Well, the problem with PC is that it automatically assumes the worst intentions even concerning well-meant criticism. Do y'all remember back in the 90s the aide at (I think) the GAO who was forced to resign because he'd used the word "niggardly" (meaning "tight-fisted" or "stingy") in a report? The PC brigade broke into howls not because he was calling someone a nigger, but because the word he was using sounded like a slur.
It's as if a woman got angry at you for using the word "hunt" when talking about your wilderness vacation, because it sounded like "cunt".
That is the danger of PC. You have these assholes running around, oftentimes taking offense on behalf of someone else who isn't even offended, and in the process castrating the language, and all the while they don't understand that in our Constitution, we have the right to free speech, but we do not have the right to be free from offense. The result is a milquetoast language which cannot describe what we're experiencing as humans.
People don't die any more; they pass on. What did they pass on? The liverwurst at brunch? Carlin's point about the language of obfuscation is an important one in this discussion. "Shell shock" becomes "battle fatigue" becomes "post-traumatic stress disorder"; two syllables becomes four becomes eight; plain language becomes sophisticated jargon, and the changes only serve to soften the reality they're meant to convey. PC attitudes may be well-intentioned, but the result of such an approach is too often the dulling or dimming of our understanding of reality.
Sorry about the rant, this is a passionate topic for me.
It's as if a woman got angry at you for using the word "hunt" when talking about your wilderness vacation, because it sounded like "cunt".
That is the danger of PC. You have these assholes running around, oftentimes taking offense on behalf of someone else who isn't even offended, and in the process castrating the language, and all the while they don't understand that in our Constitution, we have the right to free speech, but we do not have the right to be free from offense. The result is a milquetoast language which cannot describe what we're experiencing as humans.
People don't die any more; they pass on. What did they pass on? The liverwurst at brunch? Carlin's point about the language of obfuscation is an important one in this discussion. "Shell shock" becomes "battle fatigue" becomes "post-traumatic stress disorder"; two syllables becomes four becomes eight; plain language becomes sophisticated jargon, and the changes only serve to soften the reality they're meant to convey. PC attitudes may be well-intentioned, but the result of such an approach is too often the dulling or dimming of our understanding of reality.
Sorry about the rant, this is a passionate topic for me.
