Political Correctness.

Read the forum code of contact

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

Having just posted a phrase in, "What the hell have we come to", I realise that we seem to have to be careful what we say in this day and age, Whatever happened, to "Freedom of Speech" Should we Brits, have Amendments that give us rights, (With the exception to the 2nd) as America has?.
Gentlemen, your thoughts please.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Original post

Member for

16 years 2 months

Posts: 2,248

For me pc is very much like religion, used to control people. Or actually I should say used to control those who allow themselves to be controlled.
People do not have any right not to be offended. The only reasons people should not say something is if it is unsupported by fact or malicious.
Flagging something as an opinion if (clearly) malicious and likely to be unsupported by fact does not excuse the expressing of unsavoury comments.

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,751

When did you last see an advert for Bacon or Sausages on T.V. ?

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

Good point Phil, Yes your right, I cant remember either.But why, just to placate members of a different religion?.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Member for

11 years 5 months

Posts: 11,141

The problem lies with the acceptance now that anyone has the right to be offended, either directly or by proxy, and that the perceived offence can be litigated against makes it a risky adventure. The whole thing is a nonsense of course and the courts should simply throw out anything other than quite clear cases of slander or libel. The whole mess is exacerbated by the fact that individuals empowered by wealthy lawyers flee to Strasbourg for compensation.

Member for

9 years 6 months

Posts: 197

Charlie
Yup... (puts head above parapet...) I work in local government, (ducks quickly) and it's a mine field, believe me. I wouldn't dream of bring rude to a colleague or customer (at least, not deliberately), but oh my word......
I have had an interesting time trying to explain to my younger colleagues my theory that there is no such thing as Human Rights, only Human Privileges. My reasoning being that not everyone has them and most of them have been bought at one time or another in blood. But no, they don't get it.

Member for

14 years

Posts: 4,996

There will always be those who claim the moral high ground, by taking offence on behalf of others.
There are those who have made a career out of it.

It's often a matter of who says what, and who they work for. In as much as, a school teacher can come
out with a seemingly innocuous remark, end up being sacked, and getting their story in the newsapaper.
A comedian such as Bill Connolly can refer to Catholic priests as a bunch of paedophiles in red velvet, and it barely
gets a mention. Maybe as he's in a position where he doesn't give a toss what people think.

Member for

16 years 2 months

Posts: 2,248

When did you last see an advert for Bacon or Sausages on T.V. ?

Richmond advertise quite heavily. So quite often.
Chap dressed like a peacekeeper, white bird flying about.

Member for

16 years 2 months

Posts: 2,248

Charlie
...there is no such thing as Human Rights, only Human Privileges.

Spot on.

Member for

20 years 8 months

Posts: 8,505

Charlie
Yup... (puts head above parapet...) I work in local government, (ducks quickly) and it's a mine field, believe me. I wouldn't dream of bring rude to a colleague or customer (at least, not deliberately), but oh my word......
I have had an interesting time trying to explain to my younger colleagues my theory that there is no such thing as Human Rights, only Human Privileges. My reasoning being that not everyone has them and most of them have been bought at one time or another in blood. But no, they don't get it.
I think most people under the age of about thirty see no further than their and their offspring's generations. I think PC was invented by people who are so sensitive that they find offence in all but the mildest remarks and actions. I'm strictly non-PC and always will be.

Member for

16 years 2 months

Posts: 2,248

I think most younger people of any time period struggle to see perspective. I also think at lot of older people do to.
It is perhaps exaggerated slightly in todays times by the abundance of information that seemingly encourages people to believe that they have an abundance of knowledge.
pc is ******** of the highest order, there's absolutely no right to not be offended. I also think pc only survives if people allow it to.
Too many people holding abhorrent views hide behind pc to complain that they can't say what they want to say whilst actually saying what they want to say obliquely.
This allows these nasty unfounded views to be circulated and even championed as plucky underdogs versus the heavy hand of pc.
This is also ******** of the highest order but nasty ********.
Those that champion pc are weak idiots that have no idea of the damage they do by allowing vile, unfounded opinions to be represented as champions of free speech.

Member for

20 years 6 months

Posts: 2,230

I feel certain that freedom of speech has been allowed to die a long time ago, and I have always been of the opinion that you should have the right to say anything, as long as anyone else has the right to also to challenge your opinion. I understand some things people say can be truly vulgar and disgusting, but censorship by the PC brigade now means we often do not know who these people with such vulgar opinions are. It doesn't stop them thinking it though or airing it in private, so in reality PC is pushing the worst of opinions under the carpet and hiding the truth.
Racism,sexism,Etc don't go away just because the PC brigade censor what is said and I wonder often if such things thrive because they become taboo. One day people may realise that allowing somebody to say what they want is not necessarily agreeing with what they say or promoting it, but it is allowing for debate. Working on the theory that I may totally hate and be disgusted by what you have to say, but I still totally defend your right to say it.

