The Great Debate Redux: Political Correctness

I'm sick of it. SICK! U.S.A. used (YES PEOPLE, USED!) to be a country of free speech! Now as long it doesn't offend anyone via Religion/Race/Sex/Political Views, then its ok to say. At some point I said, African-American 'till some black friends told me "Dude! Just say black people".

So........

Topic: Political Correctness

Is it going too far? Are we becoming a nation of pussies fearing offending anyone by our words?

Btw, use all the *** red pen you want.

*** having to be PC. That is all.

This. Just re-watched Gran Torino and yeah still an awesome movie

When you try not offending someone, you are offending everyone.

If only people looked at the bigger picture and not the words that comes along with it.

What did you eat some gook food today? Cause that sounds like some kind of fortune cookie

I ate some sausage and peppers and oeros...I got some oero dust in my eyes and it burned real bad...

Political Correctness reminds me of this old movie:

Hmmm, political correctness, my impression would be..

O.o

Being PC allows stuff like this to actually be considered, when all common sense would oppose.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/14/plan-build-mosque-near-ground-zero-riles-families-victims/?test=latestnews

African American does sound pretty HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE, especially since 90%+ of the black people in the US have never stepped a foot in Africa

Because people lack the balls, empathy and awareness to TALK TO EACH OTHER and transmit their feelings even if they clash at first.

We have Big Brother Society saunter in and beat everyone over the head if they disagree/dislike each other.

The sad thing is even if you cow and brow beat everyone's public prejudices into silence/conformity it does NOTHING to open up bonds / dialog between people.

All it does is create resentment.

Resentment of the powerful who cannot express their minds.

Resentment of the "Weak" who are so less than human they can't even be called anything that might hurt their fragile feelings.

Respect is born when two people can be themselves, even if it clashes, they stand their ground and surrender their hearts to nobody and no thing.

When people are that "solid" you can't help but smile, "Even if I do not necessarily agree, it is your life, you are you and who am I to tell you differently!?".

Compromise is born through Acknowledgment of the other persons Power, not by brow beating, cowing and shaming them for being themselves.

Oh gawd, get over it already. Saying "that's gay" is simply slang. Do you ever thing about all the other terms that people use on a daily basis that make no sense? That's hot, cool, sweet, tight, sick, wicked, HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE, etc.

Anyway, despite the fact you will never get people to stop saying that's gay, I'm glad to see you avoided the high-road by immediately turning around and trying to use "straight" as an insult. Silly homosexual.

lolpoliticalcorrectness. I just never understood all the hyper sensitiveness. All I have to say is man up, and stop being so god damn concerned with what other people are saying.

imo if i say something that offends you, you can *** off

and lol@red pens saying "here's what you did wrong" because thats the point of circling wrong things on a paper

I'm not politically correct at all, I openly laugh when people I dislike die.

im the same way

People just need to get over themselves, its just the way it is, they're just words, if you get butthurt over something its cause you gave those words power and meaning to do so.

When you use gay as a synonym for shitty, is it difficult to see why that bothers people ? Don't be afraid to say shitty if that's what you mean lol

Except for HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE, none of those other terms refer to people, nor are they thrown around as insults or used to mean things we already have excellent words for anyway (see "shitty" above).

OK, lets take the term "***". Quit your bitching! That test was such a ***! etc. Being female, should I get offended every single time I hear that because it is a derogatory term for women? Context is everything.

I'm not getting in to "shoulds" or "should nots," just trying to look at things from a different perspective for the purposes of debate.^^

Indeed there are women who take offense to the whole *** thing, much in the same way that gay people can be put off by the way that others use their descriptor to mean "f'd up" / etc.

Besides, when someone says their test was "such a ***," etc., they are evoking the negative meaning that has already been attached to that word: an unpleasant or difficult woman. The test in this example is being explicitly compared to an actual ***; I don't see this sort of relationship between "gay" and "shitty"/"f'd up", unless of course one wishes to imply that gay people are actually shitty people or f'd up people.

Do I think that those who throw around the term gay as an insult are bad people ? Not at all. Do I think that most of them intend the above implication ? Of course not. Do I see why it can be offensive ? Absolutely.

Do I find it offensive myself ? A little, but I'd say more annoying than anything. XD I definitely agree with what you said about the context though; it bothers me a lot less if I know the person well enough to see that they mean no offense. If I don't know the person though, who knows what they mean ?

Your avatar is adorable btw. :D

I'd argue there's a slight difference.

"Retard" as a pejorative for stupidity is arguably an accurate usage that has later fallen out of favor. Offensive, maybe. But the original use for the word isn't very far from it's actual original meaning. It still means stupid, poorly thought out, etc.

"***" is a pejorative for a certain personality nastiness from women. Offensive, maybe. But it's usage has not been changed from its original meaning, just slightly altered.

"Gay" as a pejorative, however, is used for "bad." This is a problem because the slang usage does not make sense unless you buy the (in my opinion) outdated notion that being gay is somehow bad, wrong, or weird. It does not have anything to do with its original meaning, without that historical assumption.

This makes it a problem in my book. For example, I don't know of any gay guys who have a problem with someone looking at a dude wearing a pink bolo tie and saying "...dude, that's kinda gay." Because like "retard" and "***," using the term that way really isn't far from what you're actually trying to say.

"***" can be offensive, but you're using it in its intended meaning, to make a derisive comment about a woman's personality. "Retard" can be offensive, but you're using it in its intended meaning, to question the intelligence of a decision or situation. The term is nasty, but correctly within scope.

Using "gay" as a generic negative however, is not. Not without implicitly condoning the historical homophobia that created that acceptable usage in the first place.

It all depends on what's motivating the person to use one of those names, whether it be maliciously or jokingly. Well, for me at least, I don't really get offended when I'm called a bad name.

Gay as a slang term has somewhat of a double meaning. Most of the time it's used in a sense of something bad or undesirable such as "My car just got towed" -- "Aww, that's gay". However, in secondary context it can be used to describe something strange and unusual that more often than not would give slight discomfort. Such as the example Jaerik gave with the pink bolo tie.

Question is, is Gay much different than *** or Retard in the sense of their origins relating to the given context?

and with who you use it around with, it's not the same using those words around strangers and around friends, theres a thin line of respect we must keep with strangers.

Yes, you're right, I call my friends a lot of stuff I wouldn't say to strangers XD

Indeed. Context and company is really the defining line between when it is okay and not okay to say these things.