Being "politically correct" a good thing, overall?
- Thread starter ByteMe
- Start date
ByteMe said:
To be frank I find that rather a naive question. For a start, what do you mean by "politically correct"? It's a very subjective term. Everybody will have their own definition of it. Likewise "better" is also a subjective term -- better for whom? Better in what sense? Better in the sense of being less PC?
Now given that you said at the top of the thread that you didn't think PC was a good idea, in almost all circumstances, I'm guessing that you personally don't have much time for PC? Am I right?
So your question really boils down to "if people stopped doing stuff I don't agree with would the world be more palatable to my political tastes?". Well the answer to that question is quite clearly "YES", but it doesn't prove anything.
As nutball pointed out, neither your question nor your statement makes much sense.
There is no clear definition of PC. It varies from individiual to individual, from location to location, from culture to culture.
My personal opinion on PC is that PC as a way to protect a group of people from verbal abuse is a good thing. It should not be socially acceptable to call people Nigger, Greaser, Spick, light sucker, towel head, Fag, Chink or whatever.
What I personally don't like is PC as a means to euphemize everything. There seems to be the tendency to soft wash vocabulary which isn't exactly offensive but too much straight in the face. And that, in my opinion, serves no purpose whatsoever.
Why isn't it not PC to call a retarded person retarded? Calling retarded people "mentally challenged" kinda begs the question: by what? Mentally challenged by higher mathematics? By whiping your own ass? By the stream of meaningless buzz words coming from an average MBA? Makes no sense to me.
Why call a blind person "visually challenged"? I fail to see how the word "blind" is offensive. Short people aren't short, no, they are vertically challenged. Uh, sure.
What's next? Will gays become "vaginally challenged" one day?
So, there are different types of political correctness. Some I agree with, others I do not. So I cannot answer the question whether is is a good thing "overall". It all depends. Life isn't binary.
There is no clear definition of PC. It varies from individiual to individual, from location to location, from culture to culture.
My personal opinion on PC is that PC as a way to protect a group of people from verbal abuse is a good thing. It should not be socially acceptable to call people Nigger, Greaser, Spick, light sucker, towel head, Fag, Chink or whatever.
What I personally don't like is PC as a means to euphemize everything. There seems to be the tendency to soft wash vocabulary which isn't exactly offensive but too much straight in the face. And that, in my opinion, serves no purpose whatsoever.
Why isn't it not PC to call a retarded person retarded? Calling retarded people "mentally challenged" kinda begs the question: by what? Mentally challenged by higher mathematics? By whiping your own ass? By the stream of meaningless buzz words coming from an average MBA? Makes no sense to me.
Why call a blind person "visually challenged"? I fail to see how the word "blind" is offensive. Short people aren't short, no, they are vertically challenged. Uh, sure.
What's next? Will gays become "vaginally challenged" one day?
So, there are different types of political correctness. Some I agree with, others I do not. So I cannot answer the question whether is is a good thing "overall". It all depends. Life isn't binary.
The problem with PC is that it does just go too far in many cases. For instance I know that the good old-fashioned term 'Blackboard' has been outlawed these days. Supposedly this is to stop black people being offended (although I can't imagine any black person being offended by a board which is black being called a blackboard :? ).
You've got to call it a 'Chalkboard' instead and some schools have stopped using these in favour of those white boards on which you can use erasable markers. These are called 'Whiteboards' and not 'markerboards' however!
That's the problem with PC - some people being so worried about offending minorities that they campaign for the removal from use of certain words in the English language which have absolutely no negative connotations in the first place!
You've got to call it a 'Chalkboard' instead and some schools have stopped using these in favour of those white boards on which you can use erasable markers. These are called 'Whiteboards' and not 'markerboards' however!
That's the problem with PC - some people being so worried about offending minorities that they campaign for the removal from use of certain words in the English language which have absolutely no negative connotations in the first place!
THe_KELRaTH
Regular
Did someone just call me a Whiteboard???? hehe
I remember when Robertson Jam's had a Gollywog logo that was removed quite sometime, (years), back which has recently reappeared. I was in North Wales a few weeks ago and blow me down if a toyshop wasn't selling Gollywog toys!
