Political Correctness

[Pyrrho]

It's contextual in my opinion.

Sometimes there's real downright racism, misogyny or homophobia that has to be challenged. I don't consider calling Charleston "racially motivated terror" and having discussions about race in response politically correct, it needs to happen in this instance. But if you find everyone getting offended over the tiniest of things, it becomes a walking on eggshells society which is unpleasant. Life's too short to find oppression in everything, pick your battles. There's also nothing wrong with satire or dark humour in the right context.

I don't like seeing religion defended for the purpose of being politically correct. The fact is Christianity and Islam in particular are the cause of a great deal of oppression in the world. Of course it's not all Christians and all Muslims who are responsible, but you don't help the discussion by derailing it constantly reminding us that.

You bring up an interesting point in your comment: "But if you find everyone getting offended over the tiniest of things, it becomes a walking on eggshells society which is unpleasant."  There are a couple of very different situations in which this might seem to occur.  It may be (and this is what most people think of) that someone is being too easily offended.  But another very real possibility is that someone keeps saying very offensive things.  To give a trivial but easy to understand example, imagine someone who uses the word "nigger" as a synonym for "black," and has no clue that it is in any way offensive.  That someone will likely find that every time he or she speaks of black people, people get offended.  In reality, more often, though, this will occur when some bigot says bigoted things constantly, and imagines that others are being overly sensitive, when the truth is that the person is a bigot who constantly says bigoted things.  You have probably noticed this in connection with religious bigots speaking about gay people.  There are plenty of people with stupid, bigoted opinions, who say stupid bigoted things with great frequency.  Many of them imagine that the problem is that other people are just being too easily offended.  They don't understand why anyone should be offended in saying that gays are satanic and deserve to be burned to death, or that rape isn't a big deal (there is a thread here that comes to mind for this second example, where an idiot is defending God's commands in the Bible that it is fine to rape women who are captives in a war in which one has murdered her parents and brothers, as long as one marries one's victim).

[Napoléon]

It is politically correct to not call black people "niggers" and all women "bitches."  Do any of you really object to that, or are you unclear on the meaning?

I object.

Freedom of speech trumps our moral sensitivities.

If someone went round calling people niggers and bitches then I'm sure society as a whole would do a fine enough job of calling them out without the need for this absurdity that is political correctness.

[Pyrrho]

They don't have to be.  By wilfully remaining members of that corrupt outfit and thus continuing to support it they are enablers.

Isn't this a fallacy of guilty by association?

No.  By throwing money in the collection plate, they are paying for the corrupt organization to continue doing its corrupt things.  By publicly identifying themselves as Catholic, they are promoting the Catholic Church.

what if I don't go to church?

If they stay away, do not donate to the church, and do not identify themselves as Catholic, then it is a bit different.  Of course, they cannot be Catholics in good standing that way, as they are supposed to attend mass and etc.

does that mean that if I'm a marxist I am responsible by Stalin's policies even if I personally disagree with his take on Marxism?

...

That isn't the same at all.  That is more like condemning all Christians for what Catholics do.  And that is not what Minimalist asserted.  (Of course, it is right to blame other Christians for what those other Christians do, one of which is promoting the idea that people should believe stupid shit for no good reason, or in other words, be prejudiced about things, though they tend to prefer the word "faith" for this.  And that shows dishonesty as well, because they pretend that their prejudice is a virtue when it really is a vice.)

[Regina]

It is politically correct to not call black people "niggers" and all women "bitches."  Do any of you really object to that, or are you unclear on the meaning?

I object.

Freedom of speech trumps our moral sensitivities.

If someone went round calling people niggers and bitches then I'm sure society as a whole would do a fine enough job of calling them out without the need for this absurdity that is political correctness.

I do agree with this

There are some people (not just black, some white too) who literally want to see people thrown in jail for using the N word. That's just stupid. It's an unpleasant word everyone should be strongly discouraged from using sure, but the reaction people get for using it (and maybe a small fine or warning) is enough punishment really. Same goes for misogynistic or homophobic terms. I don't wanna see people being thrown in jail just for saying "faggot", that's so petty.

[Napoléon]

Wait, faggot refers to gay people? I thought it referred to OP?

[Pyrrho]

It is politically correct to not call black people "niggers" and all women "bitches."  Do any of you really object to that, or are you unclear on the meaning?

I object.

Freedom of speech trumps our moral sensitivities.

If someone went round calling people niggers and bitches then I'm sure society as a whole would do a fine enough job of calling them out without the need for this absurdity that is political correctness.

That has already been dealt with:

I only want people to hug and sing kumbaya. But noooooooo -_-

I think everybody should say what they think, doesn't matter if it offends someone. That way we know who's the asshole in the room.

Cos you know, free speech and all that

Being an advocate of political correctness does not entail wishing for it be enacted into law.  I don't want people to call black people "niggers," but I do not want it to be illegal to do so.  

If someone does call black people "niggers," it is likely to influence my decision on whether or not to associate with the person.  And, depending on the circumstances, I may criticize someone for doing so.  You may choose for yourself with whom you will associate.  My guess is that you will act in a similar manner to me on this particular point.

Also, look back on the definition of "political correctness" in post #4. Are you saying that you think it is bad if someone avoids "forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insultgroups of people who are socially disadvantaged or  against?"

There is no reference to the law in the definition of "political correctness."

Still, I am less sanguine about society's influence on preventing bigots from expressing their bigotry than you are.  If society were effective in such things, we would not be constantly inundated with bigoted remarks.

[The Grand Nudger]

-which would make it more difficult to keep tabs on bigots. "Here's a megaphone motherfucker, tell everyone what you think.", just my preference.

[Minimalist]

Isn't this a fallacy of guilty by association? what if I don't go to church? does that mean that if I'm a marxist I am responsible by Stalin's policies even if I personally disagree with his take on Marxism?

If you don't go to church and don't make contributions to their filthy coffers but for some reason still insist on calling yourself a "catholic" well, then you have other issues.  The church itself is not too pleased with you. 

Again, if you are a Marxist who does not attend party meetings you'd be of precious little use to Stalin who determines the standards of conduct which were needed to not get a bullet in the back of your head.

But if you provide verbal/moral support for either the church or the marxists ( nice analogy, btw) then yes, you have to live with the guilt of supporting monsters.

[Bob Kelso]

What PC is and how it's being used by the Tumblr-esque legions that house the ever expanding, irritating, locales of social media are two different things. 

The first serves a well intended purpose and the second needs to be printed on toilet paper so I can show you exactly how I feel about it.

[abaris]

In my book, PC is kind of a speech police. Let people say what they want. If someone's making an ass of themselves in the process, it's really their problem.