Always strikes me as odd that we are offended by words, yet we do nothing to stop killing and suffering of fellow humans. I personally feel more offended by death and suffering of others than any words I have ever heard or read. We are now at a stage where we are to scared to say anything in case it offends someone( or someone gets offended on their behalf), its beyond crazy.

Member for

20 years 8 months

Posts: 8,505

I'll go along with that. Not worth killing each other over a few words.

Member for

13 years

Posts: 2,841

I take my age and infirmity to say what the hell I like to people who upset me. In other words I am likely to call a spade an effing shovel regardless of their race creed or colour!

Member for

11 years 5 months

Posts: 11,141

I knew I'd met you, Paul!;)

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

What about the other part of what I posted Gents, re "Should we have Amendments" like the USA? Would we be better off than the system we have now, if we did.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Member for

11 years 5 months

Posts: 11,141

We actually have all the laws we need. It's just they are abused and misinterpreted. We do have freedom of speech within the old UK laws of libel and slander.

Member for

9 years 6 months

Posts: 1,613

Gentlemen, your thoughts please.

A complex issue, and it is rather too easy to post those on either side of it as foaming extremists. On the one hand you have Littlejohn et al misconstruing and mis-attributing everything from quotes to legalese to suggest that political correctness has gone 'too far'. On the other hand those in the PC camp seem to arbitrarily choose where and when to take exception, and you don't have to be especially cynical to see it as a lazy approach to shutting down discussions without having to put too much work in. To ask 'but why are you offended' is apparently wrong, and you are just meant to know. It isn't minority X's job to educate straight white men on their (real or imagined) oppression, etc etc ad nauseum.

But where I personally take issue is the phenomenon seen on American university campuses with 'safe spaces' and 'trigger warnings'. These are created in light of the fact that somebody, somewhere may be offended by a differing opinion. This is dangerous because, firstly, you are there to learn and not to dictate the content of your lessons and, secondly, because it creates a climate of fear for professors who would wish to voice opposing views and generally rock the boat but are scared that they will be downgraded as a result. Safe spaces are places for people to hide out in if somebody is visiting campus and might say things they don't wish to hear. 'Trigger warnings' are a faddy way of dealing with, on paper at least, a real concept. It is thoughtful, for example, to warn your PTSD-afflicted neighbour that you intend to set of fireworks. However it is apparently trendy now to preface all emails with 'trigger warning: email contains XYZ' for your most sensitive readers. Some feminist bloggers have claimed in recent years to have contracted PTSD-like symptoms because they were verbally abused on Twitter, to give one risible example.

Where I don't agree with most posters on here is the idea that political correctness is somehow offensive or something to take great pride in being opposed to. I don't feel that I have to restrict anything I say online or in real life, and I see fairly extreme right wing views voiced on this forum fairly consistently. The only people with any power on here would be the moderators, and I don't see them encouraging any posters to dial back their content.

My Grandmother (90 this year) complains about everything being 'too P bloody C', but who is actually asking her to moderate anything she says? Nobody I know of! She told me a couple of years back that they would be wanting 'a Muslim national anthem and a gay national anthem soon', apropos nothing in particular. She lives in a town with a Muslim population of ~5, and zero Africans or Eastern Europeans. Her neighbours are retired academics and people in oil (sardines?) and the like. She does have a gay couple living in the vicinity, but she loves them because they are so good with colour and always ask her how she is getting on. Nobody is telling her to tone it down, so I can only assume that it is her beloved Daily Mail and D. Tel that feed her this particular narrative. She feels threatened by a concept, or an idea, which seems a bit bizarre. This goes as far as her actually liking the homosexual couple she knows round the corner, but still holding on to a sense of unease at the concept of homosexuals. Where does this come from?

Member for

9 years 6 months

Posts: 1,613

In other words I am likely to call a spade a...

Careful now! :highly_amused:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs

Spade
a black person, recorded since 1928 (OED), from the playing cards suit.

On the other hand, I don't think ironing out racial slurs will really help tackle endemic violence and drug use within the African American community. I tend to view these things as pseudo-solutions, but you do of course get to feel good about it.

Member for

13 years

Posts: 2,841

OK coon then.The term used in our family for my oldest stepson since he was very young. This is used as his nickname as he is darker than the other two who are very pale,he is also called wog be his mum and me and also his wife.

Member for

19 years 3 months

Posts: 135

The Canadian view:

Political Correctness:
A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

Chris