I think the worst thing to come out of political correctness is the loss of some really funny jokes, Jim Davison's Chalky would have me rolling about in laughter.
Still it's not all gone, I was listening to a phone in chatshow on Belfast radio and the presenter was discussing what's on around town and mentioned a group of Swedish comedians that were touring the theatres. 2 Minutes later a woman phoned in saying there was no way she was going to see these comedians because it's probably just English people in disguise come over to take the piss of the Irish.
Now at this point you might have expected the presenter to just call her a nut etc but on the contrary he agreed with her. Then 2 other presenters joined in agreeing with her too!
Now when I think of North Wales thats the 1st thing that comes to mind
I remember when Robertson Jam's had a Gollywog logo that was removed quite sometime, (years), back which has recently reappeared. I was in North Wales a few weeks ago and blow me down if a toyshop wasn't selling Gollywog toys!
I think the worst thing to come out of political correctness is the loss of some really funny jokes, Jim Davison's Chalky would have me rolling about in laughter.
Still it's not all gone, I was listening to a phone in chatshow on Belfast radio and the presenter was discussing what's on around town and mentioned a group of Swedish comedians that were touring the theatres. 2 Minutes later a woman phoned in saying there was no way she was going to see these comedians because it's probably just English people in disguise come over to take the piss of the Irish.
Now at this point you might have expected the presenter to just call her a nut etc but on the contrary he agreed with her. Then 2 other presenters joined in agreeing with her too!
Now when I think of North Wales thats the 1st thing that comes to mind
nutball said:
I have as much time as anyone else. And no, I do live live a "rushed" life anymore... I refuse too. I just find it interesting the difference between people. It seems most people do not like the extreme's of being PC. BUT, I see it everyday in the extremes (on this site as an example). Maybe this is an example of "doing what I say and not of what I do".
If you can't tell, I have a difficult time with even trying to be PC. Most often I fail miserably. Is anyone else a nonPC person?
I also believe that if people would stop being so damn sensitive to things such as the above examples (blackboard, short, gay, etc.) the world would be a better place. Even the riskier words (nigger, chink, spic, etc.) do not offend me. I can't see a valid reason why anyone (now) would be offended.
It also seems to me that the liberal mindset often uses being PC. As soon as you disagree with their ideals they quickly label you as not being PC or a racist, homophobe, etc. Is this what they do to cover for not having a valid argument?
"What's next? Will gays become "vaginally challenged" one day?"
LOL, I thought that was for most 16 y/o boys. As in they can't get any.
Re: Being "politically correct" a good thing, over
I agree.
Like Mariner said, Renaming a blackboard to chalkboard it going way to far. It's not offending in the first place. But there are other situations where one should avoid certain words. Slinging around words like "nigger" isn't the best thing you can do, though it depends on how you say it too.
Heh, we have this quite popular small little cookie/sweets thing over here that's called "negerbollar", which means nigger balls. Let me just say it wasn't the most successful project in history when I family I know offered these to a family from liberia ...
Brent said:
I agree.
Like Mariner said, Renaming a blackboard to chalkboard it going way to far. It's not offending in the first place. But there are other situations where one should avoid certain words. Slinging around words like "nigger" isn't the best thing you can do, though it depends on how you say it too.
Heh, we have this quite popular small little cookie/sweets thing over here that's called "negerbollar", which means nigger balls. Let me just say it wasn't the most successful project in history when I family I know offered these to a family from liberia ...
I think his use of the term was fairly accurate, actually.
I mean, come on.. there are liberal ideals and conservative ideals.. you can be in the middle but either way somebody's going to refer to you as something. Political-correctness is moreso a trait of liberals than conservatives, AFAICS.
Not to say that conservatives can't approve of PC.. I approve of it somewhat (like the removal of the slang term "nigger" from our vocabulary, no matter how funny it can be) although not nearly as much as some.
I mean, come on.. there are liberal ideals and conservative ideals.. you can be in the middle but either way somebody's going to refer to you as something. Political-correctness is moreso a trait of liberals than conservatives, AFAICS.
Not to say that conservatives can't approve of PC.. I approve of it somewhat (like the removal of the slang term "nigger" from our vocabulary, no matter how funny it can be) although not nearly as much as some.
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