Simple Question: Is anyone else fed up with having to be PC ?

[Oldjohnw]

And to think that MM doesn't like people having a go at him because of age/education/views!

[landsurfer]

The Flintstones had the right attitude ... "Lets have a gay old time" .... nothing wrong with being happy ...

[Tangled Metal]

Was that ever a simple question? Always use of the term PC is intended to instil strong feelings and comments. If that's your thing so be it. My answer is no and I'll not elaborate on that. I recommend others do not respond with more than yes or no.

[Bez]

They hijack our language, so I can no longer think of having a "Gay Box" to put on the wall!

Says who? I'm not sure what a "gay box" is, but I'm pretty sure that if you watch The Flintstones you can still have a gay old time, and if you listen to even recent recordings of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas you'll still be implored to make your yuletide gay.

I am not supposed to eat "Faggots" these days!

Says who? The Guardian publishes a recipe for them, so they at least aren't "hijacking your language".

I have to avoid saying "Blackboard", even though it is clearly a board and black in colour!

Do you have to, though? I mean, you're clearly not avoiding saying it, and I'm willing to bet that no-one is going to condemn you for saying it, given that it is—as you point out—entirely descriptive of the item.

"Blackmail" is an offence not for the actual extortion attempt, but for the Non_PC language!

Again, though, is it? Or is this just something you heard in a pub from someone you met who read an article which was written by someone who'd omitted some details in a paper published by someone who was interested in getting people hot under the collar?

I heard it said that "Thinking" about committing a crime is actually n act of doing a crime?

You do realise that hearing something said doesn't mean it's true, right? Or are you so scared of committing a thought crime that you've given up thinking altogether?

Well that would mean that all Crime Fiction & Who done its are crimes in their own right?

It wouldn't, though.

I think a reality check is needed.

Now you're starting to make sense.

[100%JR]

No.

[Audax67]

Political Correctness provides a great tool for anyone seeking to damage another's reputation.

Anyone else remember that case in the US a few years back where a public official was fired for using the word denigrate? Initially his bosses condemned him for racism; then when the word was explained to them they changed that to poor communication skills, in that he failed to realize that the idiots who heard him wouldn't know the word.

[al_yrpal]

These days in Britain one has to be PC otherwise the Plod / Moderators / Religious Plod etc will step in. In America everyone is free to say what they want, so we are considerably less free than them.

I dislike the effects of PC and agree with Rowan Atkinson that its had a bad effect on Comedy. The BBC would not repeat Its Aint Half Hot Mum for this reason.

Al

[mr bajokoses]

I think PC is simply a modern term for good manners.

Fed up with good manners? No.

[slowster]

Hi there...TTFN MM

What a load of drivel.

When I was a child it was very common for minority groups like black people, Irish, homosexuals, people of Pakistani origin etc. to be the butt of jokes which reduced them to crude stereotypes. Many (most?) people now would not find those jokes funny or would be very uncomfortable hearing them, because people are now much more aware of the prejudice and discrimination upon which the jokes rely.

Often when people complain about political correctness, what they really mean is that they object to being unable to indulge their prejudices, and they don't like being made to feel uncomfortable about holding prejudiced opinions and views. Because they won't dare defend their prejudices for what they are, they instead say that people who object to their prejudices are 'politically correct', as if that is a negative thing and it's the fault/problem of others if they are offended by such prejudice.

The suggestion that words like 'blackmail' or 'blackboard' cannot be used for fear of being accused of racism is absolute tosh, and is the sort of absurd straw man argument typical of some who complain about political correctness. In neither case does the word have any racial origin or connotation.

If I go any further I will get abused in the same way Liam Neeson has.

Liam Neeson has been criticised for being racist. I have not paid close attention to the comments in the press etc., but as I understand it in talking now about his actions as a young man (in order to promote his latest film), he was trying to highlight how his anger at what had happened to a friend made him behave in an irrational/bizarre way in going out to seek revenge.

