Is political correctness out of control or what!?

Question

I don't know who will agree or who will disagree but I personally think political correctness in this country is on a war path. It is nonsensical most of the time and reallyu hurting the cultural fabric that is america. Who here agrees, who hear dsagrees? Both sides-please speak up- I want to hear what people have to say but voice you answers in a polite and logical way so that this can be an intelligent question-asnwer. Thank you!

Answer 1

It's been out of control for years!

Answer 2

"Political correctness" is an attempt by people
to establish guidelines to stop people from making
insensitive comments, on the belief that people
are too stupid to not stop themselves.

Nobody ever went broke overestimating
the stupidity of the general public.

Yes, I would much rather people have the
ability to put themselves in each other's shoes
and understand how comments may be
interpreted, but that is not a realistic assessment
of most people - they are either too lazy or
simply have no perspective.

By the way, the stupidity works both ways: At
least two of my friends from South Africa are
caucasion, but they are "African American",
at least since they immigrated.

Interestingly, Negroids tend may call themselves
the "N" word, but get unhappy when others use it.
I am a honkey, and quite proud of it... No
accounting for taste.

If I am referring to somebody as an issue of
color, I will use "*******", "Mongoloid",
"Caucasoid", etc - 'cause those are the medical
terms. I would never use "African American"
unless I was trying to describe somebody's
cultural history - and both Africa and America
are pretty big regions for that to be a useful
description.

I think polical correctness is extremely valuable
when working with children who have no ability
to understand irony or the culture behind some
of these epithets. However, like most things
with adults - the best communication depends
on KNOWING YOUR AUDIENCE. If you're in
a crowd that you don't know, political correctness
is a way of treading lightly. Do you really want
to be a bull in a china shop?

Since "political correctness" is not a law, it
does not violate the 1st ammendment.

Answer 3

You make a great point. May I counter? Political correctness should never be enforced by a government. However, government employees should play by different rules. I have turned people in who worked at the BMV for mistreating Hispanic customers. Do they have to like Latinos? No. Do they have the right to keep their job for clearly treating people of different backgrounds differently? No, again. I strongly support free speech, even for those I find despicable. But don't expect me to respect you if you continually use disrepectful language.

Answer 4

Totally. Even the ACLU has given up on free speech being their fundamental tenet. Now its don't offend anyone less you infringe on their rights. EVEN IN COLLEGE! This is where I used to see these things discussed.

I don't even know what people are talking abut sometimes. Both people with mental deficiencies and people who are brilliant are now reffered to in school as "special". I guess we don't want to offend the smart people.

I hear they've outlawed dodge ball in some schoolyards because not everyone wins some percentage of the time and this is leading to their becoming people with low self esteem.

Quoting Dennis Leary, "Life sucks! Get a helmet!"

Answer 5

OMG!! I totally agree. I was just writing an article for my school newspaper around Christmastime last year about this. I'm so fed up with it. I don't want to say Happy Holidays just because someone from another country that moved to MY country gets offended or some Athiest gets offended when I say Merry Christmas. My personal opinion is, if you don't like it, keep it to yourself. All I'm trying to do is wish you a happy December 25th. And maybe it offends me when you say Happy Holidays because I happen to believe that Jesus was born and he died on the cross for my sins. So... yeah I think it's appropriate to say Merry Christmas and celebrate his b-day. Ok... I'm off my soapbox. Thank God there is someone out there who thinks the same things I do.

Answer 6

Political correctness is 100 % wrong. It is the antithesis of freedom of speech.

The populist authoritarianism that is the downside of political correctness means that anyone, sometimes it seems like everyone, can proclaim their grief and have it acknowledged. The victim culture, every sufferer grasping for their own Holocaust, ensures that anyone who feels offended can call for moderation, for dilution, and in the end, as is all too often the case, for censorship. And censorship, that by-product of fear - stemming as it does not from some positive agenda, but from the desire to escape our own terrors and superstitions by imposing them on others - must surely be resisted. ~Jonathon Green, "Did You Say 'Offensive?'," as posted on wordwizard.com

Answer 7

People get bent out of shape for just about everything. If they don't like something they hear or see or experience then it should be eliminated from the earth. I believe if i don't like something then I don't participate in it. I don't like fox news so I don't watch it but there are people who need to have it eliminated because they can not skip over that channel. This is a country of diversity and if there is something out there not for you i'm sure if they look a littler they will find something that is for them. With so many different ideas and thoughts and likes why do we have to limit our options.

Answer 8

I think that PC is worthless because it has taken precedence over speaking the truth. The English language is riddled with non-PC jargon that became common usage and meant nothing derogatory to the person using it. I said, "It's not all black and white," once when I was in college and a black girl called me out for it right in class. I told her I thought it was about pen and paper...

I do think it would be nice to see more kindness and civility in our culture, but I'm not holding my breath.

Answer 9

I think the issue can only be discussed on a case by case basis. We need specific examples. For example, if there is only one female in a company, is it acceptable to refer to her as the "fat broad" or the "baby machine that has to take 3 months vacation so she can hatch her pups". Or is it acceptable to refer to African Americans as "food stamp abusing spearchuckers". Or is it acceptable to refer to Asians as "rice eating yellow midgets". Or hows about calling a physically impaired person a "whining gimp".

Personally, I don't mind making the effort in treating people with respect. If I know the person, then I'll engage in some playful language.

Answer 10

It is so out of control it saddens me. God is taken out of school. Teachers, pricipals, etc., can't punish children that need it. And now you can't even say Merry Christmas because it mentions christ. The world is definitely going crazy, and I wish we would focus on more important things like the chaos that our country is in right now. No instead we focus on all the emotionally insignificant things that don't hurt anyone. Sad!

Answer 11

Political Correctness has about 5% of good....and 95% of crazy?

It is a pity....it was not the other way around.