Politically correct

[bobhikes]

That to you is political correctness stifling your speech?

Political correctness to me is stiffing the truth so not to annoy another because of cost. The cost being monetary, votes, status ...

 

[74x12]

You have had enough of the pc thought police?

Evidently

 

[Curious George]

I suppose for me it's the need to treat folks differently because of their supposed disadvantage.

Some people have become hypersensitive about gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, culture etc... To me this is all superfluous stuff.

When I'm dealing with individual people I these things don't even come to mind.

It's hard to know what everybody else in the world is going to be offended by. Myself, I don't get offended easily, especially were no offense was intended.

For example it I were to say something like "Mexico is a country I don't want to visit and certainly not live in", I could see where someone might take this as a racist comment. Or if I were to ask where someone was from originally, some might see this as xenophobic.

So it is based on an imagined response? Do you really imagine that most people would be terribly offended by you saying you do not want to live in or visit Mexico or you asking where are you from?

 

[socharlie]

It's used selectively as a political weapon to silence opposing viewpoints and demonize the opposition. The good news is that many people have had enough of the pc thought police.

pc initiators know that in time their initiative would take hold on people through collective unconscious.

 

[YmirGF]

I think the big one would be

If a members of a social minority tell you that using certain terms to refer to said group are disrespectful and un-courteous, they probably are.

I tend to agree. In person, I am VERY direct and yet have rarely been taken to task over ANYTHING I say simply because my given audience understands the context, due to non-verbal clues, speaking voice, inflection and content. That and my comments are not generally addressed as an attack on the person(s) within hearing distance is also helpful.

For example, several times while in huge stores ... with no one else around... I have said to sales clerks out of hearing range, "You there, infidel dog. Come here!" whilst smiling and waving them over. Me bad.

 

[Curious George]

Evidently

Perfect. How are they preventing you from saying what you want, and what do you want to say that they are preventing? And also, who are the pc thought police?

 

[Curious George]

I live amongst the hillbillies and the rednecks. Being politically correct means never drive a Dodge. Take the first day of hunting season off from work. The opening of trout season is an event. If ya think sum un ain't speak n right an ya try n corral em...well ya best be ready to debate all morn and the loser buys coffee.

I don't think this helps me understand what people are upset about when they say that they are complaining about political correctness.

 

[Curious George]

Really just want to use the same language we use around everyone else. It used to be treating everyone equal was a moral thing to do. Now a days you have to treat people differently depending on what group identity they associate themselves with.

What do you mean?

 

[Estro Felino]

I think that people misinterpret the meaning of "PC attitude" or "PC speech". It has nothing to do with being vulgar, offensive, vile towards people, as someone said here.

It means to avoid expressing one's opinion, in order not to be judged and condemned by most people, or more generally in order not to be misjudged or misunderstood.

I suspect that many attenuate their criticism of Israel for fear of being labeled antisemitic.

From what I read and hear about Palestinians here, I guess Italians are definitely fearless

 

[Curious George]

Political correctness to me is stiffing the truth so not to annoy another because of cost. The cost being monetary, votes, status ...

So who is stifling the truth and what truth are they stifling. Surely it is more than your boss?

 

[Curious George]

I think that people misinterpret the meaning of "PC attitude" or "PC speech". It has nothing to do with being vulgar, offensive, vile towards people, as someone said here.

It means to avoid expressing one's opinion, in order not to be judged and condemned by most people, or more generally in order not to be misjudged or misunderstood.

Example: let's speak of the Johnson-Reed act. It was an immigration act whose exclusive goal was to preserve the ethnic homogeneity of the American people without denying the general right to immigrate to other people.
Most people won't express an honest take on this subject for the sake of being PC

What is an honest take on the subject that people won't express?

 

[Quintessence]

It would if it were extremists only. But I hear it too many times from too diverse of a group for me to accept that is the group who complain about PC.

Yeah, that's the nature of buzzwords. They're often used, including in situations where it's not necessarily warranted. Then the meaning of the term gets watered down. I'm not sure what 'politically correct' means nowadays as a result of that.

 

[bobhikes]

So who is stifling the truth and what truth are they stifling. Surely it is more than your boss?

