What's your take on "political correctness?"?

stuff that pc rubbish

First we would have to determine what political correctness is. It means different things to different people.

At my little brother’s school this year they had a “harvest festival” instead of a Halloween party. It’s gotten a little bit out of control.

My take is the term is mostly used by people who feel put upon because there bigotry isn’t tolerated.

In some cases, yes, it has gotten out of control. So-called “political correctness” when it comes to offensive terms shouldn’t be something that you have to think about doing, it should be something that comes automatically. The very fact that it isn’t shows that the concept is flawed from the beginning. It should just be automatic to not offend people based on things such as race, sex, or orientation. But I think the label of “political correctness” is what people dislike, not a lot of the practices. To me, not calling a gay person a “fag” is just politeness, not a matter of political correctness. Same goes with all the offensive terms. It’s just politeness to not use them. If you want to be an impolite fuckwad, then go ahead. Don’t expect many people to like you.

To me, it gets out of control when ridiculous terms like “holiday tree” come about. It’s a Christmas tree. That’s the name of the object. It’s used for Christmas. You can use it for something else, but the name of the object is a “Christmas tree”. Same goes for other ridiculous renamings, like “harvest festival” for Halloween. These names are not personal offensive slurs. There is no reason to rename them.

I attempt to be non-offensive in social situations and it works for me. I couldn’t care less if it matches up to the current “political correctness” standards.

It is not necessary, and I am sick unto death of it. I will not be held hostage by another persons opinions or lack of vocabulary. To think that someone owes another person money because that person said something that “Offended” the other person is ludicrous. If you leave your house during the day, turn on the tv, radio or log onto the internet, you’re BOUND to see or hear something which offends you. GET OVER IT! Somebody’s just going to have to get their feelings hurt.
I don’t go to the middle east then say that their religious holidays offend me and they shouldn’t practice them or celebrate them. That would be absurd. I don’t go to another country and expect them to speak my language. I don’t use racial slurs and resent people who look for something in every day speech to be offended about.
I’m going to stop right here, because I haven’t BEGUN to cover every ridiculous aspect of pc. Allow me to say that I do NOT attempt to be pc in any situation. I, for one, have had enough.

@DominicX Well said!

That goes for me too, I am sick and fed up with it myself. I don’t even contribute in a conversation with people like this anymore. They are boring, pretenious and down right nasty.
I would love to smash them in a box, and then kick the box over a cliff.

A weak excuse to avoid the truth.

@jaytkay I think you’re right. Or people in situations where PC actually is oppressive. My parents both work in the government and they have to be a lot more cautious than the rest of us, so they discuss it sometimes. Most of us can say whatever we want except in the workplace.

Sometimes it gets over the top, but PC started as guidelines for not offending other people. Why would you want to exercise your right to call someone a racial slur or a fag? It’s just not okay to say something that hurtful.

@jaytkay I utterly agree with DominicX. I think I may have gotten a bit more stirred up about the issue than necessary. This is obviously something that irritates me.
We should not NEED to be told not to use certain offensive language like racial slurs or words that deride a persons sexual orientation, mental capacity, religious views, etc.
I guess what puts me over the edge is all the overboard crap, ie “Harvest Festival” or Holiday Tree. Both of these are new to me, by the way.
No, what puts me over the edge is our pandering and folding. Why would a practitioner of a different faith come to this country, then complain about being “left out” if I say Merry Christmas? Why do I have to stop saying it because of this? Why can’t we oh, I just can’t. I’ll get riled up again.

I agree with both @DominicX and @Trillian.

It seems like an oxymoron to me. Political and correctness are usually on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Nobody complains when someone says Merry Christmas. Plenty of people seem enraged at hearing “Happy Holidays”.

I view political correctness as pretentious stupidity. I do not support any party . I do not respect people who lean too far to the R or L. I support common sense and working Middle Class people. I dislike extremes.
I was born in America and I support America. I support Democracy and equal rights for everyone. I do not believe that wealthy or poor people should be treated differently. I do not think the Middle Class should be taxed to the point were we cease to exist.
I do not think America should be asked to make all the sacrifices . NAFTA hurts Middle Class Americans . We should not be asked to send anymore soldiers to fight terrorism than other democracies do .
I could go on and on and I don’t care if someone thinks I am too blunt. Americans have the right to a decent life too. We do not owe the world a living on our backs; or people who come here illegally.
Many nationalities have come legally and assimilated in our society. They have enriched America. We are the most welcoming nation in the world. Everyone must follow our laws. If we allow our laws to be broken it will lead to Anarchy.

