political Correctness?

[The Hunter of Jahanna]

What do you think about the whole politicaly correct thing? Do you think that things should be spoken about in plain terms or in terms that no one will be offended by?? To give a few examples, doctors dont talk about paitents dieing anymore. Now it is called "Negative paitent outcome" Um , Helloooooooooo is anybody home , Negatve paitent outcome is still dead , it just wastes more oxegen saying it. Then we have the degenderization of proffesional titles.Firemen are now firefighters ,cops are now called police officers , mailmen are now letter carriers , mail is now called correspondence. The list of things just goes on and on. It seems like you are supposed to be afraid of offending or upsetting anyone with how you talk or just the way you phrase things. Personaly it seems like a big waste of time. If something you see or hear is offensive , then just avoid it. All of this polliticaly correct crap is slowly takeing the fire out of the average persons daily vernacular and wasteing oxegen with weighty euphamisms. Well , I guess my rant is over , what do all of you think?

I think everybody should see Bill Maher's "Be More Cynical" routine at least once...twice for special cases that just don't get it.

btw,
Who gets the blame for PC'ness? The Women's Rights Movement of the 70's? Equal Opportunity Advocates?
I thought it went overboard a long time ago but one thing we have to face...it can't be taken back.

[ 06-01-2002, 12:54 AM: Message edited by: Moni ]

[Grand-Ranger]

Yeah I think the whole thing is pretty stupid too. I did a thread on this subject a while ago, but it was over in the Polls section.

Boy did alot of people not like me after that

[Azred]

I have been an opponent of PC-speak for more than 10 years. I don't mind calling them firefighters or police officers, etc. but your car is not "pre-owned", it is USED. Similarly, you are not *insert ethnic background here* - American, either you are an American citizen or you are not.

Political Correctness is all about renaming something to make it more acceptable to your listeners; however, this is diametrically opposed to facing reality for what it is--when something is what it is, you call it what it is. (did that make sense?)
When someone is trying to make something sound "nicer", they are a) trying to sell you something, b) trying to get you to see/do it their way, or c) trying to put something over on you.

The reason that most people either put up with or promote PC is because they are too sensitive and get offended too easily. Someone who gets offended too easily suffers from an inferiority complex, whether they know it or not.

[img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img] on! [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img]

[Yorick]

Originally posted by Azred: I have been an opponent of PC-speak for more than 10 years. The reason that most people either put up with or promote PC is because they are too sensitive and get offended too easily. Someone who gets offended too easily suffers from an inferiority complex, whether they know it or not.

Shame on you Azred. You write that you don't agree with P.C. and then presume to know why people like it? How would you know? I think you're way off the mark there.

I for one think there's a time and place for P.C. At it's best it's called accuracy, consideration and inclusiveness. At it's worst it creates unecessary verbosity.

[Azred]

You are correct, of course. I cannot speak for others' reasons why they follow a philosophy that I do not. Intellectual arrogance--one of my worst failings.

But shame? I think not.

I strive for accuracy, consideration of others, and inclusiveness myself; however, I simply do not like PC's way of "re-labeling" things. Personal quirk. [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img]

Originally posted by Azred: The reason that most people either put up with or promote PC is because they are too sensitive and get offended too easily. Someone who gets offended too easily suffers from an inferiority complex, whether they know it or not. [img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img] on! [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img]

I think you are pretty on the money with that statement...and with your post for that matter.

How offensive would it be to the rest of this country if someone hosted the "First Annual Caucasian Awards"? People of other ethnic backgrounds would have a fit but they have the Black American Awards, The American Latino Awards don't they? Its not like The KKK would be hosting it you know!

Of course there are times when being "politically correct" is necessary (for whites only it seems)...showing intelligence in an ever changing society.

But for people to believe some of the replacement words that have come about in the last few years make their products better than what they actually are is preposterous and to use those words to try to make people believe it is more ignorant than they think the people they are trying to sell to are.

[ 06-01-2002, 01:59 AM: Message edited by: Moni ]

[Krishach]

It has it's place, it's bad when people take it to the extreme though, in both using it and demanding it. I think the world needs one big dose of common sense. Or a year long vacation so everyone can get refreshed. Heh heh.

[uss]

i do not think PC is that important, but spelling is.

btw, its "patient" not "paitent", "politically" not "politicaly", "oxygen" not "oxegen", "people" not "persons", "taking" not "takeing", "dying" not "dieing", "professional" not "proffesional" and "wasting" not "wasteing". as a 40+ year old american, you should know that. as a 13 year old estonian.. i think i shouldnt know that [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 06-01-2002, 02:47 AM: Message edited by: uss ]

[Scholarcs]

Political correctness is stupid. Why waste time trying to make the truth less hurtful? And calling a mailman a letter-carrier is absurd.