# What's "politically correct/incorrect" in non-Western cultures? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 31, 2016, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-politically-correct-incorrect-in-non-western-cultures/750773 "2016-03-31T19:09:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-politically-correct-incorrect-in-non-western-cultures/750773/41 "2016-04-05T16:51:48Z")
> [@doubleminus](#): > > This is absolute BS. People may have strong opinions, but this is certainly a common debate. “Political correctness” doesn’t necessarily imply that the issues in question don’t get talked about at all. Most of the subjects considered to be affected by “political correctness” in the US are also very commonly and openly debated. And yes, there are parts of Israeli society where it’s strongly frowned on or considered literally traitorous to criticize the occupation. In other parts of Israeli society, it’s freely criticized. These different parts of Israeli society argue with each other a lot. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-politically-correct-incorrect-in-non-western-cultures/750773/42 "2016-04-05T18:38:32Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > IME it’s a fairly common French attitude that French culture and thought favor rationality while the Anglophone/Germanic cultures prefer romanticism. Oh, yeah? Which culture produced John Stuart Mill and which culture produced Jean-Jacques Rousseau? (OK, Rousseau was born in Switzerland, but French-speaking Switzerland.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-politically-correct-incorrect-in-non-western-cultures/750773/43 "2016-04-05T18:48:12Z")
> [@CCitizen](#): > > In USSR, [Anti-Soviet agitation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Soviet_agitation) was politically incorrect. According to Penal Code of 1967, Article 190-1, the penalty was up to 3 years of imprisonment. Persistent offenders were committed as criminally insane. And in the U.S. the [Smith Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Act) of 1940, giving rise to a long-forgotten national disgrace known as the [Smith Act trials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Act_trials_of_Communist_Party_leaders) of Communist Party leaders, has never been repealed. But, here as there, anti-sedition laws really have nothing to do with “political correctness.” ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-politically-correct-incorrect-in-non-western-cultures/750773/44 "2016-04-05T18:55:29Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > And in much of Israeli society, it’s verboten to talk about the occupation or to sympathize with the plight of Palestinians. This is fundamentally incorrect. These issues are widely - and loudly - debated in Israel, by individuals, in the press, etc. Certainly there are massive disagreements in opinion, but there is hardly a tacit conspiracy of silence! Anyone who has actually known Israelis can tell you that “polite silence” on the political and social woes of their country is simply not part of the national character - if anything, the reverse is true. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-politically-correct-incorrect-in-non-western-cultures/750773/45 "2016-04-08T23:42:39Z")
> [@bump](#): > > That’s not quite how that works; technically, they’ve been convicted of the offence and sentenced to jail time, and the probation period is more of a chance to prove that they’re not deserving of that jail time by not screwing up during that period. > > You have to be one dumb MF-er to go saying dumb stuff like denying your offense to your probation officer during your probation period. You probably deserve to be in jail if you’re that stupid. Whilst I certainly understand the need to knuckle under to unjust laws, police, judges etc. as much as any farm labourer in the olden time to his feeble-minded tyrannical superior, lest worse befall; it would be very difficult, if innocent, to proclaim a guilt that did not exist and maintain that lie. This was one of the major horrors of soviet existence. The whole disgusting business of being expected to show contrition — and being given a discount for it, when it is immaterial to justice what you presently feel — is profoundly unmanly on all sides. ---
**Author:** ![mr\_wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@mr\_wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_wolf)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-politically-correct-incorrect-in-non-western-cultures/750773/46 "2016-04-09T14:52:40Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > IME it’s a fairly common French attitude that French culture and thought favor rationality while the Anglophone/Germanic cultures prefer romanticism. Can you tell us what experiences were those? And how come French culture stopped being germanic? ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-politically-correct-incorrect-in-non-western-cultures/750773/47 "2016-04-09T17:21:57Z")
> [@Revenant\_Threshold](#): > > I’m concerned that in some of the examples you give of “political incorrectness” are things which would actually land you in some trouble with the state. Whereas things which are considered “politically incorrect” in, say, the US or Canada or the UK, aren’t the kind of thing that get you sanctioned officially in some way. > > You might be comparing apples and oranges. Political correctness as a term in “the West”, in general, seems to be speech that is socially acceptable or unacceptable for which individuals respond. Not speech that is “…frowned upon.”, hint hint, or which has official penalties attached. > [@aldiboronti](#): > > I think the whole concept of political correctness is a Western thing. The Chinese and Russian examples you cite aren’t the same thing at all. Political incorrectness has nothing to do with attacking one’s government for its policies, it’s a social thing. I think so, too. In certain countries, such as North Korea and Thailand, there are certain viewpoints that one is not allowed to express under penalty of law. People who violate these laws can be subject to prosecution and imprisonment in the same way that someone might be prosecuted for theft or drug charges. In countries like the USA, the law permits one to express whatever viewpoint one has, but there are still social penalties that can, and sometimes are, inflicted upon people who say “politically incorrect” things. This could happen, for example, if someone in the USA were to publicly state that “Retards, cripples, and Jews should not be allowed to get married.” It’s not that there is absolutely no penalty for doing this - there is. The difference here is that the penalty is unofficially-imposed social ostracism rather than a formal criminal sentence. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-politically-correct-incorrect-in-non-western-cultures/750773/48 "2016-04-09T17:40:33Z")
To help drive the question, what are the worst things to say in various countries that are technically legal to say? For example, could I land at the airport in Krakow, walk through passport control, and then say something so profoundly insulting against the Polish nation, people, or government that I get banned for life from every private country club in the country, become the subject of whispers in bars all throughout the land, cause respectable citizens to cross the street when I come walking down the sidewalk, but cannot be charged with anything as I would not be guilty of any crime? ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-politically-correct-incorrect-in-non-western-cultures/750773/49 "2016-04-09T18:49:45Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > Cite? I believe that someone in another thread mentioned that the “personhole” debacle was more of a Canadian phenomena. Maybe a Canadian can verify. > [@T.M](#): > > Political correctness has nothing to do with state or local politics, it is a means for small minded people to actually find something to say at meetings where they would otherwise keep quiet because they have nothing of value to say. Political correctness can have its entertainment value as you refuse to play their game causing shock and horror among the permanently offended pc brigade. I attend many meetings where pc eats into valuable discussion time on important subjects, would you believe 30 minuets to discuss what to call the leader of the meeting chairman, chairwoman, chairperson or even the chair that was decided upon, I did not win any friends by telling the woman that she had the legs for the job. As you have probably discovered by now that I am completely anti the pc brigade who I believe were put on this earth for me to torment Well, aren’t you _extra_ special. It seems to me that telling someone they are qualified to run a political body because of their legs isn’t poking at the PC team. It’s being rude and condescending. IMHO. > [@Velocity](#): > > We have a different definition of PC then. “PC,” in America, to me, is the anecdote about a woman who objected to an illustration of Confederate soldiers…because the soldiers were depicted as holding a Confederate flag. > You know, _the flag they actually carried in real life._ Yes, I would agree. There’s a line between lifting up society from the mire in which it struggles and being a twit. The incident you describe falls into the twit bucket. > [@Claverhouse](#): > > The whole disgusting business of being expected to show contrition — and being given a discount for it, when it is immaterial to justice what you presently feel — is profoundly **unmanly** on all sides. Bolding mine. Really? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-politically-correct-incorrect-in-non-western-cultures/750773/50 "2016-04-09T20:32:16Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > To help drive the question, what are the worst things to say in various countries that are technically legal to say? For example, could I land at the airport in Krakow, walk through passport control, and then say something so profoundly insulting against the Polish nation, people, or government that I get banned for life from every private country club in the country, become the subject of whispers in bars all throughout the land, cause respectable citizens to cross the street when I come walking down the sidewalk, but cannot be charged with anything as I would not be guilty of any crime? I imagine it would be something pertaining to the Holocaust. Incidentally, I wonder: while many European nations have laws against holocaust denial, do these laws apply against someone who uses holocaust praise? That is, not denying the genocide at all, but rather, actually praising the genocide? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-politically-correct-incorrect-in-non-western-cultures/750773.md?page=2)