It is the paving material for the road to hell.

No, I don’t think it is necessary.
Yes it has gotten out of control.
No, I don’t worry about being PC.

I think all the PC focus has done is make people sneakier in their insults and less truly tolerant of each other.

Last night I arranged for transport from the airport for some relatives. The driver called me, shortly after the flight arrived, to ask for a description, which I gave, with the suggestion, “You could hold up a board with their name on it.” To which he said that he did not like to do that. Then he added, in a lower voice – “Are they coloured people?” I can’t remember when last I heard that expression. What would life be like without PC?

A well intentioned concept gone amok.

@Austinlad – quite so

There is a time and a place for many things in life. There isn’t always a time and place for political correctness. Like right now here on Fluther. I make a motion that we all speak our minds and just let the chips fall where they may but at the same time, we all be good to each other because we’re all fine Jellies in a really friendly sea.

No, I don’t always see it as a necessary evil.
Yes, sometimes it does get out of control, in my humble opinion.
I don’t always strive to be politically correct in my rantings and ravings, sorry.

PC was created to pacify a few ignorant people who whine about the way something is said, because they don’t have the mental capacity to argue the facts.

GA @DrBill !

I’m a little surprised at these responses…

I think, to a certain extent, political correctness is a good thing. I’m gay, and I don’t want to be called a “fag”. I respect people with dwarfism not wanting to be called “midgets”, and black people not wanting to be called “niggers”.

Now, “vertically challenged” instead of short and “fluffy” instead of fat are completely different stories.

Fuck political correctness.

It’s a fairy penguin.

It’s not what you say, it’s the manner in which it’s said.

@stemnyjones

I only say I’m “vertically challenged” as a joke. I wasn’t aware it was an actual term…

The worst one is “person of size” for a fat person. Hate to break it to you, but everyone is a person of some size. Now that’s just illogical…

As far as I’m concerned, you call people what they want to be called. Using obvious offensive terms that are used to disparage people in that group (such as “fag”) is just stupid. It’s no question that most gay people do not want to be called that.

@stemnyjones – your answer makes me think a bit more about this subject.

The problem I have with PC is that the people who consider it and take it to heart are not the people who will go around calling a gay person a “fag”.

So the people it “governs” are not the people it needs to affect.

Kind of like the “outlaw guns and only outlaws will have guns”

@Merriment I’m not understanding correctly. Can you give me an example of when PC is a bad thing?

I think PC started out as a good thing. It’s a good reminder that not everyone believes the same thing, looks the same, or has the same background. We are a diverse society and not every peg fits in the same hole.

@Trillian, re: “Why would a practitioner of a different faith come to this country, then complain about being “left out” if I say Merry Christmas?”—> Because not all practitioners of different faiths come here from other countries. Some are born and bred American, just like me. I don’t celebrate Christmas, but I’m OK with you wishing me a happy one. Would you be OK with me wishing you a happy Solstice?

That said, I do think PC goes too far sometimes. I’ll not soon forget the lady who went off on me because I used the word “mankind.” She thought I might need reminding that half of mankind is womankind. (I’m female!) There’s only so much you can do to the language before it becomes too unwieldy to use for communication.

@laureth – perhaps you should have used “humankind”?

I put that in about the same category as “Chairperson.”

@stemnyjones – Yes. Off the top of my head, here are a couple.

It isn’t politically correct to profile for terrorists.

However, if you were to feed the data into a color-blind computer and calculate the probability of who would be the most likely suspects it would likely spit out many of the same group of possibilities.

Now we can ignore this truth in favor of being politically correct but that puts a lot of people’s lives on the line for the purpose of being politically correct.

