RE: Political Correctness
December 15, 2015 at 7:55 pm
(This post was last modified: December 15, 2015 at 8:01 pm by bennyboy.)
What I get from this thread so far (at least for me) is this:
1) Names made specifically to take an unintelligent stance toward a group are bad: nigger, chink, faggit, gook etc. are like saying "I disrespect you so much, I'm not even going to bother saying the word for you properly." The negative isn't so much in the racism as in the complete disrespect with which it's prevented. I've seen at least 20 fights in Canada start with "What the fuck are YOU lookin' at, faaaaaagit?" and it's ugly.
2) Some words describe people reasonably well: colored IS a meaningful term from the perspective of white people, and handicapped or crippled ARE words that reasonably well describe traits people can have. Retarded people ARE stupid, in relative terms, and calling someone retarded is saying they are acting stupidly. None of these words bother me much, because while they aren't necessarily sensitive, they aren't words of hate specially constructed to belittle. When they are USED as such, then the bullying stance is always wrong: "What the fuck are you looking at, retard!?" is clearly bad, while "Oh my God, I forgot to turn off the stove again. I'm so retarded!" isn't too bad, at least to me.
3) (my own idea) a lot / most of PC is as belittling as the un-PC vocabulary, because it implies that all those groups NEED to be protected by. . . guess who? Douchey young or middle-aged white people. How condescending that the Starbucks faggits (yeah, I said it, and I don't mean homosexual!) think anybody needs them for anything but fixing their iPhones.
1) Names made specifically to take an unintelligent stance toward a group are bad: nigger, chink, faggit, gook etc. are like saying "I disrespect you so much, I'm not even going to bother saying the word for you properly." The negative isn't so much in the racism as in the complete disrespect with which it's prevented. I've seen at least 20 fights in Canada start with "What the fuck are YOU lookin' at, faaaaaagit?" and it's ugly.
2) Some words describe people reasonably well: colored IS a meaningful term from the perspective of white people, and handicapped or crippled ARE words that reasonably well describe traits people can have. Retarded people ARE stupid, in relative terms, and calling someone retarded is saying they are acting stupidly. None of these words bother me much, because while they aren't necessarily sensitive, they aren't words of hate specially constructed to belittle. When they are USED as such, then the bullying stance is always wrong: "What the fuck are you looking at, retard!?" is clearly bad, while "Oh my God, I forgot to turn off the stove again. I'm so retarded!" isn't too bad, at least to me.
3) (my own idea) a lot / most of PC is as belittling as the un-PC vocabulary, because it implies that all those groups NEED to be protected by. . . guess who? Douchey young or middle-aged white people. How condescending that the Starbucks faggits (yeah, I said it, and I don't mean homosexual!) think anybody needs them for anything but fixing their iPhones.
