The thing about Political correctness is that it is not something that emminated from government mandates, but rather, popular opinion. I will cede to any opposition that political correctness, in moderation, has it's benefits. It started out as a good thing. It's biggest issue being civil rights and similar incedents. It is to our benefit not to call people racially charged names or not to make fun of the mentally handicapped. Anything good about political correctness, more or less, ends there.

Being PC has been taken overboard to the point that it infringes on our education, our freedom of speech, and our general day-to-day life. We created a new classification of crime because of political correctness, The Hate Crime. I'm sorry, but a murder is a murder, assult is assult. It does not matter a persons race or sexual orientation, they are all people.

we are forced to learn history, both American and world history, from a multiculturalist perspective. This teaches us that all cultures are equal. The problem with that is that all cultures are not equal. If that were the case, why would people emigrate from their respective homelands, to start new lifes in a brand new country. If all cultures are equal, how come people arn't flocking to Somalia or Tibet by the hundreds-of-thousands like they flock to America.

Enevitably, someone will get mad that I used America as my example and call me a nationalist or racist or some other baseless insult, so I'll go ahead and lay this out there, I couldn't care less what you call me, I speak my mind, and that is by definition, the Freedom of Speech.

Ladies and Gentlemen , I am not saying that this is a liberal vs. conservative, democrat vs. republican arguement. That would be completely assinine and I'd be betraying myself to side with either. Instead, I present to you a challenge. To live day-to-day without being afraid of getting your feelings hurt, without being afraid of what other people may say about you. You cannot make everybody happy. One company in Austrailia has said that Santa is no longer allowed to say "ho-ho-ho" as it may be considered degrading to women. Instead he must now say "ha-ha-ha." Upon hearing this, one of our posters replied something along the lines of: If Santa says "ha-ha-ha" the children might get upset because they may interpret this as Santa laughing at them.

If you think this is ok, then I beg you to ask yourself if you truely understand the gravity of the current situation. I anticipate that most of you, however, will consider this utterly rediculous. If this is a first for you as far as PC is concerned, you are beginning to understand just how dangerous being PC has the potential to be.

I'm anxious to hear what other people think wrt this issue. It's a pretty hot item going into the election season and some debate/discussion on it would be interesting. Maybe even just stating viewpoints of you own

not at all. Motive has ALWAYS been a factor. That's why some murders are murder - some murders are manslaughter - some are murder one and some are murder two or three.

I don't know where you went to school. When I was in school we were CERTAINLY taught which nations were more primitive - had more brutal or substandard living conditions - had totalitarian regimes, etc. Are you sure you were paying attention?

The only thing political correctness does is keep from hurting others feelings. Now - there's no law against getting your feelings hurt, which is why it's merely PC - a suggestion of a way to live life without hurting others and not getting hurt yourself. Will people go out of their way to hurt others' feelings? Of course. Nobody doubts it. But, as far as I'm concerned, not hurting others' feelings - especially when based on nothing more than one's race, or religion, or ethnicity, or, or, or - is a good thing and one we, as a society, would do better to enhance, not try to evade.

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"No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities."

...Christian Nestell Bovee

The largest evidence of "political correctness run amok" in the USA today is found regarding US foreign policy (Iraq invasion & War On Terror) or in the 'War on Drugs'.

Both of these policies (much favored by the rightwing, I might add) are clear cases of Orwellian 'double-speak' forming the only officially acceptable discussion. If one doesn't use the official 'double-speak' terms for these events (i.e. speaks truth about them), then one is held to be some kind of irrational or deranged extremist.

The US invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with democracy and nothing to do with 9/11 and nothing to do with WMD's. But one must mouth these platitudes of 'political correctness'.

The US War on Terror is a major cause of terrorism. But the US is a major financier and routinely supplies training, weapons and support for terrorists.

The US War on Drugs is a massive failure (with non-stop increasing supply and lower prices for every category of drugs supposedly at 'war' with - every single year of the program - and US taxpayer funding of that program increases every year). It is not a 'war against drugs' - it is a policy of repression against some people who use some classes of drugs (and ignores other people who use other classes of similar drugs that are pharmaceutacally profitable). The US government also has a long history of facilitating illegal drug exports from politically sensitive regions if those drug profits are used to buy US weapons to be used in an US approved war (Afghanistan during the 1980's comes to mind here as a classic example).

These are clear cut examples of "political correctness" in US politics.

I don't consider those examples of political correctness - those are examples of dishonest politicians

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"No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities."

...Christian Nestell Bovee

Political correctness is all about using 'politically approved' words and definitions of things (and denigrating anyone who doesn't go along with the politically correct terms or definitions).

My examples fit that perfectly.

Saying that the US invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with WMD's, democracy or 9/11, or saying that the US war on terror increases terrorism or that the US war on drugs increases drug usage and availability constitute unacceptable public discourse and will not be tolerated by the US mass media.

um
I believe that Politically Correct comes from being politic (seeming sensible and judicious) - not from politics (the activities associated with the governance of a country).

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"No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities."

...Christian Nestell Bovee

[quote=tristanrobin;23412]I never said motive wasn't a factor, but why should the rules be different between killing a gay man and killing a straight man. After all, arn't we all people? Of course premed murder and conspiracy is a higher offence than killing someone on accident, that is an entirely seprate realm of the law. I'm focusing specifically on hatecrimes legislation.


Good for you. I'm glad you were tought that differant cultures and societies were not equal. Unfortunately, the same type of education is not offered to enough students these days. I grew up in the FCPS schools systems. One of the best in the country and propbably the world. That's not just pride, that's also fact. The school I went too is ranked 46th in the nation among America's best High Schools. I also recieved straight A's in History class. So the fact that in your post, you attempt to give me an implied insult and only shows others how lacking-in-substance your post really is.


Or what about telling people they can't say something because it goes against what you believe???

[quote=j.locke777;23560]Your sanctimonious arrogance aside, I did no such thing. A little honesty will help you along - you could practice that while you're studying which countries have substandard educations, meager living conditions, and/or have totalitarian regimes.

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"No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities."

...Christian Nestell Bovee

Motive does matter in sentencing a person. If I shot you out of malice, life in prison. If I shot you because you were going to shoot me first, I walk.

HOWEVER. Differentiating between malice towards a *****y ex-wife and malice towards a man because he is gay is, along with being unConstitutional at the state level, completely absurd. Malice is malice, negligence is negligence, it doesn't matter what CAUSED the malice.

As far as politically-correct speech is concerned, I believe that PC reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. Instead of refering to black people as "black people" we must use the term "African-American", which, unless said man is a direct immigrant from the continent of Africa, is completely inaccurate. Speak your mind, and if somebody takes offense, so be it.

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"If the founding fathers had all been 'go with the flow' kind of guys we'd all be sitting around sipping tea and listening to Oasis right now." - A friend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muHg86Mys7I

When I say something "politically correct," I do it out of politeness, not out of an urge to be "politically correct." I never say, "Native American." I say, "American Indian," or, "Amerindian." I even have a friend who's half Amerindian, and he's fine with it. I don't say, "African American," I say black. Besides, by its very nature, "African American" is racist. You see, it assumes that all black people are from Africa, which isn't true. What if they're from Jamaica? Or what if they came from Africa, but they aren't American? There are blacks in Britain. That you assume that all blacks came from Africa and live in the US is an insult to black people everywhere.

I say what I mean, not what some whiny-*** con artists who happen to belong to a minority think I should say. Peace.

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An' it harm none, do as ye' will.


Never argue with an idiot. He'll just drag you down to his level of intelligence and beat you with experience.