Political Correctness Gone Mad

[Mutual Friend]

Nope, this isn’t some dreary thread about a sensationalistic headline – this is much worse.

Colour me concerned about the lazy, vague way the term ‘politically correct’ is bandied about, usually by teenagers and the political right. Whenever it is used it’s always as a pejorative, generally to give an acerbic description of some ludicrous situation of modern tolerance/ethic/lifestyle gone batshit crazy.

And it’s such a shame that such a basic and all-encompassing concept can be so stupidly appropriated as a mindless sound bite for people to shout about, as if they’re making some earth shattering point the rest of us are blind to see. No, you’re not, you’re really not. You find a piece of stupidity, and tell us it is a piece of stupidity – well done, you. What a keen political mind you have.

Political correctness is what we deem as a society to be right and wrong, what’s too far, or not nearly far enough. I think that the current state of political correctness is wonderful. I’m so happy that people saying ‘nigger’, ‘fag’, ‘Jew-pig’ is not seen as acceptable (at least around my neck of the woods). I’m so proud of that. Basically, PC are the rules of conduct for society, and I’m glad that they are in place. Which is something of a ridiculous thing to say, as if we ever had the choice – political correctness has existed for as long as we developed a sense of community. So, it’s perhaps unsurprising that this big, monolithic, ethereal concept riles up the Youth, that whole boring rebelling against the orthodoxy thing. It’s something to grab hold of (in their eyes, at least) and shit over.

It’s also of course used by the more conservative politicos as a swipe against perceived instances of a sterile, cotton-wool liberal culture, where you can’t so much as breath as to not offend anyone. Which is stupid. The instances of its usage here almost definitely refer to, as I’ve mentioned above, a piece of grand idiocy and cowardice on the part of whatever institution coming under the spotlight. Which isn’t so much an example of PC, as just something utterly daft, and injecting an unnecessary agenda into it. Indeed, it often seems to be the case of someone’s or organisation’s fear of legal rebuke that spurs such ridiculous action (“Your son can’t possible attend this school! His nut allergy is too severe for our staff to properly cope with!” – read in today’s newspaper: same shit, different day!) So maybe a more significant slice of the ‘blame’, cos we’re all about the blame game, lies with the money-hungry legal side of society. I don’t know, not particularly interested in picking that thread up.

In summary, friends: PC is the Box that confines and defines everything, to bitch about it is as pointless as shouting at yourself in the mirror. PC is what we make it, it reflects our own values back at us. Leave the poor darling alone, I happen to think it’s in rather rude health right now. But then again I would, I made it.

[Patrick Vykkers]

PC includes the censorship of political views not agreeing with the speaker. It's a form of left wing censorship, and censorship must be crushed.

PC includes calling to censor the Muhammad cartoons, censoring Opus, censoring Penn and Teller, censoring every bloody thing that offends some wanker. Up theirs. If they don't like it, they aren't being forced to watch it. People should be free to say blacks are shit and homosexuals should be killed and Jews eat babies and Republicans rape children and white people are Nazis and America sucks all they want. It's a free society, screw politeness if it gets in the way of personal liberty.

[Bullet Magnet]

If it were law then you might have a case there. However, it is anything but. Censorship? More like a hint to hold your tongue.

Mere guidelines that help people to remain decent to one another, to keep their manners when it might otherwise slip their mind. And then if a purposefully offensive remark then gets the speaker lynched by a batshit-crazy mob of the offended group, more fool them, they should know better (they should both know better, but why tickle a sleeping dragon?).

[Strike Witch]

PC includes the censorship of political views not agreeing with the speaker. It's a form of left wing censorship, and censorship must be crushed.

PC includes calling to censor the Muhammad cartoons, censoring Opus, censoring Penn and Teller, censoring every bloody thing that offends some wanker. Up theirs. If they don't like it, they aren't being forced to watch it. People should be free to say blacks are shit and homosexuals should be killed and Jews eat babies and Republicans rape children and white people are Nazis and America sucks all they want. It's a free society, screw politeness if it gets in the way of personal liberty.

