NationStates Jolt Archive

can someone explain to me why political correctness is so damned evil? I mean its a total nuisance yes, but why does it almost amount to crime in the eyes of generalites?

Also, the usual PC horror-stories I hear are not that bad "omg! they'd called some kid an african american the other day!!!!" really, thats not all that PC calling a bald guy "folicurally challenged" is PC....

This OP is makes-sense challenged.

PC is evil because you can't do a study or an experiment that suggests there might be any difference between different ethnicities or you'll get shouted down and slandered by PC thugs. It also sucks because if you violate PC myths about the noble savage, like Napoleon Chagnon did you get attacked as a genocidal sex maniac by people like Patrick Tierney. In addition to that it censors otherwise funny jokes or biting satire.

Because it makes a matyr of free speech and makes a mockery of equality. Plus its the creation of what I hate most the world: Liberal hippies

Because it makes a matyr of free speech and makes a mockery of equality. Plus its the creation of what I hate most the world: Liberal hippies
...I thought you couldn't be a hippie of you weren't a liberal...

can someone explain to me why political correctness is so damned evil? I mean its a total nuisance yes, but why does it almost amount to crime in the eyes of generalites?

Also, the usual PC horror-stories are not that bad "omg! they'd called some kid an african american the other day!!!!" really, thats not all that PC calling a bald guy "folicurally challenged" is PC....

I was home, sick one day and I resorted to watching one of those awful women's shows. They were interviewing some actress that had just returned from South Africa. During the gibberish that amounted to her description of the visit, she backed herself into a corner. She wanted to say Africans, but she wanted to have it apply to Negro Africans, only. Being the PC ditz that she was, she couldn't just say Black Africans, though. She stammered for a few seconds while trying to build a coherent sentence. That effort failed because the next words out of her mouth were about the "African-American Africans".

Save me from political correctness.

[edit]
And it's evil because it creates euphemisms for topics and conditions that should be discussed directly.

I was home, sick one day and I resorted to watching one of those awful women's shows. They were interviewing some actress that had just returned from South Africa. During the gibberish that amounted to her description of the visit, she backed herself into a corner. She wanted to say Africans, but she wanted to have it apply to Negro Africans, only. Being the PC ditz that she was, she couldn't just say Black Africans, though. She stammered for a few seconds while trying to build a coherent sentence. That effort failed because the next words out of her mouth were about the "African-American Africans".

Save me from political correctness.
:D

Should we start shipping crates of green cards over there?

Politeness is totally lovely and everyone should try hard to be polite.

Avoiding issues such as immigration for the sake of "political correctness" is not as good.

That said, racism is out of order, as is sexism, and most of the other -isms, also, really.

So simple politeness is best, and I would say "political correctness" is always preferred to simple racism. If nothing nice can be said, nothing should really be said full stop.

...I thought you couldn't be a hippie of you weren't a liberal...
It would seem that there are hard-line hippies perhaps from some American statements.

"No, I can't let you do that, you're not being casual enough"
"But..."
*beats up conservative*
"Ach, damn you extremist hippies!"
*gets clubbed to death with bongs*

PC is evil because you can't do a study or an experiment that suggests there might be any difference between different ethnicities or you'll get shouted down and slandered by PC thugs. It also sucks because if you violate PC myths about the noble savage, like Napoleon Chagnon did you get attacked as a genocidal sex maniac by people like Patrick Tierney. In addition to that it censors otherwise funny jokes or biting satire.

This is exactly the kind of paranoia that PC critics come out with. But let me just make this clear: no it doesn't!

There is no shadowy organisation floating around banning people from sprouting an unpopular opinion.

Political Correctness is a myth - a mixed up paranoia used to fuel peoples' persecution complexes.

...I thought you couldn't be a hippie of you weren't a liberal...

Can't. The conservatives that look like hippies are rednecks.

Politeness is totally lovely and everyone should try hard to be polite.

Avoiding issues such as immigration for the sake of "political correctness" is not as good.

That said, racism is out of order, as is sexism, and most of the other -isms, also, really.

So simple politeness is best, and I would say "political correctness" is always preferred to simple racism. If nothing nice can be said, nothing should really be said full stop.

Political correctness doesn't stop at politeness. It goes on to censor science, political speech, and social criticism. It has a chilling effect on speech even when it doesn't carry criminal penalties. I'd rather deal with some klansman spouting off about mud people at a KKK rally once in a while than have to live in a nation where people can't say what they think for fear of being the target of a PC smear campaign.

Political correctness doesn't stop at politeness. It goes on to censor science, political speech, and social criticism. It has a chilling effect on speech even when it doesn't carry criminal penalties. I'd rather deal with some klansman spouting off about mud people at a KKK rally once in a while than have to live in a nation where people can't say what they think for fear of being the target of a PC smear campaign.

You can say what you want....but so can the PC smear-doctors;)

Political correctness doesn't stop at politeness. It goes on to censor science, political speech, and social criticism. It has a chilling effect on speech even when it doesn't carry criminal penalties. I'd rather deal with some klansman spouting off about mud people at a KKK rally once in a while than have to live in a nation where people can't say what they think for fear of being the target of a PC smear campaign.