Or

Another phenomenon I am seeing is people who have taken PC to such an extreme that they pretend that there are no differences in people. I have seen this in the school system where it is so non-pc to mention differences that kids are failing to get the help they need because no one wants to point out where they “differ” from the other children.

I think PC teaches us to put on a show of surface tolerance through silence instead of acknowledging and celebrating the differences. And so, I don’t think it is the best that we can do.

@Merriment I agree that it should be taught, especially to children, that people ARE different… as long as we also teach that there is nothing wrong with being different.

However, I don’t agree with the racial profiling. Yes, right now many of the terrorists attacking this country are arab – to be fair, we ARE invading their country for oil. But, that aside (because that’s not the point of this question), there are also white people, black people, native americans, and asian people who are terrorists as well.

I agree that maybe arabs should be checked upon boarding a plane, simply because we have been having incidents with people of the arab race causing terror right now. But I don’t agree with people seeing a friendly arab running a gas station and calling him a terrorist or a sand monkey or whatever the hell else people call them these days.

@stemnyjones – I don’t like racial profiling either. However, practicality requires that something be used as a start point in determining risk. That they have a country/heritage origin that manifests it’s self in a certain “look” doesn’t mean we should ignore that data in favor of being PC. That would just be silly. And yet there is a cry for it everyday.

I agree that someone running a gas station shouldn’t be racially harassed.

But the hard core proponents of PC do not see the difference between the guy at the gas station who poses no threat and the guy at the airport who may.

And that is the danger of PC.

@Merriment Thanks for explaining further.

@stemnyjones-

You’re welcome. Your perspective has given me some food for thought on this subject. Thank you.

I think the words “politically correct” were coined by people too rude or ignorant to realize that the Power of Words is, indeed, a power to reckon with and words can be a very strong destructive force. This is especially true with hate speech, gender restrictive and demeaning language. When the comedians and general population ridicule the efforts to get rid of this blight on our language and thinking, they best they can come up with is name calling.

@laureth, having been a practicing Wiccan for 25 years of my adult life, I certainly would NOT object to any holiday that you gave me joy of. I converted to Christianity about three years ago. Up until that point, I said Merry Christmas as well as Blessed Yule, to whomever I was speaking. I made it a point not to try to force my beliefs on anyone, or to act offended by the practice of the faith of another. And you’re correct when you say that a lot come from this country. The fact of the matter is however, that this country is founded on Christian values and that belief system. To come along AFTER the country has been up and running for over two hundred years and say “Well you have to change it now or I’ll be offended” is ludicrous. What I object to is the pandering. The appeasement. We neither look for nor get such treatment from any other country, why should we practice it here? One of the selling points of this country is that you have the freedom to come here and practice your religion without being oppressed by the government. That doesn’t entail holding the prevailing system hostage and forcing everyone to change the way THEY practice in accommodation to the new kids on the block. I hope to have made my views clear without sounding offensive or flip. If you disagree with my opinion I welcome yours.

@stemnyjones I agree with your points and wanted to elaborate..I work for a state funded agency that covers several different demographic groups. I work with MR individuals. The new state group was recently down with their newest philosophy and I shuddered to hear the woman say things along the lines you were mentioning. She wants our people to be “respected” in the community, and didn’t like our terminology like “High functioning” as it denoted that they were different.
I maintain that you can’t NOT notice that our people are not like mainstream society and to refuse to acknowledge that they are different is not only ridiculous, it says that the person refusing the acknowledgment thinks that their difference is a bad thing. Why? Why can’t we just come out and say “Here is so and so. He’s mentally challenged but he can do this, this, and this. He likes these activities, and doesn’t like those..etc.” Why do we have to pretend that he’s NOT different? Because of PC bullsh**. That’s why, and this is where PC is a bad thing. One instance among many, I should say.

@Merriment Racial profiling is used at the airport. It really is. Just not in a blatant hateful way that would please AM radio listeners and FOX “News” viewers.

A “Dark-skinned Muslims Only” line would simply cue Al Qaeda to give the bombs to pale recruits.

