. But I guess I have to admit to being something of a Judgist. I’ve heard all this talk about how you shouldn’t judge by appearance; that there’s no way to tell if someone’s wearing robes and powdered wig by choice or bad habits or a condition they can’t control. I’m just not convinced. Fine, fine, there are conditions that may result in a powdered wig and gavel use that no one can control, but I don’t buy that they’re anything other than a tiny minority. Simple fact of the matter is, 95 percent of the time, when you see someone in robes and powdered wig banging a gavel on things, they’re that way because of their own lack of willpower. You tell me why no other country has such a problem with powdered wigs and gavels if it’s so uncontrollable. So, yeah, I’m a Judgist. I guess if people want to think badly of me, so be it. [bangs gavel] Adjourned. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/35 "2003-05-18T11:35:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CuriousCanuck \* > I am sorry, but in a Pit Thread people are there to rant and rave. Yes, but not at the expense of thought. This is not anyone’s own personal dumping ground. And as I _just said_ in the hereafter mentioned thread, if you want to rant free of criticism, this is not the place for it. > [@](#): > > **For example** , _(and this is only an example of many I could have chosen)_ if I call someone “fat” when describing them, it does not make me a sizeist. It does not make me a bigot, or a terrible human being. It is simply an adjective with which to describe them. If I wanted to describe Marlon Brando physically, the man is fat. Ryan Styles from Drew Carey? He is a toothpick. They are ADJECTIVES, not nuggets of hatred. “To the fat moronic bitch”…gee, yeah, that’s just an adjective, just as moronic and bitch. If that is truly how that thread Title seems to you, I have an exercise you can perform to facilitate more independent thinking: 1. Get a pair of XL pliers 2. Put them on your neck 3. Pull until you feel a ball of hair emerging 4. Pull until the ears on that ball are roughly six inches away from the hole wherein they had previously been trapped. Congratulations! You have not removed your head from your own ass. Marlon Brando, physically, is fat. That is an adjective. However, when used in the manner of the OP thread and title, it is not merely an adjective but a manner of saying “this person is bad because she is overweight.” And it has no place as an identifier of worth any more than “She is underweight. That one fact about her must indicate that she has a post-graduate degree in combinatory physics.” A person’s weight has fuck-all to do with their intelligence or personal worth. As such, yes you WILL get flamed for indicating that you can spot a person’s value in their weight. Weight, hair color, shoe color, sexuality, breast size, status as a vegan/vegetarian/etc, number of fingers on one’s hand, hat size… all largely irrelevant in determining a person’s worth. Insulting someone for being fat is about as intelligent as saying, for example, “You have small tits! You stupid shit!” ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/36 "2003-05-18T11:37:04Z")
> [@](#): > > Congratulations! You have not removed your head from your own ass. You have _now_ removed your head, that is. However, whether or not you were successful is yet to be seen… ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/37 "2003-05-18T12:40:12Z")
> [@](#): > > I am getting tired of the PC Police on this board. Yeah! Let’s police the PC Police! How dare they be offended! How dare they express their reactions here in the Pit! They are just bigoted against bigots! I say let’s ban all intolerant people! snort ---
**Author:** ![Reuben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@Reuben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reuben)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/38 "2003-05-18T13:52:33Z")
The pc brigades’ reactions of contrived outrage over imagined offence are nasty, spiteful, designed for maximum confrontation, and above all _personal_. They are unlike and usually out of all proportion to the original impersonal remark that sets them off. And I frequently find myself thinking just what **Zoe** said, but without the sarcasm: “How dare they be offended?” indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/39 "2003-05-18T13:58:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > \*\*Oh, Christ, there’s an original insight. When the fuck are people going to get it through their improbably thick skulls that being tolerant doesn’t require you to smile and nod when some asswit is insulting you. Being tolerant means treating people the way they want to be treated. And if someone wants to act like an asshole, then it is perfectly okay to treat them like an asshole. \*\* Wrong, You have it backwards. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Not - treat others as they treat you. Shit, if we lived by your rule, everyone on the planet would be an asshole to everyone else. Then nobody would be able to tell the difference between true assholes and non-assholes who are only assholes because they are being treated like that from the true assholes. Yikes. ---
**Author:** ![chattywine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5daacb/32.png) [@chattywine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chattywine)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016/40 "2003-05-18T14:46:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by iampunha \* > **"To the fat moronic bitch"…gee, yeah, that’s just an adjective, just as moronic and bitch.** For future reference. What word would you (any of you) have used to describe said woman? Do we need to keep references to others as simply ‘that man or woman’ or just use ‘person’ ? Is the word ‘person’ still okay? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-getting-tired-of-the-pc-police-on-this-board/176016.md?page=3)