Yeah, they tend to involve a significantly higher amount of sturm und drang than what you see around “PC” issues, which are mostly about young people getting very angry, and not about breaking up families or throwing people in jail.
You’re exactly right. Someone wrote an article back in the 90’s making a BFD about political correctness and it suddenly swept into the American lexicon like wildfire. Bill Maher even named his broadcast television show “Politically Incorrect”. What it is is sensitivity that society begins to observe in manners of speech and action as it advances and becomes more pluralistic. For instance it now sticks out like a sore thumb if you use the word “the” before referring to persons of a particular commonality i.e. “the gays”, “the blacks”, “the Jews”, “the liberals” etc. It implies that you see them as a truly separate group all relatively uniform as if indeed units of group-think and group limitations. As a measure of political correctness I tend to use the word persons where others use the word “people”. But that hasn’t caught on yet. Sensitive and intellectual persons tend to want to adjust to not offend when they discover that something about their manner either gives offense or makes them look coarse. Justifying and wanting to hang on to crass manners of characterizing persons as a “people” all of the same ilk is what overpaid prostitutes like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly get paid for. It allows them to take advantage of social illiteracy in this country and profit from “mob” dynamics of creating scapegoats for common things that bother the person not interested in higher truths.
This election cycle has seen republicans compete using that term ad nauseum–it speaks to the riffraff who want to believe they are sophisticated enough and tends to imply that there are left wing thought police forcing them to do things that they don’t feel are necessary. Firstly, there are no thought police or even moral police like there are in Saudi Arabia where men walk around in biblical garb and are paid to harass others who do not abide by orthodoxy of appearance and manner. Republican use of this victimization concept is obviously effective because it is plain to see that mob behavior has been on the rize. By design or default this makes sensitive persons who would attempt to educate “one of them” i.e. “the” liberals who want to change the identity of the mob. Political correctness is a good thing–not a bad one. It is in one’s own best interest to learn the ways of others and be open to discourse with them. Right wingers who squawk against political correctness are acting in the same way as the orthodoxy police of backward cultures–confining persons to keep one manner of identity held high which sets them off from others. This only leads to division and hate.
Oh dear, oh my, that is a terrible thing to say. Oh my, it is terrible that someone would say that. Oh dear. Good thing Trump didn’t say that. Because, oh my, that would be terrible a terrible thing for him to say, oh dear.
“Political correctness” is a nonsense term, used by anyone to shut down conversation so they don’t have to curb their speech even if that speech should rightly be restricted.
As much as I hate censorship, there is nothing wrong with being civil and polite to each other when the situation calls for it, and nothing wrong with being opinionated and harsh towards people who deserve it. Some people think their opinions always matter and are always appropriate and will ironically shout political correctness to shut down dissenters
For my part, I don’t have any issues with being civil, or not using ethnic slurs or slang in favor of non-insulting terms.
But what gets me, is that what’s politically correct seems to be about as constant as the wind. Nearly every group that has some kind of moniker seems to want to change what they’re called, or the group isn’t even consistent on what they want to be called. And often, they DEMAND that you call them by whatever it is, and heap tons of scorn and judgment on those who don’t conform, regardless of their intent.
I mean, I’ve been victim to this phenomenon myself. I grew up in SW Houston - Alief, to be exact. It’s in the midst of a HUGE Asian (primarily Vietnamese) ethnic enclave- something like 20-30% of my elementary and middle school classmates were Asians of some kind. No big deal.
Except that back then, they were “Orientals”, and called themselves that as a descriptor. It wasn’t a slur or pejorative or anything. Fast forward past college, and suddenly I’m taken to task (on here, I think) for using the term “oriental” instead of “asian”. Wait a minute… did I miss something? Why am I getting chewed on for that?
It would be one thing if it was merely keeping up with Colored vs. Negro vs. Black vs. African-American, but it’s that, plus Orientals/Asians, Indians/South Asians, Hispanic/Latino, cis/trans/whatever, crippled/handicapped/disabled/differently-abled, etc…
There’s a lot to keep track of, and I suspect most people just find it extremely tiring and silly, especially if they don’t mean any insult by it. And that’s just the terminology aspect.