The e-mail sent was full of inacuracies, My boss his words "Its Ok I know but the e-mail was only sent to me. If you respond, he will probably send it to the higher up and I will be stuck with more paper work and tons of calls" paraphrased. I will be in tomorrow to work up a response for us.

 

[Curious George]

Yeah, that's the nature of buzzwords. They're often used, including in situations where it's not necessarily warranted. Then the meaning of the term gets watered down. I'm not sure what 'politically correct' means nowadays as a result of that.

That is how I feel. I figured I better ask.

 

[YmirGF]

Once upon a time in the U.S. any white man could slander any black person, or any gay person, anyone from a foreign "sh*thole country", and do so in public. And even if some of the people who heard his remarks found them both stupid and harmful, they rarely would dare to express their contempt.

Now, however, social dynamics have changed, and the people who find these comments stupid and harmful will likely say so, out loud, and to the person spewing the remarks. Which is exactly as it should be, and should have always been.

But the end result of this social change is that the automatic privilege that white people (mostly men) used to enjoy when speaking their minds in public, is gone. And now they are being held accountable for their foolish and harmful slander of others, by those members of the public that find it contemptible. And this public reaction to privileged bigotry has for some odd reason been labeled "political correctness". Which was an odd choice of label, since what it really is, is a new and vocal public scrutiny and criticism of a bigoted status quo.

I will openly agree that originally when political correctness first became prevalent it really did address seriously wrong expressions. 100% agree. The thing is that we have now entered a weird Twilight Zone era where almost anyone can take offense to almost anything and feel justified doing so regardless of the intent of the person targeted. It is not meant to further dialogue but rather is primarily an attempt to shut down dialogue altogether in an incredibly arrogant authoritarian manner.

 

[Curious George]

The e-mail sent was full of inacuracies, My boss his words "Its Ok I know but the e-mail was only sent to me. If you respond, he will probably send it to the higher up and I will be stuck with more paper work and tons of calls" paraphrased. I will be in tomorrow to work up a response for us.

So the PC movement is only your boss in your mind? Your speech has in no other way been affected?

 

[PureX]

I would love to know who the "thought police" are, and how they police our thoughts. As far as I can tell, I am able to think anything I want to think, and no one can stop me. I have always, however, had to exercise some digression when choosing what thoughts to verbalize, and to whom. But that would only make me my own "verbal policeman". That's not the same thing at all. So who are these "thought police" that I keep hearing about from people? How are they controlling what other people think, or say? How do they even know what someone else thinks?

The only "thought police" I can think of would be one's own 'conscience'. But how does that involve anyone else? And what's wrong with someone minding the dictates of their own conscience?

 

[Curious George]

I will openly agree that originally when political correctness first became prevalent it really did address seriously wrong expressions. 100% agree. The thing is that we have now entered a weird Twilight Zone era where almost anyone can take offense to almost anything and feel justified doing so regardless of the intent of the person targeted. It is not meant to further dialogue but rather is primarily an attempt to shut down dialogue altogether in an incredibly arrogant authoritarian manner.

Yes but what dialogue? Hell you just said you refer to people as infidels. It doesn't sound like your dialogue has been shutdown. How many people are taking offense? To what are they taking offense. Do the majority or even a large group of your friends take offense to other people's speech? If so what speech?

 

[sun rise]

Everyday speech:

1. Be polite.
2. Be respectful
3. Be courteous
4. Do not use insulting words
5. Speak to others the way you want to be others to speak to you.
6. Listen to other viewpoints. You may learn something important.

Yes.

#5 is the parent of the others.

 

[PureX]

I will openly agree that originally when political correctness first became prevalent it really did address seriously wrong expressions. 100% agree. The thing is that we have now entered a weird Twilight Zone era where almost anyone can take offense to almost anything and feel justified doing so regardless of the intent of the person targeted. It is not meant to further dialogue but rather is primarily an attempt to shut down dialogue altogether in an incredibly arrogant authoritarian manner.

I find that to be a very rare circumstance. I have certainly had my words shoved back in my face by people who took offense to them, but they had no control over my thoughts. And I could choose to either defend my words or apologize for them, as I deemed appropriate. And in fact, I tend to recall such instances as having been highly informative, and take them as a gift even if they're a bit uncomfortable for me, in the moment.