Political Correctness

[Jaded Sage]

Political correctness is not a legitimate political issue, but a politically divisive issue. This is from another forum:

You just regergitated Fox New’s talking points. That’s disgraceful in a philosophy forum.

In principle, political correctness is bullshit, but I’ve yet to hear one example that wasn’t also an issue of everyday politeness. I defy you to provide just one example.

The issue I most see is about the LGBT or LGBTQ community. You’ll notice they keep adding letters. This is what I see the right complain about. I have never once seen a rightwinger disregard political correctness without also simultaneously showing disrespect, and I watch a lot of Fox News. What I see is people failing, nay, refusing, to recognize and validate people who are dealing with one of the most intimate issues possible. These people are constantly told they are mistakes, abominations, evil, and we have people who systematically treat this issue as if it were a triviality for political reasons. There are few things that are more abominable than that.

In any event, it is quite clear that political correctness and basic politeness are so similar, that even mentioning the issue seems absurd, unless of course you wanted to make a divisive issue out of it, and that’s exactly what it’s doing, isn’t it? It’s dividing people into factions, for and against, democrat and republican. That’s what a divisive issue really is: not one intended to divide, but one that does divide. The trouble is they are so hard to see, because nearly all political issues today in this nation are divisive. It is like that story of the leprechaun. A man finds a leprechaun, and demands his pot of gold. The leprechaun agrees to take him to retrieve it. When they get there, the man discovers the leprechaun has burried his pot of gold in a strawberry field, underneath one individual strawberry bush. Then the man realizes he needs to go get a shovel. He ties a ribbon around the bush, and makes the leprechaun promise not to remove it. The leprechaun complies again. The man leaves. When he returns, he discovers that instead of removing the ribbon from the one bush, the leprechaun has placed ribbons on every other bush. The man is shocked and bewildred. He spends all night digging under strawberry bushes, but he never finds the pot of gold. Divisive issues are like that in America. In fact, they are so much a staple of American politics that we consider them regular issues proper to politics, and refuse to even entertain the idea that instead of legitimate political issues, they are only politically divisive issues.

Back to political correctness. The reason this issue is felt about by the average rightwinger is not because they believe in the legitimacy and correctness of the position, although that’s why they believe it is. It is because the self-proclaimed Opinion-Makers appeal to their baser selves when bringing up the issue. There is always some mention of “wussies” or “softies” or something like that. There is always insult coupled with the issue. Always. That appeals to the part of you that wants to insult people when you disagree with them, and the part that wants to play off being insulted when it hurts.

To believe you support something for one reason when you really support it for another is the mark of a fool. To believe a politically divisive issue is a legitimate political issue is the mark of an even bigger fool.

[Impenitent]

doublespeak by any other name...

-Imp

[vegetariantaxidermy]

There is a lot more to 'political correctness' than just 'good manners'. In fact, it has very little to do with manners. It's a very complex phenonemon, but it seems to have something to do with conforming to what we perceive others think we 'should' think. Just look on the internet. You don't see a lot of political correctness on here because people are mostly uninhibited and tend to say what they really think. It's also a lot easier to cut through the bullshit of PCness on here because Free Speech still exists in the internet for the most part. Political correctness is about control. Controlling what people say, and even controlling what people think. It's also about hypocrisy, and wanting to appear to be a 'good person'. The PC aren't ironically called 'do-gooders' for no reason. They latch onto any fashionable bandwagon--'gender reassignment' and muslim refugees being the two hottest ones at the moment. Btw, I'm glad you didn't say 'leftists' or 'liberals', which is what idiots call the politically correct. Liberals believe in free speech. The politically correct do not.

[Dubious]

An oxymoron lies at the root of political correctness. Between the ox end and the moron end lies the bandwidth of the politically correct.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

Political correctness is about fashion and trends. If you were around in Germany at the height of the Nazis' power, it would have been politically incorrect (and dangerous) to defend jews. This is why it's important to teach children to think critically, NOT politically correctly.

[Dubious]

Political correctness is about fashion and trends. If you were around in Germany at the height of the Nazis' power, it would have been politically incorrect (and dangerous) to defend jews. This is why it's important to teach children to think critically, NOT politically correctly.

Absolutely correct. Political correctness means nothing more than succumbing to the status quo, a temporary reality only since so many submit to it not merely through force but because it's so easy and expected.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

Political correctness means nothing more than succumbing to the status quo, a temporary reality only since so many submit to it not merely through force but because it's so easy and expected.

Excellent.

[Hobbes' Choice]

The trouble is they are so hard to see, because nearly all political issues today in this nation are divisive. It is like that story of the leprechaun. A man finds a leprechaun, and demands his pot of gold. The leprechaun agrees to take him to retrieve it. When they get there, the man discovers the leprechaun has burried his pot of gold in a strawberry field, underneath one individual strawberry bush. Then the man realizes he needs to go get a shovel. He ties a ribbon around the bush, and makes the leprechaun promise not to remove it. The leprechaun complies again. The man leaves. When he returns, he discovers that instead of removing the ribbon from the one bush, the leprechaun has placed ribbons on every other bush. The man is shocked and bewildred. He spends all night digging under strawberry bushes, but he never finds the pot of gold. Divisive issues are like that in America. In fact, they are so much a staple of American politics that we consider them regular issues proper to politics, and refuse to even entertain the idea that instead of legitimate political issues, they are only politically divisive issues.

Can you give one example of where this myth applies? Please indicate who the leprechaun is. Is it important he's a leprecaun or could it be any member of the pixies, piskie, bogart, fairy, elf, bolgar, braun, bogie, goblin, gnome, vertically challenged/ mystically advantaged community?
Who does the person represent?
etc....

[Jaded Sage]

The lep reps whoever is presenting the issues. It doesn't have to be a lep. It could be an evil genius.