@Trillian – I do disagree. (For what it’s worth, I’ll say that I was raised Methodist and became Wiccan for about 15 years before realizing I was really an atheist.) First, while a goodly number of the Founders were Christan, many were not, and this country was not actually founded on Christianity. A majority of citizens may consider themselves Christian, but it by no means all of them. If people see the Puritans as founding this country and that makes them believe it was founded on Christianity, it is then also fair to say that this is a country founded on commerce and prisons (Virginia and Georgia, respectively). As a final point, I don’t believe anyone is trying to “hold the prevailing system hostage and forcing everyone to change the way THEY practice” by asking that all the holidays, not just Christmas, be recognized. As you say, we “have the freedom to…practice your religion without being oppressed by the government.”

Whether the courthouse lawn holds a crèche, a chèche and a bunch of other religious symbolism, or nothing at all, no one can take your Christianity from you without your consent. Since you were Wiccan for so long, surely you know that it’s all Pagan imagery anyway. ;)

@jaytkay – Yes, I know it is used there. Do you disagree with it?

I understand the need for it. If there is a string of pale, slightly chubby, female terrorists I fully expect to stand in the line of “suspects”. Does it irk me? Yes. Do I understand the need for it? yes.

I wonder how, exactly, the people who are against profiling would like the authorities to start their search for suspects? Ask for volunteers?

We all “profile”. It’s called common sense. When I pull up at the ATM I take a look around. If I see a group of gray haired retirees standing in line I feel slightly less threatened and on guard then when I pull up and see a hoodie wearing group of young men. Does this make me less PC? Probably but I will trade PC for prudence.

Do I hate the hoodie, sagging pant wearing boys/men? No. Would I say hateful crap to them? No.
But I will exercise caution until I know if their appearance is any kind of deeper indicator of their intent.

Every animal in the wild “profiles” as they approach the watering hole to scan for predators. That we have made this instinct a no-no probably explains why so many of us wind up tits up in the mud.

In addition to what @laureth said, here are some quotes from our founding fathers that prove we were not founded as a christian nation

some people will use any means necessary to be offended. they feel it gives them power to be able to alter the way others express themselves. It’s getting to the point you can’t say anything without stepping on a land mine any more. Why can’t people just get over themselves? NOBODY HAS THE RIGHT NOT TO BE OFFENDED. Look it up.

@Merriment GA. Very, very well said!

It is sad that not using ethnic slurs has fallen into the province of “political correctness.” Not using these words should simply be “good manners.”

That being said, I think that PC has officially gone insane.

PC states that Nativity scenes might be offensive and have to be taken down. Sometimes PC gets so bonkers that apartment complexes ban the flying of any flag, including the American one in America, because the flag might “offend” someone. I think that when it reached the last stage it went from bonkers to clinically insane and needing to be sedated.

Political correctness is a good concept but it has been taken too far.

I certainly do not like being called “mudperson,” “Gyppo,“sand nigger,” and others for my people and would like manners to say that these are incorrect along with “nigger,” “cracker,” “spic,” and all the rest. Manners, however, have gone by the wayside and these terms, all of them and more, are tossed around freely. The people who say such things could not give two squirts about PC people clucking their tongues at them.

A kicker with political correctness: the bigoted slurs are not stopped by political correctness: it does not do its job. I cannot tell you how many times I have been called something like that and the last time was, oh, 3–4 days ago. So, not only has it gone insane, when it comes to ethnic slurs it bucks up against Freedom of Speech and loses.

All it seems to be being used for is to find ways for more people to be offended by more thing while people who do not care about offending people do not pay it any heed. PC is becoming more and more convoluted as the PC crowd turns itself inside out trying to not “offend” anyone while the people who are the kinds to offend people do not care.

@Arisztid Some very good points, as usual. What I see is it works both ways. The Power of Words is so strong that any group with a specific agenda can try to force people into a certain way of thinking by insisting on using words that are, indeed, PC. This being true, the general trend is for people to simply ridicule the “offense” factor. It is like a pendulum and swings too far in both directions.

@Leanne1986 – Thank you

I am not without my social graces, but I have never been accused of being politically correct either. I do think politically correct has been taken to the extreme. It’s become it’s censorship. Always there is someone out there who is just waiting for the chance to be morally offended by others words, thoughts and deeds.

Pure foolishness!! ;)