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Political Correctness

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Alexface.
Salute You in Your Grave
Alexface.
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May 8th, 2008 at 02:16pm
Political correctness (adjectivally, politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term used to describe language, ideas, policies, or behavior seen as seeking to minimize offense to racial, cultural, or other identity groups. Conversely, the term politically incorrect is used to refer to language or ideas that may cause offense or that are unconstrained by orthodoxy. // Wikipedia

Basically, a good example of this is the term "blackboard" or "whiteboard" being banned in schools to avoid offending people of different skin colour.

Has it gone too far?
What are your opinions on political correctness?
Why do you think it has become so much of an issue (especially in Britain)?

If you haven't already, please read the Discussion Board Rules before posting, thank you.
sweet disposition.
Banned
sweet disposition.
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May 8th, 2008 at 02:36pm
Sorry to be an idiot. but what is political correctness? "/
Alexface.
Salute You in Your Grave
Alexface.
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May 8th, 2008 at 02:42pm
love and monsters.:
Sorry to be an idiot. but what is political correctness? "/


Sorry, ill edit the first post and put a description Wink
girl interrupted.
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girl interrupted.
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May 8th, 2008 at 03:45pm
Political Correctness has gone mad, in my opinion. It's way over the top, and if a woman gets offended because Santa Claus says "ho ho ho" while she's around, I think she's hiding something.

And about the whole "ba ba black sheep" verses "ba ba rainbow sheep"... you get black & white sheep. You don't get rainbow sheep, so why would you be asking a non-existent animal for wool?

It's gone way too far, and to be honest, I ignore it nowadays.
Heroes.
Fabulous Killjoy
Heroes.
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May 8th, 2008 at 07:40pm
Some of the examples that have been provided I've never even heard of before. 'Ba ba black sheep' being offensive is just ridiculous. I don't much about when that nursery rhyme was written but I highly doubt that the author was looking to offend black people. It seems to me that people who bring these cases up are just looking to make money - if they can get a lawyer to take their case, no matter how ridiculous the situation is, they can get a whole bunch of money for absolutely no reason except being idiotic.

I think people just need to stop being so overly sensitive. I mean, I understand that the blacks in the world have been looked down upon by civilization for practically ever, but it's getting to be ridiculous. You know why it's called a whiteboard? Because it's white! Not because a white guy sat around saying, "Hey let's make this board white because white is the dominant race!!! Let's offend black people!"
Domenic
Killjoy
Domenic
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May 8th, 2008 at 10:48pm
Political correctness has gone way too far. One thing that's recently pissed me off is that they had a poll to change "Christmas Tree" to "Holiday Tree". Why? Christmas Tree is perfectly fine, it's CHRISTMAS.

I really hate when parents take it to far, when I see a politically correct parent I get pretty pissed off.
Mindfuck
Always Born a Crime
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May 8th, 2008 at 11:43pm
Domenic:
Political correctness has gone way too far. One thing that's recently pissed me off is that they had a poll to change "Christmas Tree" to "Holiday Tree". Why? Christmas Tree is perfectly fine, it's CHRISTMAS.

I really hate when parents take it to far, when I see a politically correct parent I get pretty pissed off.


While I agree that political correctness has gone too far, the whole Holiday tree concept was thought up so that it wasn't offensive to people who don't celebrate Christmas. Not everyone is Christian.

Although it has gone way too far, especially the Baa Baa Black Sheep nursery rhyme ordeal.
Ignore Alien Orders
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May 9th, 2008 at 12:27am
"The real guilt of P.C. is not its supposed intolerance or rigidity, but that it is not political enough--that it is impersonating political struggle."

That pretty much sums up my opinion on the subject. While I don't think that it's always a bad idea--for example, not using racial slurs is just common courtesy--I think that political correctness takes away from the real issues. You can be homophobic without saying ever saying faggot, and that's politically correct; and you can make a statement that's against racism and happens to involve a racial slur (look at the lyrics of "Olliver's Army" by Elvis Costello for an example) and that's not politically correct.


Alexface.
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May 9th, 2008 at 03:48am
techno cocaine.:
While I agree that political correctness has gone too far, the whole Holiday tree concept was thought up so that it wasn't offensive to people who don't celebrate Christmas. Not everyone is Christian.


That still shouldn't be an issue though. It's a Christian festival, therefore people who aren't Christian should be letting Christians get on with Christmas, and shouldn't have it as something to be offended by anyway. I mean, a lot of my friends are atheists, and one is a Muslim, and even they join in with the Christmas spirit.