YES! BRUTAL CRUSHING!!!!

[looney-bin]

PC has gone too far out of hand during these last few years. You're not allowed to even say 'coloured' anymore.

[Havoc]

PC includes the censorship of political views not agreeing with the speaker. It's a form of left wing censorship, and censorship must be crushed.

PC includes calling to censor the Muhammad cartoons, censoring Opus, censoring Penn and Teller, censoring every bloody thing that offends some wanker. Up theirs. If they don't like it, they aren't being forced to watch it. People should be free to say blacks are shit and homosexuals should be killed and Jews eat babies and Republicans rape children and white people are Nazis and America sucks all they want. It's a free society, screw politeness if it gets in the way of personal liberty.

For once I tend to agree with this mofo...

It's all about censoring stuff someone might not like which is downright bullshit by itself.

[Munch's Master]

It’s also of course used by the more conservative politicos as a swipe against perceived instances of a sterile, cotton-wool liberal culture, where you can’t so much as breath as to not offend anyone. Which is stupid.

Not stupid, true. I agree with Pat on this issue, Political Correctness is so OTT. A case which really pissed me off is this- a Jamaican lad who came over to the UK and worked as a council worker, decided to wear a bandana with the Cross of St George on it on his head, as he was proud to be part of England and wanted to be patriotic for his new homeland. He was given a court order that he was wearing a piece of clothing with an offensive symbol, and had to stop wearing it. The Cross of St. George, the f**king ENGLISH FLAG, deemed offensive to England? If that's not political correctness gone mad, I don't know what is. Hell ,thats not even just political correctness, that's just totally retarded, ass-backwards idiocy. If you find the English flag offensive, get the hell out of England, morons.

[Mutual Friend]

It's a free society, screw politeness if it gets in the way of personal liberty.

Disagree. There's a whopping great fallacy behind all this Freedom talk, which is: WTF are you on about? Absolute freedom is utter chaos. We are so far from free it's out of sight. And I am glad people are NOT free to say terrible things (from an objective viewpoint) without (hopefully) drawing consternation.

Liberty is way overrated, and those who apparently wank off over the idea don't even hold true to its values.

If that's not political correctness gone mad, I don't know what is.

You surely don't, friend.

This is exactly what I was talking about. Is that an example of PC, really? Seems to me to be an incident of bloody stupidity (apart from the fact that wearing a bandana is fucking hideous, regardless of the nauseating patriotism) from a small group of ultra-sensitive people. PC deals with the broad strokes, it's just when you get twitchy individuals in official capacities messing around with specific examples that this kind of thing occurs.

Why would they pass this court order? My guess is that he was probably wearing the offending item WHILE he was working for the council, in which case, I'd actually agree with the sentiment of the law on this matter, but NOT the enforcement.

[Bullet Magnet]

Not stupid, true. I agree with Pat on this issue, Political Correctness is so OTT. A case which really pissed me off is this- a Jamaican lad who came over to the UK and worked as a council worker, decided to wear a bandana with the Cross of St George on it on his head, as he was proud to be part of England and wanted to be patriotic for his new homeland. He was given a court order that he was wearing a piece of clothing with an offensive symbol, and had to stop wearing it. The Cross of St. George, the f**king ENGLISH FLAG, deemed offensive to England? If that's not political correctness gone mad, I don't know what is. Hell ,thats not even just political correctness, that's just totally retarded, ass-backwards idiocy. If you find the English flag offensive, get the hell out of England, morons.

That is completely mad, but I do find the flag somewhat offensive nowadays. It just seems so goddam tacky, in part because of the merchandising of the design, something I find absolutely hideous when done to a nation's flag, and because of the association with chavs and hooligans. Remember when people pinned them to their cars during the world cup? It was horrible!

[Patrick Vykkers]

Liberty is way overrated, and those who apparently wank off over the idea don't even hold true to its values.
the enforcement.

