When you say something you know is politically incorrect, do you take pride in knowing you are upsetting some people?

Depends on your definition of pride, trashiness, and politically incorrect.

If we never said anything that anyone else might take offense at, we would say much of anything at all. I take no pride or joy in upsetting people, but there are ideas that need to be opposed whether it upsets those that support them or not. I think most of us here would oppose the ideology espoused by the Taliban. Would they become highly incensed if we did so? You bet they would. All the more reason to say no to them.

@WillWorkForChocolate :: I’m not seeing the relevance of your link to Imadethisupwithnoforethought’s question? Care to explain?

The obvious point was that he, himself, posted a question that was full of pride, trashiness, and could easily be seen as politically incorrect. Aaaaaaand the other question lists hypocrisy as a tag. It’s amusing.

I assume she was upset that I wished to hold people accountable for their actions. I get where she is coming from, but as on the original question, we disagree.

I sometimes smile an evil grin, when a shirt salesman spammer gets made fun of for his Engrish .

They were the same ones in elementary school stating, “no offense” then proceeding to offend anyways.

In short, they are just the bully type.

@talljasperman And I shake my head when people make fun of Asian accents online like it’s acceptable.

I don’t take pleasure in offending anyone, then again, if someone is offended, short of obvious disregard and overt racism, etc. oh well.
I happen to love the word “retarded” and…living in the hills, I have no problem calling some types redneck hillbillies. So shoot me. and they most likely would/could. haha
A spade is a spade and while I am very liberal, caring and overall quite PC, I’m not going to split hairs on a few choice descriptives. I never use racially inappropriate slurs, ever.

Reminds me of that scene in King of the Hill when Hank joins an all-Asian country club and Peggy says “what I’m about to say is not politically correct, but here goes:...this whole thing seems odd!”

But seriously, it has nothing to do with “political correctness”. For some, it’s “politically incorrect” to say “Merry Christmas”. If what you are saying is truly hurtful, then no amount of qualifying (no matter what the qualifying may be) will reduce the hurtfulness. That seems pretty obvious to me.

And yeah, what @ETpro said. Almost anything imaginable can be construed as offensive.

As I live in a place where there is no such thing as pc, I usually don’t realise it till later, when I’m talking to someone on fb that is in the most pc place in the world. Oh well I try to be careful.

I’d rather be politically incorrect than factually incorrect.

Perhaps some people are too easily hurt. I find it offensive that people try so hard to be PC all the time. “Oh no, I can’t say that. It might offend someone!” Oy, give me a break. If we’re constantly walking on eggshells around the easily offended, we’ll never say anything at all.

Of course, there are things that shouldn’t ever be said because they are overtly offensive in that they are ignorant, hurtful, or derogatory no matter who you are. However, I don’t think that’s what we’re discussing here.

Oh, and f*ck censorship! :)

Pride would imply that I gave a shit or was even conscious of offending anyone.
Stuff is said off the cuff, if folks take offence then it’s a self inflicted wound, there problem.

Offending others has become S.O.P. in our culture. I avoid doing it because violence against those who disagree with others is part of our culture too.

I don’t go (far) out of my way to deliberately piss people off, but so many people have such thin skins and such outrageous notions of what is and is not “correct” that it’s almost impossible to say things with much candor and content these days without upsetting someone for some obscure reason. (In addition, so many are so wrong about so much, that it’s hard to admit that 2+2=4 without pissing off a whole crowd who swears it’s not so, and I value my intellect too much to swallow that nonsense – and I can be outspoken.)

So, no, it’s not something that I take pride or joy in that I’ve upset someone with my speech, but I like being understood, so I’m usually plain in my speech, and I like not having to remember “what did I say to this one or that one”, so I try to be honest, which means all I have to recall is “what did actually happen, anyway?”. That also leads to plain speaking, and sometimes speaking in words from yesteryear that are now passé or “bad words”.

Once in awhile, when I can spare the extra brainpower, I try to recall that some words and things are more egregious than others and will set more people off than not, and I also attempt to be tactful and diplomatic. As you can see from my past writings here, I don’t often have the extra brainpower available.

As long as I still work outside the house, though, I will probably brown-bag my lunch forever, no matter how politically incorrect it is has become to say that.

I cannot explain the motives of other people, what they say or how they put across their points.

I will comment though, that some people put them across in a derogatory fashion calling the person against their views stupid or words to that effect.

