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Me: Does anyone else besides me feel like they have to dumb themselves down to avoid offending people? This doesn't seem to be an issue of being smart, because it could apply to anything involving conversation.
Buck: like, what do you mean?
Griff: Offending people isn't the end of the world, darkbake. Just remember, it's their problem. But keeping an open mind never hurts either.
Me: That's a great question Brando - I'm wondering if it is just me personally. I find that when I am hanging out with someone I am always afraid to open up with them because I think they might find it offensive. It occurs in a lot of different situations, and could be hindering friendships / relationships for all I know. And I like your advice, Griff.
Cousin: I've been experiencing this most of the time I've been in Fresno, I'm so glad not be alone on this one!
Conservative Friend: When I was in Ireland I had a Danish friend who once asked me why Americans apologize for everything and why we're so afraid to offend anyone. I studied in Germany and Ireland and found people to be so much more straightforward with their opinions. I think Americans take political correctness to a point where people are afraid to say what they really think.
Liberal Friend: It could be the fear of liability and lawsuit that drives Americans to go to great lengths to be nonoffensive.
Originally posted by darkbake
So I will start by posting a conversation I am having on Facebook at the moment.
Me: Does anyone else besides me feel like they have to dumb themselves down to avoid offending people? This doesn't seem to be an issue of being smart, because it could apply to anything involving conversation.
Buck: like, what do you mean?
Griff: Offending people isn't the end of the world, darkbake. Just remember, it's their problem. But keeping an open mind never hurts either.
Me: That's a great question Brando - I'm wondering if it is just me personally. I find that when I am hanging out with someone I am always afraid to open up with them because I think they might find it offensive. It occurs in a lot of different situations, and could be hindering friendships / relationships for all I know. And I like your advice, Griff.
Cousin: I've been experiencing this most of the time I've been in Fresno, I'm so glad not be alone on this one!
Conservative Friend: When I was in Ireland I had a Danish friend who once asked me why Americans apologize for everything and why we're so afraid to offend anyone. I studied in Germany and Ireland and found people to be so much more straightforward with their opinions. I think Americans take political correctness to a point where people are afraid to say what they really think.
Liberal Friend: It could be the fear of liability and lawsuit that drives Americans to go to great lengths to be nonoffensive.
---------- ---------- ----------
I don't know if anyone else out there has noticed this, but liberals are very totalitarian when it comes to forcing people to have one view, and one only - theirs.
It goes so far as to fire people for the political beliefs. And with the current polarized political system, people in conservative zones might be afraid to think liberal thoughts.
This is BULL#.
People need to be free to speak whatever the hell they want to say, because that is an important part of processing information. Even if you don't agree with something, you should be free to talk about it, in order to process it, and understand both sides of an issue.
By ignoring important issues, not only are you keeping yourself from understanding the other viewpoint, but you are keeping yourself from understanding your OWN viewpoint
THIS ISN'T ALL - if everyone goes around afraid to talk to each other, we are all going to end up a bunch of idiots who never had the chance to learn how to socialize, connect to people or understand EITHER of the two political parties because ALL WE ARE DOING ARE BEING MIMICS.edit on 23-11-2012 by darkbake because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by darkbake
Skyfloating knows exactly what he is talking about, everyone should listen to him.
Originally posted by Trustfund
The only people I see complaining about "political correctness" are people that are mad they can't go around saying bigoted things without intelligent backlash anymore.edit on 23-11-2012 by Trustfund because: (no reason given)
Martin Luther King, Jr. and a lot of liberal activists were not politically correct in their respective time periods.
And history tends to go in cycles - so you could see yourself in a conservative cycle in the near future where politically correct has a different meaning.
I agree with the idea of ending hate speech, but attacking someone who comes from a culture where they learned it as part of their surroundings and had no opportunity to see a different perspective isn't the best way to accomplish this.
When the PC crowd wants the public to fall in line with their beliefs, first theyll try and shame you into supporting a cause,
For example, when I say I dont support any gay marriage laws, im called a bigoted hate monger or a right wing christian fanatic and I am none of those.
No, im not mad that I cant say what I want because I do it anyway.
so why then is Obama excused on a regular basis ??
If you're an adult in America there's no excuse to give for being hatefully bigoted against a group of people.
You can believe whatever you want, just don't try to legislatively deny a group of people equal rights because you personally don't believe or agree in it.
Oh, Im not the only one, roughly half of the population are against it.
Originally posted by Honor93
reply to post by Trustfund
so why then is Obama excused on a regular basis ??
If you're an adult in America there's no excuse to give for being hatefully bigoted against a group of people.
For example, a just completed national Gallup poll fielded May 3-6 shows 50 percent in support of same-sex marriage and 48 percent opposed, slightly down from 53 percent support a year ago.