I used to think that PC was absolutely necessary. Then I grew up and learned what it really meant, and I must say I agree completely with my drunk friend here. Being polite and non-racist is good. But PC is baaaad.

This is exactly the kind of paranoia that PC critics come out with. But let me just make this clear: no it doesn't!

There is no shadowy organisation floating around banning people from sprouting an unpopular opinion.

Political Correctness is a myth - a mixed up paranoia used to fuel peoples' persecution complexes.

Really? Then the Napoleon Chagnon example is a figment of my imagination? How about the protests against the "Bell Curve" researchers merely speaking? http://www.digitas.harvard.edu/~salient/issues/950227/page6.html

You can say what you want....but so can the PC smear-doctors;)

Even when it becomes libel and slander?

I only ever see it mentioned when someone complains about it because they are racist or sexist and think everyone else is racist too, but just being polite.

Why do they call it "political" correctness anyway? Whose politics are they speaking of when naming it that? Does it mean that people are trying to pass laws so that people can't publish articles about race or use a word to describe another person or something?

I too wonder how it is so evil to question (or even to dissaprove) of the word someone else is using or the study they are publishing. Is having a contrary opinion so bad that it stifles the person being criticized from speaking their mind/doing their study? And if that were so, wouldn't the actual problem here be pussies who cant take criticism and are afraid of opposing viewpoints?

I really never understood the anti-PC movement because I never enderstood just what PC was.

Why do they call it "political" correctness anyway? Whose politics are they speaking of when naming it that? Does it mean that people are trying to pass laws so that people can't publish articles about race or use a word to describe another person or something?

Think of political as in you are talking like a politician, so that you don't offend anyone. People who are racist call people who aren't racist that. It doesn't really mean laws.

Even when it becomes libel and slander?

1st amendment....plus slander is almost impossible to prove in court...

Think of political as in you are talking like a politician, so that you don't offend anyone. People who are racist call people who aren't racist that. It doesn't really mean laws.

Then if we have racist politicians who give nicknames like "Macaca" to brown skinned people they see at their rallys and welcome them to America, would that make being racist politically correct?

Our politicians are offending people all teh time. Republicans calling Democrats cut and runners, or anti-life, or whatever. Demmocrats calling Republicans the party of rich white christians.

1st amendment....plus slander is almost impossible to prove in court...

First ammendment doesn't protect against that.

First ammendment doesn't protect against that.
The way I see it, the First Amendment of the Constitution is like this:

You can say anything you like to anyone you like or don't like, but expect to get your ass kicked when you mouth off to the wrong people. Freedom has it's consequences after all.

The way I see it, the First Amendment of the Constitution is like this:

You can say anything you like to anyone you like or don't like, but expect to get your ass kicked when you mouth off to the wrong people. Freedom has it's consequences after all.

That's all good and fine, but I can't write a news story in my local paper claiming that my next door neighbor is a child molester who eats alien smegma pie (http://emotel.comicgenesis.com/aliensmegmapie.html) without getting my ass sued. That's libel and it's not protected by the first ammendment.

That's all good and fine, but I can't write a news story in my local paper claiming that my next door neighbor is a child molester who eats alien smegma pie (http://emotel.comicgenesis.com/aliensmegmapie.html) without getting my ass sued. That's libel and it's not protected by the first ammendment.
That's why you need proof and more often than not, good sources before you do a story like that.

Politeness is totally lovely and everyone should try hard to be polite.

So simple politeness is best, and I would say "political correctness" is always preferred to simple racism. If nothing nice can be said, nothing should really be said full stop.

Or just try being respectful and tolerant.

Or just try being respectful and tolerant.

but then you would be having your freedom of speech rights trampled!:p

can someone explain to me why political correctness is so damned evil? I mean its a total nuisance yes, but why does it almost amount to crime in the eyes of generalites?

Also, the usual PC horror-stories I hear are not that bad "omg! they'd called some kid an african american the other day!!!!" really, thats not all that PC calling a bald guy "folicurally challenged" is PC....

There's been a long-standing smear-campaign from the right so that even liberals tend to think that it only consists of the worst and stupidest things done in its name. The same thing has been done to affirmative action and feminism.

Yes, it's pretty dumb to cause someone to loose a job in public speaking for chosing the less popular word a group likes to be known as. Especially if it's calling a group "American Indian" instead of "Native American" when most of them like to be called "Indians," because Indian is a group within themselves that the varios Native American groups recognize (descendents of Native Americans that were forcibly taken away from their parents and "westernized.")

But political correctness is also basic awareness of civil rights issues. Which is a good thing.

Feminists are those who believe in equal rights for both sexes. Yet even liberals often don't want to call themselves feminists because the right has conflated the term with only militant lesbians.

Affirmative action has become synonymous with quotas in the public discourse, but the term actually means any efforts to correct social forces that lead to either the intentional or incidental oppresion of minorities. Yes, quotas don't work. But that doesn't mean that affirmative action is a lost cause. There are other kinds of action that can affirm.