When I was a kid my mother said to me: ‘You are very opinionated’ which was frowned on. This later stood me in good stead as my earning were based on respecting others views. The equation was simple be agreeable (at least in the situation) or put your point across as a thoughtful argument respecting the other’s thoughts. That way you got a bigger pay cheque. I agree with @Pachyderm_In_The_Room it seem being aggressive and insulting is revered in our culture today. It shows to me, a lack of social skills and ability to debate cleverly. A person who is a ‘know it all’ rarely gets their points across. To me anyway. a know it all assumes they are right and you are stupid for not seeing that. That shows ignorance.

I have known people who take pride in being politically incorrect, just as I’ve known people who take pride in how many f bombs they can drop in a conversation – regardless of who is within earshot. I think they would say, “it’s just part of who I am!” They wear it like a badge of honor.

I’m not easily offended, so neither behavior bothers me personally, but sometimes I cringe for others who are in the room, especially if I think it’s someone who isn’t likely to say anything, but simply feels discomfort.

Political Correctness, and common courtesy are two different things.

Political Correctness is a handy method of suppressing political ideas, without having to go through the nasty business of burning your opponant at the stake, or throwing them in prison or something.

In that regard, when I am being politically incorrect, I believe I am commiting a morally proper act of civil disobedience against an onerous practice. In that case I am indeed proud to do it.

The way to tell the difference between Political Correctness, and common courtesy, is to observe which “direction” it goes.

If I say something that can be equally interpreted as offensive by anybody, regardless of gender, race, faith or party, then we are talking about common courtesy. Anybody can be discourteous, anybody can be hurt. Including me. It is not a good thing to try to be impolite.

Political Correctness, however, is not a universal concern. Unlike common courtesy, it only points one way.

For example, anybody can say any rude thing that they want to about white male Republicans, who are straight, and go to church on Sunday. To observe this fact, check out about every other thread on Fluther. Political Correctness obviously does not apply in that case.

However, we are admonished to be careful about making objective, if slightly uncomfortable, observations about anyone who is willfully ineffective, stupid, or a member of a (real or imagined) victim “class”, and that includes their vote hungry enablers in Washington. That simply won’t do.

I wonder why? Why do some people merit this polite consideration, and others are worthy only of crude scorn?

Whatever it is, I don’t agree with it. I am happy to be part of the opposition to it.

BTW, if I have ever announced up front that I was about to be politically incorrect, I must have been tired or something. I would hope that it would be obvious.

@josie: “Political Correctness is a handy method of suppressing political ideas”

Sure. I agree. Some people use getting offended by unpopular ideas as a way of suppressing dissent.

But don’t confuse all opposition with dissenting ideas as pure ideology or “political correctness”. I suspect you do, and to be honest it’s sounding increasingly like pure paranoia.

@tom_g

Well, thanks for your honesty.

But,seriously I am NOT paranoid! It’s just that EVERYBODY IS OUT TO GET ME!

Surely you can see that!?!?

Not for me personally.

Two wrongs never make a right, and I won’t lower myself to that level, where I compromise my personal morals to ‘score a point’ off someone else who feels differently.

It is an interesting study for me to see so many self-described nice people be so cruel at times, but hey, that’s reality unfortunately.

I’ll have to say that it depends, at least for me personally, whether or not I’m willing to hurt someone’s feelings to defend myself or others. Unfortunately, sometimes that line must be crossed, especially if they’re doing something that is causing you or others you care about grief.

Also, even if you can carefully construct your criticism of someone in a more amicable manner, a person who’s intelligent enough will still see it for the insult it is, at least from what I’ve seen. Various types of people get offended by different things, so at times there’s just no way around telling it like it is.

Yes I do. A lot of folks anymore turn in to Macauly Culkin from Home Alone when they hear shit they don’t like. Nothing is funnier to me than saying shit, which amounts to no more grunts and clicks as air is passed by my vocal cords, that makes people just flip the fuck out.

I’m not even talking about personal attacks here. I’m just talking about the things that the major media outlets have deemed inappropriate. I might be considered a dick for it but I prefer to fall in with the likes of George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, and Bill Hicks than with Michael Jackson’s little face clenching boy toy.

^ AHHHH!

@Blondesjon I get what you mean, truth is often subversive. But have you ever found yourself saying “I may be being PC hear, but…”? Seems to me people who are being open about their opinions just say what they mean, and I have never caught you doing that dance. Normally, and I frieken’ admire some of your quips, you just say what you mean.

Saying “I may not be acting PC here…” indicates the speaker is absolutely being calculated in being offensive.

^ I do not know if it is really this way. I think, depending on where the person is, ordinary remarks or things one would say might offend them, they might think it’s non pc. So a person may be just giving polite warning. The speaker may be just warning them to close their ears or go somewhere else or something.