That's so funny, it could have come out of the People's Cube. Why don't you start sending love letters to Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, Osama bin Laden and Bert while you're at it.

If I was the leader of a nation, I would deport you for treason. Liberty is the bedrock of Western values. Politeness and feelings are superceded by it. The only liberty people should not have is the liberty to oppress others liberties.

Screw your political views. They are bizarre, fascist and overbearing. I agree no one should be above criticism for their speech, but why shouldn't I be allowed to say Jews are shit or Arabs suck or white people suck or humans are an abomination or the French cause all the worlds wars. Let a stupid person condemn themselves with their own mouth, rather than drawing attention to him by shutting him down and giving him martyr status.

Seriously you are a fascist. A big fat fing fascist.

[OANST]

What is wrong with you, PV? How do you expect anyone to take a single word that you say seriously if you purposely distort the views of someone with a polar opinion. There is not a single nation on this planet that has a truly "free" society. If there are laws then you are not free to do exactly as you please. The closest thing to actual freedom is anarchy. The closest thing next to that is democracy. However, there aren't even any functioning democracies in the world. The western world is made up of mostly republics. Doesn't matter if they tell you it's a democracy. It's a republic.
MF's point is that pc is a term used for common sense guide lines that keep people from being complete assholes. And he already talked about how the complete stupidity doesn't enter into it. I've personaly heard someone being berated for using the word niggardly even though the person doing the berating knew what the word meant and that it has nothing to do with the word that it both looks like and sounds like. That's stupidity. Not being pc.
Of course, every person should have the right to opinions and the right to assemble and lay out those opinions. But I have the right to walk down my street with my daughter without being called a honkey motherfucker just as any black man has the right to be outside without being called a nigger. This is called common decency. This is being pc.

[Mutual Friend]

Screw your political views. They are bizarre, fascist and overbearing.

Talk about selective quoting - you just added the word 'enforcement' to the end to look like I want a great velvet-gloved fist to come smashing down upon the world! Indeed, my usage of the word enforcement in it's ACTUAL context is the opposite of fascism, dumbass.

But yes, they are certainly 'overbearing'. More state control (in certain areas), and more tolerance, whether people want it or not. Absolutely.

BUT, cos it's easy to twist this, not at any expense to freedom of speech. People can and are free to express anything they wish. However, they will also have to live with the consequences, socially AND within the law.

MF's point is...

Hur-bloody-rah. Thank you.

[Patrick Vykkers]

More state control and more tolerance whether the people like it or not? That is very anti democratic and besides, who's "tolerance" are we imposing upon people who don't want it? Why should people be forced to tolerate something? And the consequences within the law.. that is coercion.

You said "not at any expense to freedom of speech". Making laws to force "tolerance" upon the people generally means you are banned from saying bad things about protected groups like gays or women or ethnic minorities, and thus this interferes with free speech.

And state control generally means "Everyone has service X, but the service is shitty". It's like a limited technological pebble pile where you can either give a little to everyone, or mix it up in a different manner so some people actually can live.

@OANST: The ideal state would be a state that protects the liberties of its citizens with a strong military and follows the Wiccan rede of "Do as thou will, as long at it harm none". I know such goals have not been achieved yet, but no state is perfect.

[OANST]

I agree that this would be the perfect state. But people have a bad habit of taking humbrage to the idea of people being allowed to be different than they are. As such, the majority is going to vote into power those who share their ideals and hopefully force others to share them as well. At least, that's the trend here in America.

This is a very difficult state to achieve.

Jesus, you spoke to me without being condescending or calling me old and not so intelligent. What has the world come to?

[Majic]

My take on the subject (and most things in life, really): As long as I can watch teenage lesbian porn on the internet for free, I'm not too worried.

[Strike Witch]

My stance is very simple: If you think humans can do better, throw a few nukes at the poles and see what happens.If civilization survives unchanged, then we can all deal with that form of government. If it changes, then let's try that one.