Has Political Correctness Gone too Far?

[Senkaku]

70 years ago, we had 18 year olds running into machine guns, storming beaches and jumping out of aeroplanes. Now we need "safe rooms" because "words hurt"

70 years ago, we had just shifted out entire economy to support the largest war in all of human history, Civil Rights hadn't been passed, and we hadn't invented the transistor or really discovered what a concussion is.

I would hope that we've moved beyond where we were as a society 70 years ago. 18-year-olds getting blown to smithereens by artillery fire should not be a normal, regular thing, just like the murder of millions of Jews and Russian and Chinese civilians or the bombing of London or Berlin should not be regular, normal things.
Or, for that matter, dropping atomic weapons all over the place.

[Liriena]

How is fighting against political correctness being a lunatic?

Political correctness is just a form of censorship and an attempt to control language.

I think you don't understand what censorship is, and how language works, but okay.

"Fighting against political correctness" doesn't make you a lunatic. It does, however, make you look a bit like a modern day Don Quijote, windmills and all.

[The Lone Alliance]

I think you don't understand what censorship is, and how language works, but okay.

"Fighting against political correctness" doesn't make you a lunatic. It does, however, make you look a bit like a modern day Don Quijote, windmills and all.

You can say the same thing about both sides.

[United States Of Anto]

Yes,it has. Political correctness is the most un-progressive thing there is. It infringes on our freedom of speech.

[Islamic Meritocratic Transoxiana]

Well, my somewhat rambling opinion on this:

In a word, yes. 1. Offending ain't nice, but the fact is school should prepare people for the real world. And in that world people will insult you for stuff you may or may not control, so it's better to be prepared. 2. There's a difference between criticism and insult. I'll use anti-Islamic sentiment as an example here, since I'm a Muslim and no one here will think I'm targeting them. There's a significant difference between this: "Muslims go die in a hole, you're all going to hell!" and this: "I do think that Muslims tend to have a higher rate of violence than other major faiths." (Tone matters a lot here, and the first type often uses slurs) 3. From personal experience, being only somewhat socially conservative in a really blue state: crushing free speech only makes the crushed stronger. There's a lot more I could say, but I think I've gotten the gist of my thoughts out.

[Senkaku]

Yes,it has. Political correctness is the most un-progressive thing there is. It infringes on our freedom of speech.

No one is forcing you to try and be polite to people.

[The Lone Alliance]

Yes,it has. Political correctness is the most un-progressive thing there is. It infringes on our freedom of speech.

No one is forcing you to try and be polite to people.

I can't get over how people seem to stupidly assume political correctness is simply being polite.

There are polite unrepentant racists and sexists.

[Senkaku]

No one is forcing you to try and be polite to people.

I can't get over how people seem to stupidly assume political correctness is simply being polite.

There are polite unrepentant racists and sexists, according to you they must be politically correct.

You are suggesting that being unrepentantly racist and sexist is polite. It's not.


I mean, I can't stop them if they really want to say it, but it's rude.

[Liriena]

I think you don't understand what censorship is, and how language works, but okay.

"Fighting against political correctness" doesn't make you a lunatic. It does, however, make you look a bit like a modern day Don Quijote, windmills and all.

You can say the same thing about both sides.

Not really. With the exception of the occasional few who see prejudice where there's none, I fail to see how people who want to discourage the use of needlessly inflammatory language are anything like Don Quijote and the windmills. There is nothing Don Quijote-ish about people discouraging the use of racial slurs and the perpetuation of noxious stereotypes in public discourse.

There's a difference between saying "Star Wars is racist because Darth Vader is black" (Don Quijote-ish) and saying "You shouldn't refer to a trans person as 'tranny'" (not Don Quijote-ish at all).

If you encounter an instance of people unfairly criticising language as prejudiced, you can and should address it. Excesses can and do happen, and they should be kept in check. My problem is that most of the people that I've encountered who saw themselves as fighting against political correctness were not the victims of some uniform, monolithic authoritarian doctrine, but rather they were bothered by others holding what they thought and said to critical scrutiny, people who up until then had been able to say prejudiced and inflammatory things without facing any criticism, and suddenly found that what they thought was "common sense" was, in truth, anything but.

