Political Correctness

[paulpablo]

RE: Guys: Would you ever rape and murder a girl? http://atheistforums.org/thread-40039.html

Damn it, I am so sick of atheists being offended at every little thing. Why'd you all attack this man, call him names, and label him a troll just because he suggested it's likely that atheists are potential rapists and murderers? A troll, mind you...a troll! Must everyone have to tip-toe around the sensibilities of overly-sensitive, thin-skinned, professional victims every waking moment of every single day? Come on! This gentlemen should've been free to be able to say whatever the fuck he wanted without interference from people whining that it was inaccurate, unfair or untrue. 

So what are we saying, atheists are a minority, so they're worthy of "special" rights and consideration...like consideration? Ha ha. Sure. Okay. 
This is a prime example of the type of PC bullshit that disgusts me. 







Just kidding:
3 Common Complaints about Political Correctness (That Completely Miss the Point)
http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/10/comp...rrectness/

All three of these examples just make blanket statements that can easily be wrong in certain situations.

1 People are too sensitive.

This is a common complaint against political correctness but why is it always an invalid complaint?
 
Additionally what makes someone too sensitive is a subjective opinion and can be specific to circumstances.

If a Chinese guy gets refused a job and he's told that it's because he's Chinese I don't think he's being too sensitive about complaining about that.

If a white person get's offended by the term people of colour because he believes it excludes and offends him I think that's being too sensitive and if a black guy gets offended by the term people of colour because he believes it makes white people the norm then I think that's also too sensitive.

2 It keeps us from saying what we really mean.

To be honest I don't have anything to say about this one, I don't say political correctness stops me saying what I mean.  I guess it's logical to assume that some bigoted people do use this excuse though.

The last one is my favourite because it's one I've just been talking about recently.

3 too much focus on words distracts from more important issues.

I feel I need to make my previous arguments more clear in relation to this specific statement.  I don't actually think that all words aren't an important issue.
I think that certain words are irrationally seen as offensive for no reason at all.  Some words obviously are inherently offensive.

If someone calls me whitey for example, even in an aggressive way, it's just something that goes completely over my head as far as offending me.  If a non white friend of mine called me that word as a joke I would probably find it hilarious and probably just call him a browny back.

And the same goes for coloured vs people of colour.  If people of colour makes sense to you as an expression then you shouldn't be inherently offended by coloured.  I don't use either term because I just simply use black, or non white or something like that.

And the same goes for negro, I don't understand how a word can be used by black people, be a non offensive word rooted in the word simply meaning black can suddenly just become inherently offensive.

I use the word inherently because words like "blondey" can be offensive but it isn't inherently offensive.

Didn't saying black become offensive and racist at one point but now it's ok again?  I think everyone was walking around saying afrocaribean or afro American for a while til people got tired of it and just went back to black again.

I will go out of my way to not offend people most times so it's not like I plan to try and revive the word negro to be back in common usage again.

It's just I can't imagine if my family went to black neighbourhood in Africa there would be this same type of discussion of "What shall we call them, do they like being called whites? What about the Brits?  How about the people of paleness? The Euros?"

None of the words offend me as a white person but I guess if you slap me across the face while calling me a Brit a few times I'll develop some negative connotations towards the term brit but it isn't the word that's causing the problem.  It's the hand slapping me in the face.
That's just pavlovian conditioning probably.

I would never say that no words should cause offence or harm though.

I'm so tired after typing all that I hope at least some of it wasn't the ramblings of a madman.