Political Correctness - What's your most irritating example?

From wikipedia:

Political correctness

Political correctness (also politically correct, P.C. or PC) is a term used to describe language that appears calculated to provide a minimum of offense, particularly to the racial, cultural, or other identity groups being described. The term is normally used in a pejorative or ironic sense. The concept typically refers to the English language, but is not exclusive to it. A text that conforms to the ideals of political correctness is said to be politically correct.

The existence of PC has been alleged and denounced by conservative, (Lind, Buchanan, Sobran), liberal (Hentoff 1992, Schlesinger 1998), and other (Brandt 1992) commentators. The term itself and its usage is hotly contested. Some left-wing commentators have argued on the contrary that "political correctness" is a straw man invented by the New Right to discredit what they consider progressive social change, especially around issues of race and gender. ...

For me it is a phrase that seems to be used more lately - "mean spirited". I see this often used when the speaker or writer can come up with nothing actual to back up their position.

OK, that was mine, what's yours?



(Mod edit: Added Wikipedia link. Don't forget to include links for external sources!)

[edit on 7/11/2006 by Majic]

I can deal with political correctness to the extent that it does not attempt to distort reality to such a degree as might insult my intelligence. I am willing to say African-American instead of black, though when its not relevant or necessary I really prefer to say neither and just stick to better descriptions.

If I'm putting in a missing persons report, yes I'm going to include skin color as part of the description of course, but if I'm talking about the rookies on my school's football team I think I'll just talk that new running back who's the size of a mack truck; that seems a little more relevant than race.

The ones that really fry me are the ones that are used on me for the purpose of not offending me, because they imply 1. That there's something wrong with me. 2. That I can't handle pointblank hearing the real word for what's wrong with me.

I'm not big boned. I AM broad-shouldered, but unless you're fitting me for football pads what you really should say is that I'm broad-waisted, because people who call me broad-shouldered probably never think twice about the actual breadth of my shoulders.
How about I weigh 250 pounds... that sounds like a pretty apt description if you ask me, PC or no. And I don't "carry it well"; if I was carrying it, I'd put down about 30 pounds of it.
I'm 30 pounds overweight, but not exactly ugly; I can live with that. I'm not "carrying" "big bones". By the time the PC people are dont with me, you'd sweat to God that I had a dinosaur skull strapped to by back- that's how you "have big bones and carry it well".


I'm also not caucasian. I'm really big on self-determination. If certain people want to be called PC race names, fine. Not me though. The last time my blood lines were any where near the Caucasus, the Pyramids were probably under construction. If my background is relevant to a discussion I'm either white or Irish.

This may not apply 100% but I thought of one. I associate with a lot of animal rights activists, and whenever we talk on that subject they say this.

"It's not a pet, it's an animal companion!"

My most irritating example would be people who deem the terms illegal alien or illegal immigrant not correct, I mean c’mon what could be more clear? They broke the law to get into this country hence they are referred to as illegal, and no, its not the same as a LEGAL immigrant, that just really bothers me.

I was trying to dig up a few that irritate me, and ran across this gem.

Politically Correct Seasons Greetings:
Christmas Thoughts

Please accept with no obligation,
implied or implicit our best wishes for
an environmentally conscious,
socially responsible, low stress,
non-addictive, gender neutral,
celebration of the winter solstice
holiday, practiced within the most
enjoyable traditions of the religious
persuasion of your choice, or secular
practices of your choice, with respect
for the religious/secular persuasions
and/or traditions of others, or their
choice not to practice religious or
secular traditions at all ...

and a fiscally successful,
personally fulfilling, and medically
uncomplicated recognition of the onset
of the generally accepted calendar
year _______, but not without due respect
for the calendars of choice of other
cultures whose contributions to
society have helped make America great,
(not to imply that America is necessarily
greater than any other country or is
the only "AMERICA" in the western
hemisphere), and without regard to the
race, creed, color, age, physical ability,
religious faith, choice of computer platform,
or sexual preference of the wishee.

- DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTABILITY -

(By accepting this greeting,
you are accepting these terms.
This greeting is subject to
clarification or withdrawal. It is freely
transferable with no alteration to the
original greeting. It implies no
promise by the wisher to actually
implement any of the wishes for
her/himself or others, and is
void where prohibited by law, and is
revocable at the sole discretion of
the wisher. This wish is warranted
to perform as expected within the
usual application of good tidings
for a period of one year, or until the
issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting,
whichever comes first, and warranty is
limited to replacement of this wish
or issuance of a new wish at the
sole discretion of the wisher.)

Here is the source page:
www.pcphrases.com...

Westpoint is on to a good one. "Irregular Migrants" is a great one. The misapplication of "Migrant workers" (a perfectly legitimate term) to illegals is another good one.

Now, "Undocumented Immigrants" I would accept, because it doesn't deny the problem. "Undocumented Workers" is not as good because there are undocumented workers who are American citizens and there are also undocumented immigrants who are not working.


I like part of George Carlin's description of PC language. It's a language invented to hide the sins of social groups.
George Carlin limited it to rich white people, but I've noticed that those in positions of social influence don't stop at hiding their own sins- they like to hide the sins of their constituents as well, so I have to disagree with him on that.

Political correctness worst example in my mind, is when you have to be careful of what you say, what can you say or not so as not to get unwanted results..

We do not get in trouble for what we say but we get results and repercussions for the said words. We are a society that are always telling what is allow or not between the so call freedom of speech.

You can talk freely about any subject but the results of what is said can get you in trouble.

More often than not when you bring out a subject you are expected to prove it as a fact by the ones that seems to disagree with your words, political correctness is nothing more that another way to control what we say within the boundaries of what is allow in our society.

Originally posted by marg6043
... political correctness is nothing more that another way to control what we say within the boundaries of what is allow in our society.

marge, that's absolutely brilliant.

And it's the perfect lead-in for where I wanted this thread to go. You see, I keep hearing about all the freedoms we've supposedly recently lost, but no one seems to point the finger at PC as being the major reason for the loss of some of our free speech rights. Worse, PC is actually an example of the way we are also losing our "freedom of thought", with PC adherents serving as a kind of "thought police" whenever someone expresses something that they could consider to be "mean spirited". This has been happening since way before 2001 I might add.