Plus, you don't see, say, Buddhist festival terms being changed so that people who are not Buddhist don't get offended, do you? Why should it only be Britain and the USA doing it?
HEY AMY
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May 9th, 2008 at 04:25am
^ yes. i agree.
if people dont celebrate christmas, they dont have to. i mean, its a christmas tree... i dunno. it frustrates me sometimes. i mean, they dont have to buy one! i have plenty of non-christian friends who celebrate christmas. and i know of a lot of christian schools who celebrate... well, not celebrate, but encourage muslim holidays such as rammadun (sorry bout the spelling... lol.) like, they close the canteen during that time. and also who seperate the dairy and meat for the jewish students.
that was a kinda longish rant... but my point is that you dont have to be christian to celebrate christmas, so why should the christmas tree be called something different, cos it may offend other religions?
Mindfuck
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May 9th, 2008 at 04:41am
Scentless Apprentice:
techno cocaine.:
While I agree that political correctness has gone too far, the whole Holiday tree concept was thought up so that it wasn't offensive to people who don't celebrate Christmas. Not everyone is Christian.


That still shouldn't be an issue though. It's a Christian festival, therefore people who aren't Christian should be letting Christians get on with Christmas, and shouldn't have it as something to be offended by anyway. I mean, a lot of my friends are atheists, and one is a Muslim, and even they join in with the Christmas spirit.

Plus, you don't see, say, Buddhist festival terms being changed so that people who are not Buddhist don't get offended, do you? Why should it only be Britain and the USA doing it?



I know, and I agree with all of that. I was merely explaining to Domenic why the concept of the Holiday Tree came about, because they appeared to not know why it was thought of in the first place. I don't condone extreme political correctness in any way.
Alexface.
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Alexface.
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May 9th, 2008 at 10:56am
techno cocaine.:
I know, and I agree with all of that. I was merely explaining to Domenic why the concept of the Holiday Tree came about, because they appeared to not know why it was thought of in the first place. I don't condone extreme political correctness in any way.


Oh, I see Tehe. Often, my views and opinions come in a defensive way, because I either have a neutral stance on something, or I feel very strongly about it. There's no middle ground, really xD
Domenic
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Domenic
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May 9th, 2008 at 06:48pm
Of course I understand why it came around, but I still think it's ridiculous. If you don't celebrate Christmas then don't buy a Christmas tree, why rename it to Holiday tree?
Chantal
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Chantal
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May 9th, 2008 at 10:51pm
Audio Geography.:
"The real guilt of P.C. is not its supposed intolerance or rigidity, but that it is not political enough--that it is impersonating political struggle."

That pretty much sums up my opinion on the subject. While I don't think that it's always a bad idea--for example, not using racial slurs is just common courtesy--I think that political correctness takes away from the real issues. You can be homophobic without saying ever saying faggot, and that's politically correct; and you can make a statement that's against racism and happens to involve a racial slur (look at the lyrics of "Olliver's Army" by Elvis Costello for an example) and that's not politically correct.





I completely agree with this. I recently went to a reading for a poet who grew up here in Alabama(where im from) and writes about the history here, including the civil rights movement. While his poems include politically incorrect racist terms, they are not meant to be offensive and simply used as a way of representing the history and used as a way to show the racism in that time period. Still, the terms he used are pollitically incorrect, and if a person is completely consumed with this man being politically correct, it would be his art(which is beautiful by the way) that would suffer.
IceHog69
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May 13th, 2008 at 04:36am
Political Correctness has gone beyond all sense. There is a book of politically correct nursery stories, including the Gingerbread Person, so as not to offend women, and Ba Ba Blue Sheep. It's a whole lot of nonsense really. I don't think very many black people are going to be too offended if you call them black ie 'Taylor's over there, she's the tall black girl' that isn't offensive, it's stating a fact. If you then say 'but black people arn't black', well, white people aren't white, but we still say that, and nobody says anything.

Political Correctness has sprung from a world that is too afraid to offend anyone. People don't say 'black' because it might offend someone with dark brown skin. People don't say 'man' in stories, they say 'person'. Personally, I couldn't give a monkey's backside whether someone calls me a white guy, because that is what i am, and it's true. No amount of pcness is ever gonna change that.
Radio Saturday
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May 13th, 2008 at 05:13am
It's gone way over the top. "Niggardly" is a word unrelated to "n*gger," not something offensive.

On the other hand, I see nothing wrong that seeking to minimize offense... within reason.