# Is the tide about to turn against political correctness? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 8, 2015, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986 "2015-06-08T16:47:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/141 "2015-06-14T11:08:44Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Except for…the RR will say that you are going to hell; the PCL say that you are offending God and Man, and that you should be suppressed and sent to prison for using words that do not conform. Okay, before I completely mock you for making a ridiculous argument, can you confirm whether you actually think any non-trivial number of people on the left (at least in the US) are calling for prison time for “words that do not conform”? ---
**Author:** ![Chauve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5daacb/32.png) [@Chauve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chauve)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/142 "2015-06-14T18:03:55Z")
Just throwing the following example into the mix. It was in the news recently: A British Nobel prize-winning scientist joked at a public forum, “Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab. You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them, they cry." Upshot: He lost his job and got pushed out of any science jobs he holds. Article: [Tim Hunt: ‘I’ve been hung out to dry. They haven’t even bothered to ask for my side of affairs’ | Science | The Guardian](http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/13/tim-hunt-hung-out-to-dry-interview-mary-collins) True, it was a Brit thing. But it happens over here in the US too. It’s just the facts of life these days. You shoot your mouth off in an unguarded moment, and you pay big time. I’m not saying it’s good, bad, or ugly. Who knows, maybe the guy was known to be a old dinosaur resting on his laurels and his bosses were happy to have any excuse to push him out. But it’s a fact of life: The Left can be a little ferocious and relentless in how they punish un-PC language. And even the fact that he was a Nobel prize-winning scientist couldn’t save this guy. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/143 "2015-06-14T18:10:48Z")
If bad jokes in questionable taste are outlawed, only outlaws will make them. A prospect I find particularly dreary. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/144 "2015-06-14T18:13:21Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I think much of the debate here is about what constitutes ‘political correctness’ and why it is mainly associated with the Far Left. The answer is because political correctness is an obnoxious behavior trait associated with the Left by definition but the Right (especially the Religious Right) has an equivalent term - Judgmentalism. The irony is that both groups are basically one and the same when it comes to suppression of basic freedoms and the controlling personality styles are the same even though their dogma came from different prophets. > > The Religious Right will tell you that you will suffer if you don’t believe the same things they adhere to. The same is true for the Politically Correct Left. Both have adopted a ‘religion’ in which outside ideas are rejected and non-followers are considered heretics and threats to their world-view. I hate them both equally. Political correctness can very easily be used to serve right wing ends. E.g. a couple of years ago Urban Outfitters stopped carrying Che Guevara tee-shirts because some Miami Cuban-Americans complained that it hurt their feelings. I’d define that as an almost quintessential example of political correctness ( = “I have the right not to be offended”) coming from the right. The most dangerous thing about this “I have the right not to have my feelings hurt” business is that it makes substantive argument about a great many things- about cultures, genders, religions, political ideologies, economic models- impossible, whether those arguments are coming from the left or the right. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/145 "2015-06-14T19:33:29Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > PC is great. It gives you an opportunity to separate the men from the boys. If you’re constrained by silly conventions or too timid to speak your mind for fear of transgressing on the ever expanding and changing lists of no-go words and topics, then you’re a boy who has still to claim your place in the world. Your opinions also don’t matter. Because boy. And because its not your opinions but just that of the groupthink. So, someone who insists on using racist, xenophobic, homophobic & sexist language is expressing his feeling of inferiority about his failure to claim a place in the world. Thanks! That explains a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/146 "2015-06-14T22:51:44Z")
> [@Chauve](#): > > Just throwing the following example into the mix. > > It was in the news recently: A British Nobel prize-winning scientist joked at a public forum, “Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab. You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them, they cry." > > Upshot: He lost his job and got pushed out of any science jobs he holds. Article: [Tim Hunt: ‘I’ve been hung out to dry. They haven’t even bothered to ask for my side of affairs’ | Science | The Guardian](http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/13/tim-hunt-hung-out-to-dry-interview-mary-collins) This looks to me like the first legitimate example of the left making someone lose their job because of speech. I’m not sure what the university’s reasoning is, but absent something clear (e.g., he’s got a history of denying jobs to women in labs or something, and they’ve been trying to pin him down on a reason for it), it looks bogus to me to make him lose his job over this. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/147 "2015-06-14T23:56:13Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > This looks to me like the first legitimate example of the left making someone lose their job because of speech. I’m not sure what the university’s reasoning is, but absent something clear (e.g., he’s got a history of denying jobs to women in labs or something, and they’ve been trying to pin him down on a reason for it), it looks bogus to me to make him lose his job over this. Not one job, but 3, [http://news.yahoo.com/nobel-prize-winning-scientist-says-forced-resign-125443022.html](http://news.yahoo.com/nobel-prize-winning-scientist-says-forced-resign-125443022.html) > [@](#): > > Athene Donald, a leading physicist who is master of Churchill College at Cambridge University, said Hunt always enthusiastically supported her work when she served for five years as Gender Equality Champion at the university. > > “I’ve spent a lot of time with him and I’ve never seen any sign of sexism,” she told The Associated Press. > [@](#): > > “All my interactions with him were very positive,” she told the AP. “He was a very enthusiastic and inspirational teacher. I’ve no indications from my experience or from colleagues that he’s in the slightest way sexist.” > > She said the speed with which news of his comments spread via social media has reinforced for many scientists the dangers of speaking to the press or to the public. > > “We’re all of us terrified,” she said. “In this media age, when sound bites spread so quickly, an off-the-cuff remark after a lunch in some conference can suddenly result in the fatal destruction of your career.” ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/148 "2015-06-15T00:05:39Z")
> [@Chauve](#): > > Just throwing the following example into the mix. > > It was in the news recently: A British Nobel prize-winning scientist joked at a public forum, “Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab. You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them, they cry." > > Upshot: He lost his job and got pushed out of any science jobs he holds. Article: [Tim Hunt: ‘I’ve been hung out to dry. They haven’t even bothered to ask for my side of affairs’ | Science | The Guardian](http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/13/tim-hunt-hung-out-to-dry-interview-mary-collins) > > True, it was a Brit thing. But it happens over here in the US too. It’s just the facts of life these days. You shoot your mouth off in an unguarded moment, and you pay big time. > > I’m not saying it’s good, bad, or ugly. Who knows, maybe the guy was known to be a old dinosaur resting on his laurels and his bosses were happy to have any excuse to push him out. But it’s a fact of life: The Left can be a little ferocious and relentless in how they punish un-PC language. And even the fact that he was a Nobel prize-winning scientist couldn’t save this guy. Wow!!! that seems incredibly excessive [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986.md?page=7)