Just What is (and what is wrong with) Political Correctness?

I beg to differ.She's not a man as you use the word today. I, along with others, are perfectly content to use the -man suffix in a gender-neutral way.Actually in the case of the police force policemen and policewoman have historically been used to differentiate based on gender, so I wouldn't call a policewoman a policeman - but other terms such as 'chairman' carry no gender connotation as far as I am concerned.It's completely inconsistent - but what can I say, that's what English is like (both native and American ).

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"Guys" is not a very good example.A group of girls will call each other "you guys", but when they talk about "guys", they're always talking about boys.It doesn't really fit into the Politically Correct topic anyway. You'd never hear anybody called a "policeguy" or a "mailguy".

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(to use the popular misquote) Strawman.Actually Scarlet wasn't a racist -- she was mindless on that matter, had never thought about it, and used the casual cultural references she was raised in. What she was, especially at the beginning, was a petty little princess that thought everyone was beneath her, white or black. By the end of the movie she had lost the pettyness. Funny how you use PC as if it was a perjorative. Like 'liberal' ... This certainly appears to be the right wing view of PC: that they must abuse it as it infringes on their natural right to discriminate against whole groups of people.The importance of PC to me is the concept that we should discriminate (if we must) against people based on the individual in question, not on the basis of whatever group they are perceived - rightly or wrongly - to belong to.If you happen to demonstrate to me that you are a {fanatic religious fundamentalist that chooses to be ignorant of actual facts and deny evidence}, then I am free to think of you as a {fanatic religious fundamentalist that chooses to be ignorant of actual facts and deny evidence}, but not to then think that all religious fundamentalists are {fanatic religious fundamentalists that choose to be ignorant of actual facts and deny evidence}. See?The conservative right seems to have the most trouble with this, as it is what 90% of their political campaigns are about: they attack what the opponents is and not what their position is -- paint them as some member of some whacko group and you don't need to deal with their argument actually involves on a factual basis eh? They were terrorists. Terrorists that sprouted, as terrorists always have and always will, whenever groups of people are oppressed and discriminated and treated as less than other humans (and one of the reasons that increased oppression and discrimination and bad treatment will never solve the problem).The black panthers went away, dwindled, and virtually died as a political movement not because they were defeated but because black people won the basic right to be treated as equals ... not just in fact, but in NAME as well. Where is the black panther party now as a political movement? Who's running for president of the US? What have they done lately that makes the news? --- surely if they benefited as you say they should be a major player, at least in the liberal world today, eh?http://www.seeingblack.com/x052402/panthers35.shtmlIt's like a high school reunion -- the people have moved on.What they benefited from was not any PC wording, but the actual civil rights -- civil rights they receive because they are american, not because they are black, and certainly not because they were black panthers.Those civil rights were received not because of the 'PCing" of america, but by passing laws that made equality a reality.Now stop being such a "Typical mindless categorizing kneejerk PC" (political conservative).Enjoy.Edited by RAZD, : changed "at" to "as" typo

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There's a little bit more to it than that.

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I'm a white male of German extraction with no religious affiliations. I challenge you to demean me.

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I could call you a Jew-gasser.

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I'm "Scarlet" -- a racist I guess? -- because of what I've been saying here, though I see not one racist word in any of it myself.

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Remember when you poo-pooed people who raised a fuss over the names that we have given to foreigners, saying that it's no big deal because "every society has names for foreigners."?I then pointed out that most of the time those "names for foreigners" were perjorative and demeaning.You then went on the hastily back away from your original statement by suddenly changing the subject from "names for foreigners" to how we've changed the spelling and promounciation of the names of cities and holy books.Maybe you aren't a racist, but there has been a noticeable xenophobic vibe from you.

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I "believe" you are misreading Schraf's post.

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She is saying that denegrating language USE to be normal in what was considered polite society. It is the work of those that Faith and Robin are whining about that made people realize that these words DO dehumanize people and are WRONG to use.

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Exactly.

Schraf the problem that I have with you is that you invent something accusatory to say out of whole cloth. There is no such "vibe" in anything but your imagination. I try not to take your bait which is always trawling the gutter level it seems, but I can't win; take it or don't take it you are going to accuse me of something out of your smallminded bag of offenses. I tried to avoid your dragging this subject down to wop and nigger and kike because it's absolutely irrelevant and I said nothing whatever to justify such a notion. I wasn't thinking of such terms when I said we all have names for foreigners, but of course you would think of them and try to stick them on me. I didn't "hastily back away" from anything true, I was trying to avoid getting trapped in your icky way of construing things. You are certainly demonstrating a perfect example of the PC mentality with your sly zeal to point the finger.

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Perhaps the daftest thing we have in schools now is that we should not split classes into groups numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 anymore, or group A, group B, group C, because it suggests that group 1 or group A are somehow superior to the others. The way round this is to have a group 1, and a group A, and a group Alpha

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Well, it depends upon how the groups are chosen. If people count off, then it's a pretty random distribution and it shouldn't matter.But if groups are chosen by a teacher, then it might have a different connotation to the kids.I do remember reading about a study dome where they took a group of children, divided them into two groups. Each group had a similar distribution of slower, average, and bright students, but they told the kids in one of the groups that they were "gifted" and had been chosen because of their special abilities. That group tended to outperform the other group, even though the makeup of the groups were the same, and they were each doing the same work.So, perception makes a difference in performance, although how much this evidence translates to what you are talking about, I don't know.Not being able to say "brainstorm" and "blackboard" is just retarded.

You are the rudest person here: I'd wager one could take any 10 of your posts and match the insult count against any other member's 10 random posts--you'd come out way ahead.But, of course, you think it is merely an objective fact that your opponents spew mindless drivel--how could it be an insult when you say it? You claim that "PC" means stereotyping those who disagree, but that is your modus operandi, day after day.So you are most unbelievable when you demand civility.And, yes, Faith--I believe you are a racist, subtype unthinking.Like Scarlett.By the way, I've never suggested that of anyone else here, so I'd hardly think one could typify that as my "knee-jerk" response.David Horowitz now pushes legislation to put thought police in college classrooms. He went from pseudo-leftist propagandist to pseudo-rightist propagandist. He is an opportunist. He has no authentic core.

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Sure, but this is not about rights.

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Except for your right "not to give a damn", correct?

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It's about the self-esteem of that group.

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No, it is about respect.

Typical misrepresentation of his motives. What he is doing is trying to REMOVE the thought police from classrooms.What he is doing is affirming the right of students to an education free from ALL political indoctrination in the classroom, both right and left, which right now is heavily, intimidatingly and unethically practiced by many supposed educators and is far and away predominantly leftist. He had no interest in pushing legislation until he found anti-egalitarian leftists resisting his eminently sensible plan to restore intellectual freedom to education. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

I have no idea, but I also don't think I'd trust your objectivity. In any case, this doesn't change the fact that calling me "unbelievable" is rude.

Really? Then he also encouraged left-leaning students to secretly record their right-leaning profs in order to out them? He has been condemned for this sort of...well, commie thought police behavior, actually...by folks on both the left and the right. But I guess not by anyone as far right as you.Wait! I get it! He's a type of Paul!The Great White appeared to him while he was busy urging the Panthers on to greater provocations (like breakfast programs, say), and the Great White said, "Dave! Dude! Why persecuteth thou thine own Color?"No zeal like a convert's.

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God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees. God said, ”Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It’s yours.’
--Ann Coulter, Fox-TV: Hannity & Colmes, 20 Jun 01 Save lives! Click here!
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