What he did not do was acknowledge that in seeking specifically a black man upon whom to take that revenge, he was being racist, i.e. his friend was raped by a black man and the man's race was for him the characteristic that defined the perpetrator. (I suspect that for his friend the defining characteristic of the perpetrator was not his race, but the fact that he was a man: rape is a crime perpetrated by men, not some sub-set of men to which the rest of us conveniently do not belong.) If Liam Neeson had clearly acknowledged the racial prejudice that prompted his behaviour as a young man, I think people would have applauded his honesty and self-awareness. Instead, the implication of his saying that his desire for revenge was so strong that it prompted him to want to kill someone, without acknowledging the prejudice that made him want to kill specifically a black man, has resulted in many people now concluding that he still holds those prejudices.

[Bez]

The perennial problem with these discussions is that some people equate "PC gone mad" with "being roundly criticised for blacking up".

Back in the early 80s in the playground there was a synonym for the verb "to steal" which was literally nothing more than a verbified noun taken from an abusive term for a black person. All of the non-white kids in the playground took a ton of abuse, by way of the fact that racist language—and the racist messaging lurking beneath it—was commonplace and unchallenged.

Sure, these days people get roundly criticised for things like making race synonymous with crime. And damn right, too.

If that means someone gets upset that they don't get to watch the Minstrels any more then boo hoo.

[slowster]

The BBC would not repeat Its Aint Half Hot Mum for this reason.

I'm not sure about that. I think it's probably more that it's just too dated, in a similar way that Hi De Hi and Are You Being Served are. I think there were some objections to Michael Bates playing the main Indian character, but equally I recall reading comments defending his portrayal (apparently he grew up in India and could speak Urdu). More importantly, it was the white characters and their personality flaws which were the butt of the jokes, not the (minor) Indian characters or the Indian people generally.

Better examples might be 'Love Thy Neighbour' and 'Till Death Us Do Part'. The former was just cringeworthy, but the latter was very good comedy which dealt with prejudice very cleverly (so cleverly and skillfully that Warren Mitchell liked to tell how a racist fan praised the character of Alf Garnett for 'telling it like it is' because the fan failed to realise that it was people like him that were being mocked).

[Oldjohnw]

These days in Britain one has to be PC otherwise the Plod / Moderators / Religious Plod etc will step in. In America everyone is free to say what they want, so we are considerably less free than them.

And look what they get for president! A man who also rants against so-called political correctness because he likes to belittle black people, disabled people, gay people, women, educated people, journalists, Muslims, poor people, ill people, Mexicans.

Identify with such if you wish.

[Tangled Metal]

Is rape only committed by men? Not sure it's accurate to say rape committed by men, it's committed by all genders or however the perpetrators identify as. It's a human crime or rather a crime committed by our species (probably other species too). It should be acknowledged as such not perpetuate it being men and excluding others.

However I agree with everything else slowster typed. Especially about accusations of PC equating to wanting to feel less guilty about one's prejudices.

BTW I fully accept that I'm as prejudiced as the next person. I've had discussions at work about many topics where my I prejudices have come out and those of others have come out. Not always at the same time. For example my work colleague has had more recent dealings with Muslim people and is highly prejudiced (IMO). I find it distasteful. However she has no issues with gender fluidity. I do however (not to say I don't try to keep that issue I have within myself by not elaborating on it). It's interesting to see where people's boundaries are with this.

[Tangled Metal]

Is not Benidorm not a modern version of hi Di hi?

[thirdcrank]

Shortly after retiring in 1997, I was in a group where the first item was personal introductions (not so sophisticated as interviewing your neighbour and then introducing them, but you get the picture.) Part of the format included describing family circumstances and I used the expression "my wife" which provoked a venomous response inquiring whether I thought she was my personal property? Well no: one of the conditions on which she agreed to marry me was that I should never refer to her as "The Wife" and I've kept to that. The next point of information was that the word "wife" is value-laden and that "partner" should be used. And so on. In their turn, the person who had jumped on me said "my partner" and I did not react.

On an arguably different subject, the expression "ethnic minority" has been used to move away from theories based on "race." The word "ethnic" is now bandied about as a noun, imbued with as much racism as the words it has replaced.