"Political Correctness" = Mind Control

Ironically over here in the UK when employers phone job agencies looking for temporary staff they almost always now ask for 'non british' workers, this is because they do an honest days work in the main while british kids are so soft they don't know how to work anymore - obviously a sweeping generalisation but you get the idea.

Originally posted by johnb
Ironically over here in the UK when employers phone job agencies looking for temporary staff they almost always now ask for 'non british' workers, this is because they do an honest days work in the main while british kids are so soft they don't know how to work anymore - obviously a sweeping generalisation but you get the idea.

Good example. It shows that a good working morale gets you the job, no matter what your origin is.

Originally posted by sicklecell
To finish my little on topic/off topic rant i think political correctness is borne out of the desire for everyone to be equal to everyone else.
A nice thought but unfortunately everyone is not equal to everyone else, some people can do what others cant, its just a fact of life.

With this statement, you hit the heart of the matter.
If people would face this fact like they did back when, life would be easier.
I never thought telling kids, "you can be anything" would turn out this way.

You can be anything as long as you can actually "do" it.

A world in which you have to worry about offending other people is a hell. Instead, people need to learn how to deal with other peoples opinions and thoughts, and that means learning how not to be offended by words.

The true price of freedom is allowing it in others, especially when you disagree with them. When people are crying over being offended, then they are in effect denying others of their freedom, and they will lose it themselves as well.

My saying is this: You have every right to be offended, but absolutely no right to do anything about it.

People who get offended just need to get over themselves.

[edit on 8/19/2009 by badmedia]

Nice post, Skyfloating. This is exactly how I feel about political correctness, and am constantly saying this on this site . As far as name calling and stuff I have been called everything in the book. I dont really care, I encourage people to speak their minds. Takes a lot for me to be offended.

Peace

[edit on 19-8-2009 by jeasahtheseer]

reply to post by jeasahtheseer


I figured you`d say so.

Professionally, Im in a position where I get embarrased if people think they have to treat me in an overly respectful way or are not allowed to criticize me.

I say: "Loosen up. Speak your mind. If there is something about me you dont like, speak up! I dont mind!"

[edit on 19-8-2009 by Skyfloating]

reply to post by Skyfloating


I agree, I dislike it when people aren't honest about things etc. I view it as an insult. Because in doing that, what you are really saying is that I am not capable of handling things. And so in effect, you are just outright lying to me.

But I do try to understand why people do it. It happens for a reason, and that reason is it's better to be safe than sorry, and many times it may lead to things that aren't worth it. You never know if that other person will get irate over such things, especially when so many in the world are so worried about being offended etc.

I also don't do the "friends" thing very often because of this. People think because you are friends, you are supposed to agree with them no matter what. And then if you disagree with them, then it's "you aren't my friend". The way I see it, I never was.

It's like there is this layer of BS and lies that provides a glue of keeping society together, rather than people confronting the stupidity of it.

Do those who approve of political correctness have anything more to say in its defense?

reply to post by badmedia


A layer of BS, yes. There is a fine line between being polite and respectful and being grovelling.

The latter is totally embarrassing (*shudders*)

[edit on 19-8-2009 by Skyfloating]

we are not allowed to ask for black coffee in the canteen we are not to refer to rubbish bags as black bags, even though they wre, but have all changed to green ones now! one bloke at work said 'typical woman, can't make up her mind to his female friend who was choosing in the canteen and he got disciplined because someone who overheard it found it 'offensive'. A trainer away from the class, spoke of a student who broke a laptop by throwing something across the classroom as 'the prat' someone overheard again and complained that it was derofgatory to the student. A civilian member of staff complained that she wasn't 'valued' when someone was looking for a 'police man'( he was trying to clarify a point of law so did need a police officer anyway), but he got in trouble. We are not to refer to the board at the front of class as blackboard or white board it has to be 'penboard'. I could go on and on, but guess where I work? In a police training school. You daren't open your mouth some days-you never know who is listening. We had the 'brainstorming' thing checked out with the epileptic society and they said it was rubbish, so we are allowed to say that one.

Source

People who get offended by mere words have more important problems than someone using an Un-PC term.

Words are meaningless.

reply to post by Skyfloating


I agree with you to a point, but anything can be taken to extremes. I do think PC went too far but the pendulum is swinging back toward the center where it should be, IMO.

I do see a lot of people getting offended SO easily, though. It's really nice to realize that we have the power to refuse to be offended, even if someone means to be offensive.

reply to post by Skyfloating


I'm offended by your post, expect to hear from my lawyer.

Just kidding of course. I agree 110% with you. I've heard storied of kids being called a sissy then goes home and hangs himself, I mean, seriously? It's about time we start shaping up and quit with this "Political Correct" nonsense.

I'm by no means PC myself, but I am respectful and watch what I say if I know someone will take offense to it. It's part of being human, caring for what other people think and also about their feelings. In no way do I appreciate being told what I can, or cannot say.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, have respect for others and they'll respect you. We don't need laws to govern how "nice" we should be. We've done mighty fine without it up til now.

