"Political Correctness"

[CAleftist]

Ever notice certain people complain about "political correctness?"

From Wikipedia:

Political correctness (adjectivally, politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term which denotes language (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language), ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts, and, as purported by the term, doing so to an excessive extent.

Not surprisingly, the people who complain most about "political correctness" are male, white, straight, Christian-in short, the people who stand to lose power over other people when equality is achieved.

[Dumb]

There's PC, and then there's PC. I've heard the term used to refer to (and/or to deride) minimizing offense against downtrodden groups on the one hand, or to minimize criticism of authority on the other. For example, at my last job, it wasn't considered PC to make jokes about our CEO (a rich, white male for the record, and we made fun of him for making countless decisions demonstrating how out of touch he was with his employees).

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

I've noticed that many of the same people who complain about others being too "politically correct" go apeshit when someone says anything remotely negative about US troops, the police, Christians, people with trust funds, businessmen, or corporations. "Political correctness" of another color in reality.

[La Comédie Noire]

The reaction against "PC" is the reaction of the powerful against the oppressed . I think it comes from the 60s and it's half measures. We recognized there were problems of inequality, but we never remedied those problems, instead we decided to put a human face on the oppression. So now you have ignorant people saying "we fixed the problem, anyone who is disadvantaged is so because of their own failings. They should learn to take a joke."

Imagine if slavery had stuck around in Georgia, but it was considered bad to use the N word. I can imagine an irate planter saying "well we treat them like niggers. Why can't we call them niggers?"

[Susurrus]

There's a difference between being politically correct, and hushing the discussion of issues under the dictum of political correctness.

[TheGeekySocialist]

PC is an attack on the principle that "freedom is always the freedom of dissenters", the fundemental tennant of democracy.

[The Intransigent Faction]

PC is an attack on the principle that "freedom is always the freedom of dissenters", the fundemental tennant of democracy.

There may be some truth to this to the extent that being "PC" can involve censorship, and we absolutely should not be calling for censorship as a way of supposedly addressing social prejudices.

Still, promoting political correctness is not inherently an attack on the freedom of dissenters (especially given that the "dissenters" on these matters seem to tend to be supporters, not opponents, of political correctness---supporters are dissenters from discriminatory mainstream discourse). Just because one has the freedom to be a bigot doesn't mean he or she ought to be one, nor does such freedom mean others can't or shouldn't call someone out for bigotry.

There's a difference between censorship and trying to promote political discourse that doesn't discriminate against disadvantaged groups. Also I'm pretty sure that freedom of people who happen to have a different colour of skin or who were born in another part of the world to not be harassed because of this is also important!

[TheGeekySocialist]

There may be some truth to this to the extent that being "PC" can involve censorship, and we absolutely should not be calling for censorship as a way of supposedly addressing social prejudices.

Still, promoting political correctness is not inherently an attack on the freedom of dissenters (especially given that the "dissenters" on these matters seem to tend to be supporters, not opponents, of political correctness---supporters are dissenters from discriminatory mainstream discourse). Just because one has the freedom to be a bigot doesn't mean he or she ought to be one, nor does such freedom mean others can't or shouldn't call someone out for bigotry.

There's a difference between censorship and trying to promote political discourse that doesn't discriminate against disadvantaged groups. Also I'm pretty sure that freedom of people who happen to have a different colour of skin or who were born in another part of the world to not be harassed because of this is also important!

the problem is that once you bestow upon someone the power to silence bigotry, they tend to then look for other people and things to silence, ideally of course it would just be used to discourage bigotry, but in practice this rarely seems to be the extent of it.

[Sugarnotch]

"Politically correct" is a contrivance used to trivialize people that don't approve of bigotry. I have no interest in what those who wield the term have to say.

[piet11111]

Well its not PC to be a communist as we are intolerant of rich fuckers and oh so violent and dogmatic why cant we just talk about it instead like civilised people :rolleyes:


Clearly political correctness is a way of castrating dissenting opinions to maintain the status quo.
Most of the time for the better against racism sexism bigotry etc but its also directed against us.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Not surprisingly, the people who complain most about "political correctness" are male, white, straight, Christian-in short, the people who stand to lose power over other people when equality is achieved.

This is very true that most of the complaints about "PC" come from people who basically want to be homophobic or racist without being called on it. Many of the same people probably also complain about Obama's "socialism" even though Obama has really not been much different than Bush or any other representative of the ruling class (aside from in rhetoric sometimes). So just because the right is up in arms about something doesn't mean it is as radical or progressive as they make it out to be. Generally in recent history, these right-wing strawmen are more about the right pushing it's politics forward rather than trying to stop progress being made by activists or movements of the oppressed.

PC in it's current use was really more a creation of the right as part of their attack on the radicalism of the 1960s and 1970s than any sort of conscious political push by liberals or progressives let alone activists. The term gained popularity in the 1990s as a rallying cry of the right-wing culture wars: Howard Zinn's history was "PC" and ethnic studies programs were "PC" as much as saying "handicapped" rather than "cripple" was. So it is part of the battle for the re-mainstreaming of discredited right-wing conceptions of history and modern society (in the US, that is:)) after the radical movements had already been in retreat. Of course this attack meant that many liberals responded by defending "PC" as a viable means of confronting oppression. However, it was really the movements of the earlier decades which made it unacceptable to use the n-word or tell women to "stay in the kitchen" etc, so there was a concrete component to it that the language changes and concepts of what is politically acceptable or not in the mainstream mearly reflected. Changing the language without the social force to give that change meaning is more or less just applying a fresh coat of paint to a rotten house and then saying that the house is no longer faulty.

[00000000000]

It has often been said "You can't even say queer or gollywog anymore. It's PC gone mad!!"

...why would you want to say those words? Is it such an infringement on your personal freedom that we ask you not to use derogatory terms to minorities?

Still, when the tedious bourgeous pricks vote in Jezza Clarkson as PM, all that sour-faced leftie bollocks will be out. Might even get Jim Davidson in as Home Secretary. Common sense from the silent majority...*bleeds internally from having to quote such fucking nonsense*

(Apologies for some outside the UK as you may not know who Clarkson and Davidson are...reactionary, white, bigoted TV personalities basically)

[KevlarPants]

Political Correctness that goes against the illogical discrimination of groups of people, such as races, sexes and religions (to an extent), is fine, and should be promoted.

Political Correctness used to censor "bad words" and nudity is just another puritanical tool of the religious right.

In my opinion, though, people should be able to SAY whatever they like. The condemnation of racial slurs only perpetuates racism. It's the same as swear words. These words will only keep being negative so long as people give them meaning. Once they no longer mean anything, they will no longer exist.

Discrimination of groups, though, is a fucking abomination, and should be shunned democratically by the people.

[The Intransigent Faction]

the problem is that once you bestow upon someone the power to silence bigotry, they tend to then look for other people and things to silence, ideally of course it would just be used to discourage bigotry, but in practice this rarely seems to be the extent of it.

Yeah, once more---never advocated silencing anyone---but calling them out for bigotry and promoting different terms in discourse is a different matter. Just wanted to clear that up.