[Liriena]

Offending ain't nice, but the fact is school should prepare people for the real world. And in that world people will insult you for stuff you may or may not control, so it's better to be prepared..

So, normalising abusive and discriminatory discourse in youth is your idea of "preparation" for adulthood? Wouldn't it be better to try and make the next generations better, so that they may improve this apparently horrid "real world" you speak of, rather than teach them to perpetuate the same problems of previous generations, devoid of any criticism?

[Liriena]

Yes,it has. Political correctness is the most un-progressive thing there is. It infringes on our freedom of speech.

Please, elaborate.

[Ifreann]

No one is forcing you to try and be polite to people.

I can't get over how people seem to stupidly assume political correctness is simply being polite.

There are polite unrepentant racists and sexists.

I can't get over how people think that political correctness is about doing away with free speech.

---

You can say the same thing about both sides.

Not really. With the exception of the occasional few who see prejudice where there's none, I fail to see how people who want to discourage the use of needlessly inflammatory language are anything like Don Quijote and the windmills. There is nothing Don Quijote-ish about people discouraging the use of racial slurs and the perpetuation of noxious stereotypes in public discourse.

There's a difference between saying "Star Wars is racist because Darth Vader is black" (Don Quijote-ish) and saying "You shouldn't refer to a trans person as 'tranny'" (not Don Quijote-ish at all).

If you encounter an instance of people unfairly criticising language as prejudiced, you can and should address it. Excesses can and do happen, and they should be kept in check. My problem is that most of the people that I've encountered who saw themselves as fighting against political correctness were not the victims of some uniform, monolithic authoritarian doctrine, but rather they were bothered by others holding what they thought and said to critical scrutiny, people who up until then had been able to say prejudiced and inflammatory things without facing any criticism, and suddenly found that what they thought was "common sense" was, in truth, anything but.

Quixotic - extremely idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.

[Liriena]

Quixotic - extremely idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.

I'll take it.

[Ifreann]

Quixotic - extremely idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.

I'll take it.

Thanks, Miguel de Cervantes.

[Tule]

70 years ago, we had 18 year olds running into machine guns, storming beaches and jumping out of aeroplanes. Now we need "safe rooms" because "words hurt"

What the actual hell is wrong with our society?

"Our society" learned that those 18 year olds were returning home as mental wrecks because of PTSD. A serious medical condition that affects many former servicemen and as we've started to realize in the past few decades, also frequently affect women who have been raped and many other people who have experienced trauma.

College students are typically people in their late teens and early twenties, which is the age range where people are the most likely to experience violence, whether it's gang violence or rape or something else.

Colleges are also often a new and unfamiliar environment to the attending students who do not have the luxury of having the safety of their home to turn to.

Colleges are places where these people often have to discuss social issues that can trigger not just "hurt" but flashbacks, the re-experience of the traumatic event that gave them PTSD. Flashbacks make people think they are getting shot at again, they make people think they are getting raped again.

That's why safe spaces exist.

[Jamzmania]

70 years ago, we had 18 year olds running into machine guns, storming beaches and jumping out of aeroplanes. Now we need "safe rooms" because "words hurt"

What the actual hell is wrong with our society?

"Our society" learned that those 18 year olds were returning home as mental wrecks because of PTSD. A serious medical condition that affects many former servicemen and as we've started to realize in the past few decades, also frequently affect women who have been raped and many other people who have experienced trauma.

College students are typically people in their late teens and early twenties, which is the age range where people are the most likely to experience violence, whether it's gang violence or rape or something else.

Colleges are also often a new and unfamiliar environment to the attending students who do not have the luxury of having the safety of their home to turn to.

Colleges are places where these people often have to discuss social issues that can trigger not just "hurt" but flashbacks, the re-experience of the traumatic event that gave them PTSD. Flashbacks make people think they are getting shot at again, they make people think they are getting raped again.

That's why safe spaces exist.