There’s also a certain “group-think” aspect when it comes to ideas- just say something like “If women dress provocatively, and go out and get drunk/high, and then end up in a bad potentially rapey situation, they bear some of the blame” and see just how fast you get your shit jumped on for victim-blaming. Even if there’s merit to the idea- a sober girl who stays home ***is ***a lot less likely to end up in that kind of situation, regardless of how she’s dressed. The man is a rapist either way. That’s the kind of “it’s our way or the highway” kind of thinking- you can’t even suggest an alternative or assign a portion of the responsibility without being shouted down in some situations. It’s literally being told how to think.
I remember being an RA in college (early-mid 1990s) and having some guy get up there and basically explain some kind of taxonomy of gay-friendliness, and basically tell us that most of us aren’t thinking right, and need to do some work on it if we weren’t at some level or other. ??? Literally being told how/what I should think, not merely being told the requirements of the job with respect to gays.
Those sorts of political correctness- the labeling aspects (and the frequent, unannounced changes), along with the group-think/acceptable thought aspects are what get most people who are against it. People don’t really like being told they’re assholes or wrong, and people really don’t like being told what they should think, or being shouted down for offering a dissenting opinion.
I’m not exactly clear on why “oriental” fell out of fashion, but there are a lot of similar terms that are often used casually without a understanding or acknowledging that they are offensive for one reason or another. “Jewed” or “gypped”, meaning ripped off, comes to mind.
“Nigger brown” was once considered to be acceptable terminology, but no more. However, if you visit a few motorcycle discussion boards you inevitably will see someone mention “Jap bikes,” the author never making a mental connection with the morphing of “Jap” into a mean-spirited epithet during WW2. I’ve seen discussions regarding the use of the term in those boards get pretty ugly, despite rather diplomatic efforts by Asian participants in the discussion; the users of the term insisted that no ill will was intended, and therefore there surely was no problem to be discussed.
OTOH I remember years ago reading an essay in Newsweek from a person who had gotten a customized license plate for her car with her and her husband’s initials on it, and an “N” in the middle (for “and”). I don’t remember their names, but their initials, together with that conjunctive “N”, came out as “RAPNJAP”. She spoke of receiving a lot of criticism and angry remarks from people who claimed it was rude, insensitive, etc., without even asking if it had some non-insulting meaning. I’ll be damned, here’s an article about it. Should we demand that Judy Ann Petty change her name, lest she offend everyone when she places her initials on legal documents? Or should Asians recognize that they’re just initials, with no intrinsic meaning whatsoever?
Most of the Trump supporters who are upset by political correctness have never been anywhere near a college where these kinds of things happen, and have never been called on it. What is happening is that political correctness being silly as applied to gender-based pronouns and the like implies that it is equally silly when saying that calling most Mexicans rapists is not okay. Trump and friends are saying that if you are against being upset by the first type you can’t be against the second type.
Sorry, but isolated instances here and there hardly have the same impact as virtually half the country being anxious to jump on and aggressively insult someone for saying a forbidden (by them) word or evincing a forbidden (by them) belief.
Political correctness and its consequences are everywhere and inescapable. Its growing and becoming more ridiculous by the day. It’s turning America into a culture of victimhood and setting innumerable groups against each other, and rather than working to promote the value of education, hard work and success, it’s begun to seek to belittle these achievements as the result of ‘privilege’ and to cause people to look upon them as something to be ashamed of and feel guilty about. The result of this isn’t hard to imagine.
People in this country are at each other’s throats more than has ever been the case before, and most of it is driven by the need to find some way to feel superior and look down upon and criticize others. And the name of that some way is political correctness, and it’s causing far more harm than whatever good is the putative result of it.
Or else we’ll . . . scold you. Cringe thou in helpless terror before the cruel might of PC finger-wagging.
If it weren’t effective, you wouldn’t do it.
I’ve long been amazed at how fearful people are of being called names. But they are, and that fact is what allows political correctness to function.
Actually, it is exactly what makes political correctness necessary.
First of all, what happens on college campuses is no more a sign of a culture of victimhood that unrest on colleges when I was in college in 1970 was a sign of the revolution.
