Political Correctness

2

Comments

  • Drunk in charge of an ark image

  • 'political correctness' is just plain good manners.

  • Political correctness is a stifling concept - it has to be to encompass the whole range of words that have been hijacked as labeled as 'politically incorrect'

    JB talks sense - as usual

     

     

  • Our work has an all staff meeting planned for this week and had some chocolate mini-eggs made up with the company logo and the words "Happy Easter" on it.  Apparently they can't give them out in case it causes offense to non Christians.  Now I'm not particularly Christian, but I'm happy to take anyone else's share of choccies if it saves them from being offended.  Selfless or what?

  • You are a true angel Hash

    Such sacrifice I am sure won't go unrewarded  image

  • N-word,  I-word D-word T-word P-word C-word H-word G-word T-word F-word !!!

     

  • bos1 wrote (see)

    Sometimes people see a PC agenda where there isnt one. Lot of the stories about christmas having been banned turn out not to be true.

     

    Made up by the Daily Mail

     

     

  • Some of these overreactions about Christmas and Easter are totally unfounded - people worrying about offending other people when there's very little chance of them actually being offended. Also, if a non-Christian is offended by an Easter egg then I'm afraid it's their problem. If your faith is that fragile then you need to have a word with yourself.

    We had a sale of Christmas decorations at work the other day. The girl with the biggest bag of stuff is a Hindu. She doesn't even celebrate Christmas!

  • Funny how there's so many corporate Christmas cards I get that say "happy holidays" or some such shite then...
  • I might draw the line at halal chocolate

  • I think Polly Toynbee has it right when she calls it 'an empty right-wing smear designed only to elevate its user'. Will Hutton said 'political correctness is one of the brilliant tools that the American right developed in the mid-1980s as part of its demolition of American liberalism...What the sharpest thinkers on the American right saw quickly was that by declaring war on the cultural manifestations of liberalism - by levelling the charge of "political correctness" against its exponents - they could discredit the whole political project.'

    For myself, I think there is really no such thing as political correctness, and certainly no such thing as a political correctness movement, simply continuing discourse on a range of issues, some of which has value, some of which does not.

  • Johnny Blaze wrote (see)
    I can't abide it when harmless terms like Merry Christmas are banned or replaced because some idiot somewhere thinks someone somewhere is going to be offended by its use. The politcal correctness agenda reaches into our lives in lots of different ways. Sometimes it is reasonable, and sometimes it is ridiculous.

    I don't think it is purely synonymous with "not being offensive". I think it has a deeper agenda quite often which is this, "not only do you have to conform with MY way of thinking, you have to adopt it unquestioningly or you will be cast into outer darkness."

    George Orwell would have hated it, I'm sure.

    Please give me an example that isn't made up of 'merry christmas' being banned.

  • To be fair I think that "Happy Holidays" came about as a catch-all that covered Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. Let's face it the last nation in the would that's going to want Christmas to lose its identity is the US.

    The irony is, of course, that it sort of does.

  • popsiderpopsider ✭✭✭
    Peter Collins wrote (see)

    Please give me an example that isn't made up of 'merry christmas' being banned.

    When I worked for Coventry City Council we weren't allowed to decorate the office for Christmas in case it offended people.    

  • Protecting the Few from offence or perceived offence causes offence to the many, why is this ignored?

  • Well said EKGO.

    And..why is it, that as an average, hetro, athiest, white (supremacist! pmsl), middle aged, working class, British male, I don't find anything anybody says offensive? I can't think of one word or phrase that could be used in my company or about me that would bother me in the slightest. Well, unless I was in a bad mood, but then it would just be grumpiness and sayng anything would offend me.

    So why do some social, political or ethnic groups take offence so easily?

     

  • popsider wrote (see)
    Peter Collins wrote (see)

    Please give me an example that isn't made up of 'merry christmas' being banned.

    When I worked for Coventry City Council we weren't allowed to decorate the office for Christmas in case it offended people.    

    That's not what I'd call political correctness. If true, it's just stupidity.

  • Lå®Ð䮧€ wrote (see)

    Well said EKGO.

    And..why is it, that as an average, hetro, athiest, white (supremacist! pmsl), middle aged, working class, British male, I don't find anything anybody says offensive? I can't think of one word or phrase that could be used in my company or about me that would bother me in the slightest. Well, unless I was in a bad mood, but then it would just be grumpiness and sayng anything would offend me.

    So why do some social, political or ethnic groups take offence so easily?

     

    Ah shut up, ya bloody jogger !!

  • Ah but Coventry was full of wacky politicians. Where's Dave Nellist when we need a laugh ?
  • EKGO wrote (see)

    Protecting the Few from offence or perceived offence causes offence to the many, why is this ignored?

    Well, just as one example, faced with a demand from the majority to be allowed to use the 'N' word to describe the only black person in a workplace, I know which side I'd be on (and it wouldn't be the majority). This is why I think this is simply about continuous discourse, with the answers changing with fashion and mores. I've taken a pretty extreme example to show why the majority might not always be right just because they're a majority. That will apply to lots of other situations - but there'll always be grey areas and also people who say and do very silly things in the name of an imagined equality issue.

  • Peter Collins wrote (see)
    Well, just as one example, faced with a demand from the majority to be allowed to use the 'N' word to describe the only black person in a workplace, I know which side I'd be on (and it wouldn't be the majority).

     

    But what if his name actually IS Nigel ?

     

  • Peter Collins wrote (see)
    EKGO wrote (see)

    Protecting the Few from offence or perceived offence causes offence to the many, why is this ignored?

    Well, just as one example, faced with a demand from the majority to be allowed to use the 'N' word to describe the only black person in a workplace, I know which side I'd be on (and it wouldn't be the majority). This is why I think this is simply about continuous discourse, with the answers changing with fashion and mores. I've taken a pretty extreme example to show why the majority might not always be right just because they're a majority. That will apply to lots of other situations - but there'll always be grey areas and also people who say and do very silly things in the name of an imagined equality issue.

    There lies the problem, the arrogance of the few that choose what is right for the many is more offensive than any words
  • Most people don't say anything that they think may offend someone, but there are some people who deliberately set out to look for offence, even where it's not intended.

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