Has Political Correctness gone too far?

Lex

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Wonderboy said:
Haha this is like 'postperson' or 'police person'

People need to get over themselves. Feminism has gone too far!

PS this thread reminded me of the joke 'don't cross the road when the green man's flashin'
And the ignorance continues to spew from your keyboard.

How can you not see the issue with calling everyone a policeman, even the female ones? At best, it is simply inaccurate to do so.
 

DaveyR

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Lex said:
Then why the jab at feminism?!?

Police Officer
Fire Fighter
Postal Worker
Paramedic

Doesn't matter if they are male or female.

He could be taking that view from the example I quoted in my opening post. Whilst it may have been interpreted that I was referring to feminism I have to state clearly now that I was not. It's quite obvious that my example was a one of extreme feminism but what I was looking for in this thread was to explore all aspects of petty and extreme (imo) PC.
 

Matthew

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Stronzo said:
Here's the reverse of doing away with what some deem political correctness:

The Ugly American

(and this man thinks he's speaking English?:eek:)

LOL - the fact that he is still alive is proof that political correctness has NOT GONE FAR ENOUGH.
 

B_Stronzo

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DC_DEEP said:
Stronzo, I know that breeder is offensive, I just thought I would throw a little levity into the situation, by transposing the inoffensive term with the offensive one, that was my own little attempt at combining irony with hyperbole. I still like the phrase "homosexually-impaired," though. By the way, would you be inclined to refer to me as a "European-American?" I hope you would not bring undue attention to my follicular impairment.

I know how you meant it DC. I was just joshin' ya. :wink: I know what you mean about the "European-American" thing too. Much as my friends say "oh! I'm Italian-American" or "Polish-American" if I were to say I'm "English-American" they'd think I was loopy.

Go figure.:rolleyes:

Matthew said:
LOL - the fact that he is still alive is proof that political correctness has NOT GONE FAR ENOUGH.

Precisely. And the irony is that he believes he's "speakin' English" .....

I was hoping he'd have a blocked artery and keel over toward the end of the piece.....
 

Gisella

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Daverock said:
I was speaking to one of my pals in the UK earlier and she was telling me about an experience she had a few days ago.

She was waiting for the signal to change at a pedestrian road crossing with her young son. UK crossings have a green man and a red man where you in the US would have walk and don't walk.

As the green man lit up she said to her son " There's the green man we can cross safely now". Quick as a flash a woman nearby said " surely you mean the green PERSON".

My friend was totally lost for words.

What are your thoughts on this and other examples of daft PC? Do you think it is getting out of hand or justified?

Interested to hear your views.

I think the observation about the little green man being a person is just ridiculous..even a kid know the shape of the little person look like a male body..square..not nice as a woman or girl...

I do agree 100% with MB.
 

elf

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A few random thoughts:

Americans are much more sensitive to "politically-incorrect" language than other speakers of English. Not sure why but possibly it's because the 1960s civil rights movements started there and also because it's such a litigious society.

If being "politically-correct" means being polite and non-offensive (e.g. calling people what they want to be called and not stereotyping others on the basis of their race, sexuality, gender etc) then I'm all for it.

If it means some humourless half-educated idiot correcting how others speak because it doesn't fit his or her world view then I'm a bit less enthusiastic.

People should be judged on their actions more than on their words. I prefer a non-"PC" person who has a partner from another country and friends of all races and religions to a very "PC" person who only has white middle-class friends.
 

DaveyR

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Gisella said:
I think the observation about the little green man being a person is just ridiculous..even a kid know the shape of the little person look like a male body..square..not nice as a woman or girl...

I do agree 100% with MB.

Well there are so many people in the UK that do not speak English pictures and generic symbols are being used more and more instead of words.

Restrooms largely have a picture of a Man or a Woman on the door to show which is which. Both can be quite clearly recognised (just as well). The same Male picture is used on Pedestrian crossings.


Maybe one side of the road should have Male pictures and one side Female?
 

Gisella

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Daverock said:
Well there are so many people in the UK that do not speak English pictures and generic symbols are being used more and more instead of words.

Restrooms largely have a picture of a Man or a Woman on the door to show which is which. Both can be quite clearly recognised (just as well). The same Male picture is used on Pedestrian crossings.


Maybe one side of the road should have Male pictures and one side Female?

:tongue: I knew the kid logic was right..was the male person on the crossing..lol..