Star and flag.

FK

Anyone know the History of PC-ness? Where all this comes from? When it started?

It must have been engineered from somewhere, because its all around.

[edit on 19-8-2009 by Skyfloating]

reply to post by Skyfloating


Thank you so much for making this thread, I wanted to make a thread like this a while back but couldn't really think of a good way to start. S+F.

Political correctness in my opinion is one of the most dangerous things facing the world today. In the UK its becoming more deeply embedded with citizens thinking of it as a "necessary evil" rather than something to be fought. Its a passive form of control that restricts thought+speech.

Politically Incorrect

reply to post by Skyfloating

Anyone know the History of PC-ness? Where all this comes from? When it started?

The roots of the issue are found in human morality, their expression in culture, and the history of the 20th century. The major turning point in culture would be the 50's/60's with the liberal youth culture rebuking of the "old and evil" establishment which had guided the world into two wars of unprecedented scale and destruction, mired us into a nuclear standoff of apocalyptic potential, and embraced the "dream" of eugenic policies to their nightmarish ends (both at home and abroad).

The counter-culture revolution was an extreme opposing response to the prevailing culture which had produced the horrors of the early 20th century. Anything associated with the "old way" of doing things was labeled as evil, unproductive, and ultimately destructive... so the opposite extremes must be the better course... right? It's similar to a child who nearly drowns and grows up to be a hydrophobic.

No, because extremes are rarely ever correct. Reality is not black and white like that. What works best seems to be a balance between establishment and revolution. Any organism, collective, or species must be adaptive to change in order to survive, yet frequent and unnecessary change leads to chaos and instability.

Johnathan Haidt: The new synthesis in moral psychology.

Johnathan Haidt's Home Page

Moral Foundations of Society

The current American culture war, we have found, can be seen as arising from the fact that liberals try to create a morality relying almost exclusively on the Harm/Care and Fairness/Reciprocity foundations; conservatives, especially religious conservatives, use all five foundations, including Ingroup/Loyalty, Authority/Respect, and Purity/Sanctity.

[edit on 19-8-2009 by Lasheic]

Also, lol, computers are racist.

The request -- which has some suppliers furious and others busy re-labeling components -- came after an unidentified worker spotted a videotape machine carrying devices labeled "master" and "slave" and filed a discrimination complaint with the county's Office of Affirmative Action Compliance.

I dunno 'bout y'all, but in my PC I make sure the Silver/White HDD is always the master, and the one with the black case is the slave.

reply to post by intrepid


You do realize the MIC as you stated controls the PC in this world. They do so to make a set of standards in which one cannot question outside of it. You said you disagree with the OP but I think you are agreeing more than you disagree. PC is a method of control, just like religion, and just like all the media and two party system. PC is anti freedom I hope you can agree on that.

Two pages, and no-one's stated the bleedin' obvious yet.

One poster came this close...

I'm offended by your post, expect to hear from my lawyer.

...and missed.

The reason for the vast upwelling of political correctness is fear of litigation. Businesses, government bodies, academic institutions and charities are all vulnerable to lawsuits against them for statements or actions thought to be offensive to certain people, destructive of their dignity and so on. So these institutions insist on PC, and thus it spreads.

Individuals who espouse political correctness have, however, no such excuse. I take noble, righteous pleasure in offending them.

In America, a nation ruled by lawyers (literally as well as metaphorically, as any rollcall of senators and congressmen will testify), PC will continue to spread until, presumably, the nation is completely paralyzed and the Chinese or the Russians, who don't go in much for PC, take over.

In fact, PC is mostly an Anglophone thing: Americans are bad enough but Australians and Canadians are worse, and New Zealanders are worst of all. Notice I don't include Britain itself; despite official efforts, Brits are pretty unPC. As for the French and the Italians and the Japanese and so on, for the most part they couldn't care less - though Germans and Scandinavians are hot for it. People in my own country don't think about it much, I'm happy to say, though in not-so-faraway India, where hundreds of millions of English speakers live, it is making steady, slimy progress.

Its origins? Laudable, really. A movement against racial namecalling was probably how it started. The pioneers would have been the best people: artists, intellectuals, political liberals, scientists and religious leaders of the tolerant sort (as opposed to the commoner intolerant sort). From such beginnings, it was natural that it should become de rigeur in academia. In particular, it permeated university arts and social-science departments. There it fell into the hands of people educated beyond their intelligence (that is what social-science departments at universities are for) and the rest is history.

Courtesy and nondiscriminatory attitudes are not political correctness, although they are what it originally grew from. Political correctness -Skyfloating and the rest of you are right - is a monstrous mutant child of the best of parents.

reply to post by Chilled Zen


Thanks for the interesting article. I wonder what goes on in the distrustful and paranoid minds who think they have to regulate every aspect of our lives as if we were incapable of getting anything right ourselves.