Political correctness

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For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about political correctness.

The term political correctness or "PC" usually refers to upholding a social taboo against language and attitudes that might be considered offensive. This term has become a boogey-man for the radical right, who use it to tar anything that runs contrary to their own policies, such as letting women out of the kitchen or gays out of the closet.

According to civil-libertarians Alan Charles Kors and Harvey Silverglate,[1] the concepts that came later to be known as political correctness were first made by a cultural Marxist named Herbert Marcuse. Marcuse, in an essay titled Liberating Tolerance, basically put forth the idea that the eponymous tolerance meant that communists needed to be tolerated and anti-communists needed not to be tolerated.[2]

Ruth Perry wrote in an essay entitled A Short History of the Term "Politically Correct"[3] that the term was first coined by Mao Zedong,[4] but was later hijacked by right wing nut jobs conservative eclectics who proceeded to overuse it in exactly the manner above described, hence taking all the juice out of it.[5] More recently, advocates of political correctness have therefore substituted the term "civilized speech" for "politically correct" in order to boost its image in light of the PC backlash.

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[edit] Language

Political correctness is associated with specific terms that are attempts to describe people in the most neutral and objective way possible. Sometimes these work, certainly "asian" works better than specifically saying "Indian" or (the mostly pejorative, and considered racist) "Paki" when you don't know what country someone is from.[6] Other times they fail because they're just trying to change the language for the sake of it (such as with "visually impaired", "African American" or "Inuit").

Some examples include:

  • "African American" instead of "black" (extra specially hilarious when used to describe someone who is neither African[7] nor American, like this fellow[8]).
  • "Differently abled" and "person with disabilities" are the politically correct terms and certainly better than anything else like "handicapped". "Handicapable" is sometimes used as a nauseatingly patronizing positive twist on "handicapped". As for the disabled themselves? If you can't find out something more specific like "blind" or "paraplegic", they prefer "disabled".[9]
  • "Person with a mental disability" instead of "retarded" or "mentally retarded" - this conforms to the general "people first" rule.
  • "Little Person" instead of "midget" or "vertically challenged" rather than "short-arse".
  • "Vital statistically challenged" instead of "fat".
  • "Inuit" rather than "Eskimo", although this is based on a wrong assumption that Inuit is a better, more catch-all term when it's not - it's less commonly used in the pop-culture that PC goes against, so naturally people feel it's right.
  • "Person" instead of "man" when the gender is unknown ("Congressperson", "Chairperson", "Personhole Cover", "strawperson").
  • "Person with racial prejudice" instead of "racist".
  • "Creation scientist" instead of "raving loony", "nutjob", "wingnut", "crackpot", "creatard" or any one of a number of highly suitable terms.
  • "Freedom Fries" instead of French fries because frogmunchers hate America.
  • "Celebration of genetic diversity", rather than "freak show".
  • "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible" instead of "I spent three decades constantly tweaked on cocaine".
  • "I was young, I was stupid, I was naïve" instead of "I spent two decades years tweaking on steroids, so what?"

[edit] Backlash

Today, "political correctness" is used more ironically than it is earnestly, and is generally looked upon as a synonym for censorship. These days, many celebrities try to be edgy and risqué by being "politically incorrect," instead of trying to be politically correct.[10] This is particularly true of comedians, who are often restricted in what jokes they can make on TV - and particularly who they can take the piss out of. Many make a living out of doing such edgy material in live stand-up shows, or in the studio (when they know it'll be cut from broadcast). However, it should be made abundantly clear that there is a world of difference between cutting edge alternative comedy that breaks social taboos (Frankie Boyle) and complaining that political correctness doesn't let you call a coon a coon (Jim Davidson) and is thus tantamount to censorship. The worm has turned, surely.

Many bigots and xenophobes claim to be the victims of "The PC Police" so they can claim to be persecuted when faced with the consequences of hate speech.

[edit] There is a cure!

To fight political correctness, start young. Buy childrens books and albums for your kids that were written before about 1970. In particular, make sure you buy Little Black Sambo for them. Even there you have to watch out with some older books - all the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books were rewritten starting in the 1950s to make them PC, so get only the old out of print original editions, which have pre-1950 copyright dates on them. Another good choice is to read your male child Robert E. Howard stories, which, in addition to being unbelievably badass, are the most un-PC things since southern justifications for slavery. Note - do not read these stories to your little girl. The incredible volume of manliness in them will probably turn her into a lesbian or something.