Better use hands symbol as crossing...they are trully neutral...lol...

:smile:
 

Gisella

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Gisella said:
I think the observation about the little green man being a person is just ridiculous..even a kid know the shape of the little person look like a male body..square..not nice as a woman or girl...

I do agree 100% with MB.

Let me PC myself here:

Women's body are not nicer than males..but different...curvies...not squared...:tongue:

I love both bodies for sure...:cool:
 

DaveyR

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Gisella said:
Let me PC myself here:

Women's body are not nicer than males..but different...curvies...not squared...:tongue:

I love both bodies for sure...:cool:

So can we describe you as Bi-appreciative then?

Elf said:
If it means some humourless half-educated idiot correcting how others speak because it doesn't fit his or her world view then I'm a bit less enthusiastic.

This is exactly what I was referring to Elf.
 

JustAsking

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Dave,
This is an interesting subject. I think most things have already been said here (but that never stops me, does it?). I think the example you gave is a good one for the conversation. On one hand, it is ridiculous, especially since it was a stranger correcting a child. That is just annoying and wrong.

On the other hand, language usage affects the way we think, in a kind of Orwellian sense. Regardless of how you regard feminism, there is an obvious subtle system of gender discrimination in place, especially if you consider the USA. For evidence, I suggest that the number of female US presidents vs male US presidents is not proportional to the female vs male population. The same goes for the legislature, corporate executives, scientists, and so on. Even Europe is way ahead of us on that score. For approximately one half of the population, America is not the land of (equal) opportunity.

The desire of feminists to shift the usage of terms from things like Chairman to Chairperson, for example, is not outrageous when you consider how subtle the effects of language are on the way we think.

I am not sure what is worse: blatant discrimination or subtle discrimination. Because blatant discrimination is easy to identify and it easily causes enough righteous indignation in most people these days. But subtle discrimination is much more insidious. Being not in your face, you forget it exists until you look at the numbers.

All that being said, I think the lady correcting the kid in a public place is just downright rude and she deserves a pie in the face.

As for the phrase "War on Christmas", it was invented by the John Birch Society in 1959. It was one of their first "causes". The Birchers got the general notion from a book by Henry Ford called The International Jew written the early part of the 20th century. Among other things, Ford proposed that the Jews were waging a war on Christian holidays. The book was well received by certain infamous factions in German politics and became somewhat of a Bible for them. Later on the Birchers shifted the focus to communism, since they were the bogeymen du jour. In one of their tracts they said,

"...the Reds and the U.N. fanatics have launghed an assault on Christmas as a part of a much broader plan, not only to promote the U.N., but to destroy all religious beliefs and customs. What they now want to put over on the American people is simply this: Department stores throughout the country are to utilize U.N. symbols and emblems as Christmas decorations.”
The "War" gets brought back every ten years or so by someone like Bill O'Reilly looking for better ratings or to build membership in one tin-foil hat paranoid organization or other. The evil perpetrators have morphed from Jews to communists to the modern culprit. the "secularists.", who are evidently holding secret meetings with Walmart senior management, convincing them to go against their usual fierce and viscious competitive instincts and change their signage to "secular symbols" at Christmas time so as to strike a blow into the heart of Christianity, even at the expense of their own profits.

In summary. Widespread use of word choice has subtle effects on the way we think. However, the lady you mentioned deserves a pie in the face.
 

JustAsking

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dongalong said:
The PC expression that is the most ridiculous in my opinion is the phrase "brown out" instead of "black out" WTF!!!!
How is turning all the lights out so everything is dark and therefore black, racist? and why choose brown of all colours?

Dong, this reminds me of Gilda Radner's character Emily Latilla. A brown out is not the same as a blackout. Power companies sometimes have to lower the voltage a bit when they cannot supply the power that is being demanded at the moment. The term brownout is an apt term, because the lights stay on and everything keeps running, but drawing a little less power. Grayout might be a better term, but brownout has entered common usage.

*Queue Emily: "Oh, that's different....Never mind!"*
 

hung9mike

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Stronzo said:
I know what you mean about the "European-American" thing too.
I don't know how many times I've been asked what I am. My stock answer is "American". That's all that really matters, in my view, if you were born in the U.S. And if I'm pressed-- I'll say I'm Southern. Yes, if you go back far enough, I'm Scottish (dad's side) and English (mom's side). But what my ancestors were 300 or more years ago has little bearing on who I am.