Then they seem to be using safe spaces wrong. Safe spaces nowadays aren't being pushed in order to provide a sense of comfort to actually traumatized people, they are being pushed to provide a place where students can run away to avoid hearing conflicting opinions and points of view.

And the whole college is obviously not a space space. They are institutions of higher learning and that's how they should remain. They are not there to comfort you or to provide you with a home. They are there to teach you and to prepare you for the outside world.

[Jamzmania]

Offending ain't nice, but the fact is school should prepare people for the real world. And in that world people will insult you for stuff you may or may not control, so it's better to be prepared..

So, normalising abusive and discriminatory discourse in youth is your idea of "preparation" for adulthood? Wouldn't it be better to try and make the next generations better, so that they may improve this apparently horrid "real world" you speak of, rather than teach them to perpetuate the same problems of previous generations, devoid of any criticism?

Political correctness is not about combating abusive or discriminatory discourse or words or anything. It takes ordinary, everyday speech and tries to change it. It tries to make you afraid of speaking because you might offend someone. It punishes those who do not go along with what is politically correct.

[Unnamed island state]

There seems to be a lot of confusion over what political correctness is in this thread.

[Rouge Dawn]

So, normalising abusive and discriminatory discourse in youth is your idea of "preparation" for adulthood? Wouldn't it be better to try and make the next generations better, so that they may improve this apparently horrid "real world" you speak of, rather than teach them to perpetuate the same problems of previous generations, devoid of any criticism?

Political correctness is not about combating abusive or discriminatory discourse or words or anything. It takes ordinary, everyday speech and tries to change it. It tries to make you afraid of speaking because you might offend someone. It punishes those who do not go along with what is politically correct.

You, I like you.

[Yumyumsuppertime]

Although PC is a very laughable concept, it serves a purpose- exposing how soft, petty and childish our society is.

When someone sane says something that could potential be interpreted as racist/sexist, SJWs will sound the alarm bells of "CIS scum" "racist" "sexist" and "patriarchy" and will run crying for a safe space. When someone says something actually offensive and a sane person calls them out, they will cry and say "how dare you call me racist you SJW! PC gone mad!".

PC and anti-PC is like a war of two gangs of lunatics fighting against each other, with sane persons caught in the crossfire.

How is fighting against political correctness being a lunatic?

Political correctness is just a form of censorship and an attempt to control language.

If you're not actually being kept from saying things, then it's not censorship. It's criticism. If you can't handle criticism, then you need to either not express yourself, or you need to move somewhere where freedom of speech isn't a thing.

[Morr]

I don't think there is anything wrong with being sensitive and considerate.

Can someone's argument be dismissed because it's not politically correct? No. Should political correctness be legally mandated? No.

[Ifreann]

There seems to be a lot of confusion over what political correctness is in this thread.

Almost as though there had been years and years of anything and everything being attributed to PC, the better to make it seem like PC was going mad.

[Bruxten]

An interesting principal of 'Political Correctness' is the inability to comment or the devaluement of an opinion by anyone who is not a victim (or shares similarities to the victim) of the topic.

While being a victim or sharing similarities usually is accompanied by greater knowledge and understanding of the subject, it does not preclude other intelligent beings from being able to empathize, understand, debate, and provide solutions.

[Tule]

"Our society" learned that those 18 year olds were returning home as mental wrecks because of PTSD. A serious medical condition that affects many former servicemen and as we've started to realize in the past few decades, also frequently affect women who have been raped and many other people who have experienced trauma.

College students are typically people in their late teens and early twenties, which is the age range where people are the most likely to experience violence, whether it's gang violence or rape or something else.

Colleges are also often a new and unfamiliar environment to the attending students who do not have the luxury of having the safety of their home to turn to.

Colleges are places where these people often have to discuss social issues that can trigger not just "hurt" but flashbacks, the re-experience of the traumatic event that gave them PTSD. Flashbacks make people think they are getting shot at again, they make people think they are getting raped again.

That's why safe spaces exist.

Then they seem to be using safe spaces wrong.

Then that is the problem.

[Gauthier]

Calling someone racist is just censoring and suppressing them, especially if they've been spouting blatantly racist remarks. Remember that!