That's why you need proof and more often than not, good sources before you do a story like that.

Tell that to FOX news and ABC.

Why do they call it "political" correctness anyway? Whose politics are they speaking of when naming it that? Does it mean that people are trying to pass laws so that people can't publish articles about race or use a word to describe another person or something?

I too wonder how it is so evil to question (or even to dissaprove) of the word someone else is using or the study they are publishing. Is having a contrary opinion so bad that it stifles the person being criticized from speaking their mind/doing their study? And if that were so, wouldn't the actual problem here be pussies who cant take criticism and are afraid of opposing viewpoints?

I really never understood the anti-PC movement because I never enderstood just what PC was.

It's Northern Aggression trying to impose its elitist cultural values on the South by taking away their God-given right to call black people "niggers."

Now political correctness, in its most abused form, would mean that my above statement was racist, simply because it contained the word "******." But it isn't. The sentence slanders the South, not African-Americans.

When people complain about "political correctness" what they are in fact complaining about is hysterical racial-paranoia.

Remember when the South Park movie came out? Lots of people said that the movie was horribly racist. It wasn't. It made fun of racism, but idiots claimed that because it protrayed racism, it practiced it.

Political corectness is simply allowing groups to self identify. We don't want Eurpeans to really start calling us USians. We're Americans. It would be politically incorrect (literally "people-wrong") to call us by anything other than the name to which we answer. By the same token we should honor the self-proclaimed labels of other groups. Even if it does lead to some percieved silliness. I myself am a bit irked by South Americans chosing to call themselves "Latin." They're descended from Spanish, Africans, and Native Americans. Why are they calling themselves descendents of a Roman tribe? But it's what they call themselves, and no one else is stepping up to claim the title, so we honor it.

Pc can be a good thing!But, the things that are good about it can also be its undoing.Im mean, its nice not to hear black people being called 'niggers' and chinese being called 'chinks',not just because its 'racist' bit because I genuinly hurts people.For example, my boyfriend is chinese/malaysian and has lived in britain all his life.Whan people call him 'chink' or say thinks like'I love you long time' to him, whilst not mortally wounding, makes him offended, upset, and alienated.People shouldnt have to put up with it.PC makes sure that people know that racism isnt acceptable.Children exposed to racist language from parents ect will be influenced by it.
On the other hand, PC can stifle free speech,and hide racist sentiments rather than bring them out into the open and debate them (and hopefully show that racism is wrong)
Ther is a delicate balance.People shouldnt have to put up with abuse or humiliation,but free speech is also important.
Its very confusing...:p

It's Northern Aggression trying to impose its elitist cultural values on the South by taking away their God-given right to call black people "niggers."

Now political correctness, in its most abused form, would mean that my above statement was racist, simply because it contained the word "******." But it isn't. The sentence slanders the South, not African-Americans.

When people complain about "political correctness" what they are in fact complaining about is hysterical racial-paranoia.

Remember when the South Park movie came out? Lots of people said that the movie was horribly racist. It wasn't. It made fun of racism, but idiots claimed that because it protrayed racism, it practiced it.

Political corectness is simply allowing groups to self identify. We don't want Eurpeans to really start calling us USians. We're Americans. It would be politically incorrect (literally "people-wrong") to call us by anything other than the name to which we answer. By the same token we should honor the self-proclaimed labels of other groups. Even if it does lead to some percieved silliness. I myself am a bit irked by South Americans chosing to call themselves "Latin." They're descended from Spanish, Africans, and Native Americans. Why are they calling themselves descendents of a Roman tribe? But it's what they call themselves, and no one else is stepping up to claim the title, so we honor it.

You are right ! And furthermore I too think it is the racists God-given right to call black-people niggers and the objectors right to say that they are racist for doing so.

I was also thinking of the USian thing. I saw people complaining about the horrible thing that is "P.C." while later being offended at the term USian and I saw some interesting parallels. I've seen Eut complain about this PC world then acuse everyone of ageism.

It's a boogie man more than anything else. Most the time you see that label it has nothing to do with it.


EDIT: PFfff. Should read the thread before posting...good points have already been made, I've added nothing!

It's not something I concern myself with. If someone gripes to me about my opinions I will reassure them that they don't have a clue what they're talking about, and that they really ought to expend a bit more mental energy to understand what I'm saying. It's not that tough.

It's not something I concern myself with. If someone gripes to me about my opinions I will reassure them that they don't have a clue what they're talking about, and that they really ought to expend a bit more mental energy to understand what I'm saying. It's not that tough.

If they don't agree with you then it's because they don't understand you? Nice...

If they don't agree with you then it's because they don't understand you? Nice...

That's not what I said at all. What I said is that if someone comes up to me and calls me racist, or insensitive, or whatever, I'd say they didn't understand what I said.

Of course, that doesn't happen regularly, so it's not much of a problem. Because I don't hold views that anyone but members of the Nation of Islam would consider racist (i.e. it's a good thing Sobieski won at Vienna).