Politically correct

[richardg]

As above. I have excluded people by my actions.

I'm not putting a disabled toilet in there either.

 

[vuk]

One has to go a step further and look at who coined and uses the term. As far as I can tell it has entered the vocabulary entirely via the hard-right gutter tabloids (Mail, Sun, Express etc) along with hard-right parties (BNP, Britain First, EDL, UKIP etc) and is used to demean those who stand against the bigotry these entities whip-up and promote.

that is not correct. the origins were in the 1980 from people like harold bloom as a reaction to the post-modern takeover of english departments at american universities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Closing_of_the_American_Mind

 

[richardg]

the fact that there is already argument about its definition is telling. It means whatever to whoever.

 

[Jonn]

You can't tell people what to think but can provide information and examples which can alter perceptions. Bigotry and unfair discrimination is often the result of ignorance and received wisdom. Equality and anti hate crime legislation is important as it helps protect the vulnerable in circumstances where exhortation is insufficient to change behaviour.
One of the possible negative consequences of Brexit is the loss of the guarantee for equality rights provided by EU law.

 

[maxflinn]

Political correctness is a good thing in general, but can sometimes go too far IMO.

A prime example being this:

Lidl airbrushes crosses from church on Greek food packaging to be 'religiously neutral'

Is there really anything wrong with showing a Christian symbol in a predominantly Christian country?

 

[MikeMA]

The problem with the principle of political correctness is that it attempts to modify behaviour by modifying thought. That's considered acceptable by its adherents, because the thoughts and behaviour they are attempting to modify are, in the main, reprehensible.

The problem then is that the technique lends itself to much more malign maniplation, and if you've introduced the notion that such thought modification ideology is somehow acceptable, then it is harder to resist the same techniques put to more nefarious ends.

....and then it leads to thoughtcrime.

 

[richardg]

Language evolves, fishies don't like that. A lot here would probably rather be speaking Latin - quia arrogantes retardantur....

 

[vuk]

It was a term originally coined around the turn of the century by Cultural Marxists and adopted by Soviets C.1920. It started life as an attempt to apply Marxist ideology into cultural terms, it's since been adopted as a catch all for people to stick their own personal dislikes onto it. Specific terms often evolve through misues of appropriation -- and are often applied in ways beyond their original scope.

in terms of how we know it and use it post-reagan, there is practically no connection.

even bloody wikipedia (i just checked) references the book i linked to above (and which i read as a yout in the 80s).

did you get that video from the heritage foundation?

 

[vuk]

...and yet 'even bloody wikipedia' also references the origins of Political Correctness as being 1920, not 1980.

fair enough. i get annoyed at the fabricated term of "cultural marxism" and i find very little cultural/linguistic connection to what everyone understands PC to be in our era and what has apparently just been revealed to arie after 3 decades of controversy and public discourse.

 

[Heath]

I'm not putting a disabled toilet in there either.

Too right - it's always best to have one that works

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

Man votes 'Leave'. Same man flouts health and safety regs, and disabled access legislation. I find myself asking whether the connection is spurious or valid.

 

[TheDecameron]

Rich is confusing political correctness with health and safety legislation. Stewart Lee had a whole routine on this.

Its all gone mad. A man can't speak his mind in this country any more. I'll get me (Hugo Boss leather trench) coat.

BTW is this thread from the stalking horse collection of topics (or for those who have trouble with teh metaphoricals, a 'just sayin' one).

 

[richardg]

Sue, you also forget to mention man votes green or lib-dem, man's friends are all arty people, man was an arty person most of his life, man thinks people should be allowed to live where they want without barriers being put up in front of them, man thinks women might be a better bet as an employee than men, man believes in the NHS, man does not like Trump or Farage or Thatcher, man thinks a whole lot of things that are not on that side of the spectrum.

You, however, think 'dumb' people are a problem in democracy. Sieg Heil, Sue!!!

You seem to need to categorise people in your binary world; decisions like gas chamber or not gas chamber? Perhaps before breakfast some fun and games to stew on it in the form of a Ralph Fiennesesque shooting of dumb-looking people from the balcony.

 

[Seanm]

I think Tony's 2 posts nail the essence of it. It only exists as a persecution fantasy indulged in by those with privilege, excited by the thought of losing it. Like Vuk I always thought of it as originating with Bloom and the US culture wars, but the Brits imported the logic wholesale, it's the same thing. Claire's post and the Wikipedia article v interesting on the roots, although I've never heard anyone outside the new (US) right use the term "cultural Marxism".

 

[TheDecameron]

I'm not putting a disabled toilet in there either.

With your attitude to building regs, you might be needing one.

 

[narabdela]

Rich is confusing political correctness with health and safety legislation. Stewart Lee had a whole routine on this.

It's depressing how often that confusion occurs in online argument.

 

[richardg]

With your attitude to building regs, you might be needing one.

Interestingly, my old man uses them, as he has a condition that requires a bit of space an privacy. He marches in there, looking fit as a fiddle, but still needs one.

Our bog is ground floor with no steps. That should do.

 

[Joe Hutch]

So when did political correctness go mad? Or is it no longer politically correct to say 'go mad'? When did political correctness become 'differently intelligenced?

 

[TheDecameron]

So when did political correctness go mad? Or is it no longer politically correct to say 'go mad'? When did political correctness become 'differently intelligenced?

It's more nuanced. I prefer 'political correctness in a temporary fugue state'.

 

[richardg]

It's depressing how often that confusion occurs in online argument.

Kind of elitist to think you can halt the evolution of language. The perception of the term has changed massively. It is defacto and will probably be modified in the dictionary within a few years. Plebs count too, remember.