# Why Political Correctness stinks
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [April 29, 2005, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687 "2005-04-29T08:43:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/1 "2005-04-29T08:43:18Z")
From Carl Hayes _Fallibilism Democracy and the Market: the Meta-Theoretical Foundations of Popper’s Political Philosophy_, 2001, UP of America:
> [@](#):
>
> [PC] is an extreme egalitarianism plus an incoherent theory of rights, i.e. a philosophically grotesque mixture of Rousseau, Marx and Mill: the naturalistic anti-traditionalism of Rousseau, the libertarianism of Mill (applied to sexual and other alternative lifestyles) plus the heavy hand of the authoritarian state to rectify the resulting (and other) harms and inequalities.
Nicely put, Carl.
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### Author:  [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/2 "2005-04-29T09:13:15Z")
“Political Correctness” is just _good manners_.
Yes, it can be taken to an absurd extreme. But if it weren’t for PC, it would still be acceptable to call ethnic or cultural minorities disgusting names and spread hateful, false sterotypes.
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### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/3 "2005-04-29T10:14:20Z")
> [@SentientMeat](#):
>
> “Political Correctness” is just _good manners_.
>
> Yes, it can be taken to an absurd extreme. But if it weren’t for PC, it would still be acceptable to call ethnic or cultural minorities disgusting names and spread hateful, false sterotypes.
Good manners is good manners. PC is something altogether more pernicious. For one, its prefabricated phrases lead to the abolition of thinking - always a bad thing. Except for the prospective tyrant.
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### Author:  [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/4 "2005-04-29T10:41:11Z")
Prospective tyrants _thrive_ on unjustified stereotypes and hateful terms of insult. And if prefabricated phrases lead to less thinking, whither the evolution of language?
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### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/5 "2005-04-29T11:11:27Z")
> [@SentientMeat](#):
>
> Prospective tyrants _thrive_ on unjustified stereotypes and hateful terms of insult.
They thrive still more when the thoughts of people’s hearts are driven underground and silenced; or submerged and deadened under a welter of gibberish.
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### Author:  [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/6 "2005-04-29T11:21:39Z")
More to the point, political correctness is not funny.
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### Author:  [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/7 "2005-04-29T11:44:23Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#):
>
> They thrive still more when the thoughts of people’s hearts are driven underground and silenced; or submerged and deadened under a welter of gibberish.
Really? I thought they thrived when they could send the secret police round to your house at 4am to make you disappear. Or are you contending that Political Correctness actually relies on violence to establish itself?
But I’ll admit, I’ve never been very clear what political correctness is. Along with **SentientMeat** , I’ve always thought it meant good manners - acknowledging that, although one might use phrases such as “nigger”, “kike”, “Paki” with nothing but love in one’s heart, other people find it offensive and so it would be simply considerate to use different, less loaded words. But apparently, that is not _True_ Political Correctness - so what is? Can you give us some examples of what you consider to be “PC gone mad” so we know what we’re talking about?
I’m also curious as to why applying libertarianism to sexual and other alternative lifestyles is a bad thing, and what precisely is “naturalistic” about PC’s alleged anti-traditionalism - especially as it seems to rely on “prefabricated phrases”.
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### Author:  [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/8 "2005-04-29T12:31:35Z")
I’ve always thought the line across good manners became political correctness was adopting an insufferably superior tone in imposing one’s label on others.
Example: I’m a Left-Handed Carpenter’s Assistant, a group commonly known for decades as “Carpies,” although we never really liked the term, to be brutally frank with you. We feel it would be more respectful if people would adopt the mellifluous appellation of “leftocarpie-asses.” When some ignorant person utters the old-fashioned “Carpie,” we of good breeding say nothing until it’s our turn to speak, and we simply use the preferred term, so as to set a good example, in the faith that eventually it will catch on and replace the oppressive term. Some of us of good breeding might even take the offender to the side and whisper, “Friend, some people have started using ‘leftocarpie-asses’ instead of ‘Carpies.’ Just a thought. Thanks for listening,” as often as needed.
But the ill-mannered will make a big public deal about it, interrupt anyone who uses “Carpies” freely, speechify about us poor leftocarpies-asses and the history of our struggles, however irrelevant to the subject at hand, and generally carry on freely, making any real discourse difficult. These people are what I call Politically Correct.
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### Author:  [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/9 "2005-04-29T12:34:32Z")
> [@SentientMeat](#):
>
> “Political Correctness” is just _good manners_.
>
> Yes, it can be taken to an absurd extreme. But if it weren’t for PC, it would still be acceptable to call ethnic or cultural minorities disgusting names and spread hateful, false sterotypes.
I’m immensely skeptical that blatant racism would run rampant if it weren’t for a pack of sanctimonious do-gooders constantly getting in everybody else’s face over trivial or entirely imaginary offenses.
(To be fair, the religious right is a big pain in the ass when it comes to political correctness, too.)