Hard work rewarded? Plenty of people are working 3 jobs to live and working harder than people who make five times as much.
Privilege? Me and my kids are on the right side of privilege. You don’t have to be ashamed of it to acknowledge that it exists. Privilege and ability together is very powerful.
Otherwise you sound like Mitt: Anyone can get started. All they have to do is ask their dads to lend them $100K or $1 million. What’s the problem?
Or be like Barry Goldwater. Have the ambition and initiative to inherit a department store.
Yeah, pretty soon you won’t even be to wish anyone “Happy Holidays” without incurring the wrath of the PC police.
You’ve got it backwards. “Happy Hollidays” is what the PC crowd insists everyone use rather than “Merry Christmas”. Some people may not actually be Christians, you see, and we certainly wouldn’t want anyone not a Christian to be assailed with Christian good wishes, now, would we? Far be it from anyone in our hyper-sensitive, easily-offended country to simply smile graciously and say thank you, realizing all the while that they’re living in an overwhelmingly Christian country where the odds are that most people receiving these greetings are Christian themselves, and that contrary to apparent politically-correct beliefs, they’ll not be harmed in the slightest by having been the recipient of such greetings, and that those offering them are simply trying to be pleasant and friendly.
In other words they can realize that the world is not perfect, it’s not the way they want it to be and it never will be, and that they’ve been blessed from birth with a quality called coping ability, which will allow them to function and even live happily in such a world, filled with those who believe other than they do nonetheless, and that it isn’t incumbent upon the rest of the world to comport itself so that the tender sensibilities they may or may not have shall not be offended, and to recognize that in fact to take such offense is ridiculous.
It’s worthy of note also that in all my time on the Earth I’ve never once heard anyone express unhappiness or irritation or having been the recipient of someone’s “Merry Christmas” greetings. The complaints have all come about only recently and as a result of Social Justice Warriors taking it upon themselves to ride off and do battle on their behalf.
I did this in a thread in The BBQ Pit last year.
Education strikes me as the only sure way; however, plenty of bigots are, to put it mildly, resistant to being educated away from their biases.
And there are quite a few who are resistant to being educated away from their attitudes. It 's mighty hard to remove a chip from someone’s shoulder.
Originally, pc wasn’t a bad thing. Raising awareness of people’s differences and asking that they be respected was a worthy goal. But as someone who spends a fair amount of her working life moderating pc disputes of one type or another, I’m thoroughly sick of where it’s gone and continues to go. We’ve gone way past the useful point and swung over into the picayune, nitpicking, and tyranny of the disgruntled territory.
One of our production facilities has piped-in music on the production floor. Employees requested it, feeling it would brighten their work day and energize them. But it wasn’t long after we installed it that the in-fighting started. We couldn’t have country music because the Buddhist and Muslim workers didn’t like songs about religion, we couldn’t have hip hop or rap music because the Christian and Muslim contingents didn’t like the swear words. No one wanted jazz or classical music because it was borrrrring. Rock and roll was objectionable to fundamentalist Christians. It seemed that no matter what type of music we tried, someone felt offended by it. So we wound up with no-lyric muszak, which no one likes, but at least no one is offended by it. You can’t comprehend the amount of drama that went into this one simple issue. With bigger issues, the drama escalates.
All the attention to everyone’s sensitivities is a time suck and a productivity suck. Just this morning I had to mediate between two employees - one of whom had come to work on casual Friday with a Rainbow Pride tee shirt on and another who found that offensive to his faith wherein homosexuality is the work of the devil.
I recently had to remove a girlie calendar from the maintenance crew’s shed because a tool vendor had stopped by and found it offensive.
I’m so over the whole thing.
I thought the tool vendors were the main supplier of such calendars.
The mind, it boggles.
This just more half-baked conservative fantasy. No one has ever “insisted” that anyone use Happy Holidays, and no one has ever chastised anyone for saying Merry Christmas. It has always been a personal choice. Only conservatives lose their shit if anyone dares to wish them Happy Holidays. But why should we be surprised when conservatives try to spin their own political correctness as the fault of liberals. Thanks Obama.