Also, it is vitally important to buy only appropriate books and toys for their gender. For a boy, a Red Ryder BB gun is a must, and toy Cat 'dozers and other heavy construction equipment is always a good choice. What, you're afraid he'll shoot his eye out? You PC wimp, he's supposed to shoot his eye out, because adversity builds character and exposing the young boy to danger prepares him for life and ensures he will not grow up to be an effiminate geek. For a girl, get them dolls and anything related to princesses, but beware! The Disney princess stuff coming out today promotes multiculturalism! Be sure to get them only princesses and dolls that existed before 1970 and haven't significantly changed their design. Barbie dolls are always a good choice. Girls should not be allowed to play with things like fireman helmets and Thomas the Tank Engine, and boys should not be allowed to play with any toys that look like they may involve cooking, clothing, babies, cleaning, or the color pink. That's just asking for them to grow up gay.

Avoid Teletubbies, which promotes effeminacy and homosexuality. Perhaps even worse, Teletubbies is set in a totalitarian world in which a creepy sounding loudspeaker orders them about, and thus looks like the show was consciously designed to prepare toddlers to accept the New World Order. Also avoid Barney the Dinosaur, which is pure social engineering with its "I like you, you like me, we're a happy fam-i-ly" nonsense (a dinosaur can't be happy! It doesn't have a soul!) Come to think of it, avoid all toys and cartoons in which a main character is any pastel color, especially purple or lavender.

Sesame Street is an especially insidious PC social engineering tool. Note the subtle promotion of multiculturalism. The show is even called Sesame "Street" instead of Sesame "Road", a dead giveaway, and the buildings look like some nappy-headed inner city housing project. That show even includes a bum living in a garbage can portrayed as a cute and cuddly muppet, instead of a pathetic layabout who has earned his fate.

If you catch your boys watching Teletubbies or any children watching Sesame Street, turn off the TV pronto and send them outside to play Cowboys and Indians. The future of Western Civilization depends on it!

Whatever you do, do not get them that god-awful 1974 children's album that teaches that it is okay for boys to cry and play with dolls.

This is often overlooked, but if you catch your child looking like they might start writing with their left hand, you need to take action fast. There is a definite correlation between left-handedness and left-wingedness! Spanking has proven to be a successful form of D.I.Y. aversion therapy to set children on the path to righteousness.

Probably the most important single step you can take to fight political correctness is to homeschool your kids, so they are not exposed to the PC social engineering and brainwashing rampant in today's public and private schools alike. Use the McGuffey Readers, which are excellent books and notably free of any PC influence. Since one particularly insidious PC social engineering tactic was to take phonics instruction out of schools and replace it with the "whole language" approach which is rooted in moral relativism, use phonics material exclusively. You can find some good ones sold via mail order ads on your favorite AM talk radio station.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

You will not truly grok the extent to which political correctness has ravaged society until you watch some of these old commercials from the 1960s. You must see these commercials!

[edit] References

  1. ↑ http://www.reason.com/news/show/30795.html
  2. ↑ http://www.marcuse.org/herbert/pubs/60spubs/65repressivetolerance.htm
  3. ↑ http://books.google.com/books?id=fMmeAAAAMAAJ&q=%2B%22Ruth+Perry%22+%2B%22Beyond+pC%22&dq=%2B%22Ruth+Perry%22+%2B%22Beyond+pC%22&pgis=1
  4. ↑ http://das.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/14/1/5
  5. ↑ http://www.pum.umontreal.ca/revues/surfaces/pdf/vol7/friedman.pdf
  6. ↑ There's an oldish joke/trope involving calling someone a "paki", and then they respond by declaring "But I'm Indian!! I fucking hate those paki bastards!!"
  7. ↑ Depending on how ancestry is defined, everyone may be an African; see Recent African Origin theory
  8. ↑ For the record, it's Adrian Lester, born in Birmingham (UK) and of largely Jamaican ancestry.
  9. ↑ Yahoo Answers - What is the politically correct term for 'disabled'?
  10. ↑ This is probably because it is very difficult, if not impossible, actually to be politically correct, according to what Aesop said about trying to keep everyone happy.
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