On 'political correctness'

[Bravus]

The topic has come up here a few times, so when I saw this note in the Letters section of the Melbourne Age newspaper I thought I'd share:

Quote:

This article uses the hackneyed expression " political correctness". It is an imprecise low class expression that is virtually meaningless. What is wrong with being correct anyway? What does "political" mean in that phrase. What exactly does it mean? How do you define correctness anyway? Clearly it has a different meaning for different people. Those two virtually meaningless words combined form an exceedingly obfuscation-producing phrase. A good journalist would not use the phrase at all since it has no real meaning. It is a populist and dumb expression. Let me try and define what it hints at since it doesn't actually really mean anything. It kinda means that one must not be careful about one's words and thinking when it comes to tolerance and compassion especially regarding human rights issues. It is one of the laziest expressions in current vogue and is a way of dismissing anyone who wants to emphasise the need for decency and the need to be careful about offending people on the basis of race o or gender. It is invariably used by the right to carte-blanche disregard anybody who wants to encourage ethnic harmony and tolerance. It usually replaces reasoned debate. - Isabelle of Alice Springs

[SivartM]

People who complain about political correctness have their own form of it, in which you mustn't say things like "American Indian" ("Injun" is, of course, the preferred term) or "speech impaired" (let's call them "dumb" like we're supposed to). Political incorrectness is a disguised form of political correctness.

[phkrause]

The topic has come up here a few times, so when I saw this note in the Letters section of the Melbourne Age newspaper I thought I'd share:

Quote:

This article uses the hackneyed expression " political correctness". It is an imprecise low class expression that is virtually meaningless. What is wrong with being correct anyway? What does "political" mean in that phrase. What exactly does it mean? How do you define correctness anyway? Clearly it has a different meaning for different people. Those two virtually meaningless words combined form an exceedingly obfuscation-producing phrase. A good journalist would not use the phrase at all since it has no real meaning. It is a populist and dumb expression. Let me try and define what it hints at since it doesn't actually really mean anything. It kinda means that one must not be careful about one's words and thinking when it comes to tolerance and compassion especially regarding human rights issues. It is one of the laziest expressions in current vogue and is a way of dismissing anyone who wants to emphasise the need for decency and the need to be careful about offending people on the basis of race o or gender. It is invariably used by the right to carte-blanche disregard anybody who wants to encourage ethnic harmony and tolerance. It usually replaces reasoned debate. - Isabelle of Alice Springs

Ah-men!!!!!!!!!!

I couldn't have said that better. Thanks for this post Bravus

[SivartM]

Oh, and you also mustn't say anything positive about Muslims, gays, or other infidels. We all know they want to kill us, so don't try to pretty it up.