pc, rude, asshat, christian,
PC = Totalitarianism
The evil of "political correctness" – the totalitarian manipulation of thought, foisted on us by twisted elitist sociopaths who hate America and everything our soldiers have fought and died for over the last two centuries, and continue to fight and die for – has to end. Now. It's over. This nation must rise up and defy the insane thought control that is destroying our country right before our eyes.
You know what the insanity is here? That Gretchen, the author of this post, thinks that the right of various groups to define themselves, and to demand that others stop using derogatory language towards them, is "insane", "twisted", "sociopath[ic]" and an insult to dead soldiers. (I'm guessing that's a Veteran's Day tie in?)
Let me explain something to you, Gretchen. You have the right to hate whomever you please. You also have to right to use whatever disgusting, bigoted language you wish. The First Amendment does indeed guarantee your right to be an asshole.
However, I have a right to react to what you say, and add my own opinion to the mix. So, when you refer to blacks as "ni**ers", women as "c*nts" and those with Down's as "damn retards", I have the right to call you a racist, misogynist waste of flesh who should have been drowned at birth.
I am guessing, however, that Gretchen has no desire to call blacks "ni**gers" or insult those with Trisomy 21. My guess is that she's pissed that when she calls people "f*gs" and "towel heads" other people say, "What is wrong with you?!" and stop inviting her to lunch. How dare they? She has First Amendment rights to be a complete asshole, we don't have First Amendment rights to react to it- no, wait, we do.
Asshat.
What really bothers me about this is the utter rudeness of it all. If a wheelchair user asks you to stop referring to them as "confined to a wheelchair", simple etiquette demands that you respect their wishes, even if you don't understand the sentiment behind the request. I know, I know, being "PC" requires one to be thoughtful and carefully consider one's words, motivations and understandings of the world and the people who occupy it, but is it really too much to ask that we extend a little empathy to our fellow humans? Really?
(Note: Yes, I do understand that this can get a little ridiculous. For some reason, I have morphed from a secretary to an assistant, which is just silly, but I'll take it if it means people start holding their tongues a little before speaking.)
Being PC, whatever. It's everybody's right to speak their minds. She can be stupid. You can be stupid. So what. But when being PC gets in the way and 13 people die, then being PC is being stupid.
ReplyDeleteI would not so daringly argue that Political Correctness never directly killed anyone. Sorry. That's just never happened; at that point it's not being PC, it's killing someone. The idea that trying to keep people from discriminating against American Muslims is directly responsible for Maj. Hasan's actions is just plain old incorrect.
ReplyDeleteWhat he did was identify himself as an extremist, but nobody paid attention BECAUSE he was Muslim.
ReplyDeleteI this a verifiable fact, or merely your personal opinion?
so, a few weeks ago i went to class. i was *barely* able to walk that, i mean i could move my right leg about 3 inches at a time. at MOST. and a really nice guy in my class offered to bring a chair to me.
ReplyDeletea DIFFERENT guy in the class said "don't help the crip. if she can't handle walking, she doesn't deserve to come to class"
so i said "wow, rude asshole. i'm not a "crip"
he said "you are crippled"
i said "i am disabled. you are currently not-disabled, or abled. i am not -crippled- i am disabled"
he said "PC bullshit doesn't change the FACT"
"WHAT FACT? that you are rude hateful bigot?"
"you are calling me a bigot because i didn't use the PC word"
"no, i'm calling you a bigot because you said if i am too "crippled" to walk, i don't *deserve* an education. i am calling you a bigot because you are angry and hate me because i am disabled"
and he shouts "i don't hate you because you're CRIPPLED, i hate you because you take more resources! if the teacher has to accomodate you, he might not have enough time to help the rest of us! if you can't walk you can't have a job and you're just going to end up a drug addict living off of my taxes, so why i should i ALSO have to share a class with you?!"
i tried to tell him that there are thousands of non-walking people with gainful employment. i tried to point out all the disabled people with jobs.
ALL HE SAW was the money spent adding ramps, elevators, push-button doors. and don't have the energy.
i, too, am sick of people yelling about how "PC" is "destroying" something, or is thought/mind control, that it "feeds" problems, etc.
anonymous person, FUCK YOU. you know why i say that?
because EVERY FUCKING DAY, i see a news article or report that talks about how a CHRISTIAN went and did something terrible. and it's always said, by SOMEONE, that "he was such a good Christian, we never expected something like this" or "yeah, he seemed a little controling, but the man is supposed to be the head of the house" or "he had a temper, but he had been praying about it, he asked the whole church to pray for him'
PEOPLE OVER-LOOK CRAZY CHRISTIAN BEHAVIOR ALL THE FUCKING TIME. over and over and over again, we see a Christian go bug-fuck-nuts, we hear stories about how they used to beat their wife and kids, or torture animals, or set fires, but they were *CHRISTIAN* and everyone ignored it because they had faith that if he was a "Good Christian" he could pray to God and God would make it stop.
every fucking we day we are TOLD to "ignore" all the warning signs that are given off by Christians. RUSH LIMBAUGH has OPENLY and ON THE AIR wished for Obama's DEATH. many other fundy loudmouths have advocated for a "lone gunman" to "solve" the "Presidental Problem", agitated for a fucking REVOLUTION and TREASON. and we ARE TOLD TO IGNORE ALL THESE EXTREMIST IDENTIFICATIONS.
so fuck off.
PC = Plain Courtesy.
ReplyDeleteRebecca;
ReplyDeletei think that was the *best* explanation EVER.
thank you.
Denelian, wow. That's an appalling story.
ReplyDeletePart of what seems to be going on here is that this isn't really about political correctness. When people use certain terms they are using them specifically because of their negative connotations and hurtful form.
However, at another level, there are different terms. Most people who complain about PCness aren't talking about use of terms like "Crippled" or "n*" or "kike" but rather complaining about having trouble keeping track of what term is even the appropriate one. One major example of this is "black"- the PC term is "African-American" but that term doesn't even really mean the same thing. An immigrant from Egypt is very likely not African-American in the sense of skin color. The terminology is thus not very helpful and moreover leads to problems if you are incorrect about what term to use (thus for example some people prefer the term black, especially if their ancestry isn't primarily African). This gets even more problematic when you start moving outside the US. The notation of X-American is thus very US-centric. So the attempt to be culturally aware actually reinforces US-centric attitudes.
There's a related situation: Polite people don't generally have a problem with using whatever term people want to refer to themselves. But even there there are limits. I don't think for example that anyone would take seriously Calvin's complaint that "boy" is sexist and agist and thus he should be called a "chromosomally advantaged youth." But it is really annoying when there are multiple possibly correct terms for a group and you don't know which to use and have to worry that there's a high likelyhood that whichever one you use someone will be upset.
Much of the complaining about political correctness really is just about people wanting to be free with their own bigotry. But that doesn't mean there aren't serious issues. Language matters and impacts how we think. So we need to be very careful about how we use it. We need to not only be careful about what words we use but also careful about what words we insist people not use.