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### Author:  [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/10 "2005-04-29T12:35:16Z")
I have no idea how the first line of the above post became so incomprehensible.
It should be somethig more like "I’ve always thought the line **between** good manners **and** political correctness was \*\*the adoption of \*\* an insufferably superior tone in imposing one’s label on others.
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### Author:  [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/11 "2005-04-29T12:39:49Z")
> [@rog](#):
>
> They thrive still more when the thoughts of people’s hearts are driven underground and silenced; or submerged and deadened under a welter of gibberish.
Those metaphors are so hopelessly mixed that I’m a little unsure how to respond - are you tyrannically deadening me with gibberish?🙂
If Political Correctness is all about demonising perfectly innocent language, well OK, I hate it too. But it isn’t. It’s not about “black board” versus “chalk board”. It’s about “black _man_” versus “nigger”.
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### Author:  [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/12 "2005-04-29T12:46:11Z")
> [@LP](#):
>
> I’m immensely skeptical that blatant racism would run rampant if it weren’t for a pack of sanctimonious do-gooders constantly getting in everybody else’s face over trivial or entirely imaginary offenses.
But that’s how the phrase Political Correctness _originated_ - it **was** when all kinds of atrocious prejudicial language permeated the culture and the media, requiring a concerted effort to make it clear that such language was _no longer acceptable_.
What you and **roger** are talking about, and which I find absurd also, is not PC (which is admirable if not _essential_) but PC _gone mad_.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/13 "2005-04-29T12:48:35Z")
> [@Harborwolf](#):
>
> More to the point, political correctness is not funny.
I think I want to marry you.
**Sentient Meat** , while it may be about manners, I admit…people have ill manners. And assuming some sort of (I dislike the term) political correctness about labels and imparting some form of strident ‘don’t use that term!’ carping about it makes the carper ill mannered. If someone feels ill about blacks and calls them ‘niggers’ or somesuch then they’re expressing their viewpoint. To deny them that is a far worse offense than using an insulting term to refer to another person.
Plus, it allows us to easily identify who the assholes of the world are.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/14 "2005-04-29T12:48:52Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#):
>
> Good manners is good manners. PC is something altogether more pernicious. For one, its prefabricated phrases lead to the abolition of thinking - always a bad thing. Except for the prospective tyrant.
> [@SentientMeat](#):
>
> Prospective tyrants _thrive_ on unjustified stereotypes and hateful terms of insult. And if prefabricated phrases lead to less thinking, whither the evolution of language?
Tyrants thrive on anything & everything.
Which is why tyrrany has been so common, through the ages.
☹
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/15 "2005-04-29T12:51:20Z")
> [@SentientMeat](#):
>
> “Political Correctness” is just _good manners_.
I love that defenders of PC language often say this without seeing the wonderful irony.
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### Author:  [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/16 "2005-04-29T12:58:19Z")
> [@don't ask](#):
>
> I love that defenders of PC language often say this without seeing the wonderful irony.
Alanis Morissette irony? (_ie._ not irony _at all_, ironically enough)?
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### Author:  [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/17 "2005-04-29T13:02:16Z")
I thought this was going to be another thread about Pipes, Horowitz et al and their recent push for PC classrooms.
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### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/18 "2005-04-29T13:05:02Z")
> [@don't ask](#):
>
> I love that defenders of PC language often say this without seeing the wonderful irony.
Come on, **DA** , at least explain why it’s ironic!
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/19 "2005-04-29T13:13:17Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#):
>
> Come on, **DA** , at least explain why it’s ironic!
Yes, I’d like to hear that as well.
It always bewilders me how people can become so extreme on their pro/con views of PC. It’s a tool, nothing more. A hammer can be used to build homes for the poor. Some people will want to ban hammers because they have occasionally been used to bludgeon people. Like it’s the hammer’s fault. The general idea behind PC is don’t be a prick. Some people will pick up the PC banner and be a prick while waving it. That in no way invalidates the notion that you shouldn’t be a prick.
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### Author:  [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2005, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-political-correctness-stinks/301687/20 "2005-04-29T13:14:11Z")
> [@](#):
>
> From Carl Hayes Fallibilism Democracy and the Market: the Meta-Theoretical Foundations of Popper’s Political Philosophy, 2001, UP of America:
> Quote:
> [PC] is an extreme egalitarianism plus an incoherent theory of rights, i.e. a philosophically grotesque mixture of Rousseau, Marx and Mill: the naturalistic anti-traditionalism of Rousseau, the libertarianism of Mill (applied to sexual and other alternative lifestyles) plus the heavy hand of the authoritarian state to rectify the resulting (and other) harms and inequalities.
> [@](#):
>
> They thrive still more when the thoughts of people’s hearts are driven underground and silenced; or submerged and deadened under a welter of gibberish.
I certainly hope you don’t oppose PC terms simply because they lean toward the prolix.
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