Author Topic: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness"  (Read 1206 times)

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Offline LC EFA

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The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness"
« on: March 19, 2009, 05:34:16 AM »
Here we have some leftist douche whining about being called out for being a PC Thug.

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Hello_Kitty  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-19-09 03:45 AM
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The Greatest Cliché: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness"
   
The single best take-down of the odious canard known as "PC" that I've ever encountered. Discuss.

The blogosphere has its own style of cyber-fad clichés, slightly more high-handed than the stentorian pap of talking-head TV, and occasionally more illuminating. Two examples that leap to my mind are the inescapable utterances of "schadenfreude" and "kabuki", expressions whose exoticism appears to elevate their usage to haute-cliché à la William Safire. No matter what political controversy is being discussed these days, you're likely to run across bloggers busting out these 3-syllable badges of faux-erudition with about as much linguistic adroitness as tap-dancers on stilts.

However, there's one political cliché so popular, so omnipresent, so densely far-reaching, that it is without doubt the greatest cliché of our time. It is the One Cliché to rule them all: "political correctness" and its variants. What's striking about the repetitive droning complaints about "PC" (from both conservatives and liberals) is that the expression itself — not to mention the concept it invokes — is as sloppily unexamined as it is pedestrian.

The phrase "politically correct" can be used in two distinct ways: either with its original literal meaning, or with the mocking sarcasm that's common these days. I'll get to the former in a moment, but I'll begin with the latter. As it's commonly used, "PC" is a deliberately imprecise expression (just try finding or writing a terse, precise definition) because its objective isn't to communicate a substantive idea, but simply to sneer and snivel about the linguistic and cultural burdens of treating all people with the respect and sensitivity with which they wish to be treated. Thus, the Herculean effort required to call me "Asian American" rather than "chink" is seen as a concession to "the PC police", an unsettling infringement on the free-wheeling conversation of, I suppose, "non-chinks". Having to refer to black folks as "African Americans" rather than various historically-prevalent epithets surely strikes some red-blooded blue-balled white-men as a form of cultural oppression. Having to refer to "women" rather than "bitches" lays a violent buzzkill on the bar-room banter of men preoccupied with beating on their chests and off other body parts.

Obviously these examples fall on the simplistic side of things, but I think they illustrate the shaky philosophical foundation of today's usage. Underlying every complaint of "PC" is the absurd notion that members of dominant mainstream society have been victimized by an arbitrarily hypersensitive prohibition against linguistic and cultural constructions that are considered historical manifestations of bigotry. It's no coincidence that "PC"-snivelers are for the most part white men who are essentially saying, "Who the hell do these marginalized groups think they are to tell me how I should or shouldn't portray them? I'm not going to say 'mentally challenged' when it's my right to say 'retard', goshdarnit there's only so much abuse I'll take!"

more

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5286388

Political correctness is how the left gets things changed that offend their excessively sensitive egos.

People complaining about political correctness must therefor be politically incorrect  :whatever:

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Hello_Kitty  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)Thu Mar-19-09 04:46 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. Gee, I didn't realize men and white people were such persecuted minorities.
   
Thank you so much for making the point of the article. Did you even read the whole thing?

If a white male Christian so much as farts incorrectly these days it can land us in a courtroom.

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hfojvt  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Thu Mar-19-09 05:03 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. do only persecuted minorities suffer? Hath not a white guy eyes?
   
If a white guy is being bullied or mocked by somebody is he not a victim?

Is it okay to mock these imaginary white guys who are jacking off with their blue balls and pounding on their chests? (What, no belching?)

Far be it from me to cramp her style by suggesting she could be a little bit more sensitive and use a little bit less mass stereotyping.

Classic. The article wasn't PC enough. The irony is delicious.
 
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Hello_Kitty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-19-09 05:42 AM
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6. Hath not a white guy the ability to not be a bigoted jackass?
   
Far be it from me (or the writer of the article) to cramp your style by suggesting that you could be a little more sensitive and use a little bit less mass stereotyping, rather than throw out the accusation of "OMG UR BEING PC!" when someone suggests to you that a phrase you've used comfortably for 40 years is actually offensive? Because seriously, dude, you're not making a good case for your initial defense of the poor widdle old white guys who can't help but use some offensive phrases, with this insistence on "political correctness" when it comes to talking about said poor widdle old white guys.

Honestly, your posts are exemplary of the kind of dominant class entitlement attitude that feminists and people concerned with racial equality find so aggravating. We are expected to stop and genuflect before the Great White Liberal Dude, and reassure him, before we can discuss anything having to do with race or gender. Blecch. :puke:

Hath anyone the ability to be a bigoted jackass ?

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Hello_Kitty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-19-09 04:47 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. BTW, just because you've said a particular thing for 30 or 40 years.
   
It doesn't make it right.

Funny. I'd bet this dummie would be up in arms if western nations suggested that some other nations moderate certain practices they've been carrying out for hundreds of years.

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Re: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness"
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2009, 05:52:25 AM »
Thinking of people as fellow humans leads to an organized society.

Thinking of people as they can be grouped and labeled leads to chaos and insanity.

The author of this screed provides the evidence.

Offline AprilRazz

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Re: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness"
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2009, 06:18:20 AM »
Funny I hear women referred to as bitches every day. Usually pumped out of speakers in $200 cars with $2k rims at excessively high volumes. But are they going to take these oppressed minorities to task for it?
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Offline TheSarge

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Re: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness"
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2009, 06:54:19 AM »
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Hello_Kitty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-19-09 04:47 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. BTW, just because you've said a particular thing for 30 or 40 years.
   
It doesn't make it right.

So much for the myth that Libs are the protectors of free speech.  :whatever:
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Offline USA4ME

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Re: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness"
« Reply #4 on: March 19, 2009, 07:35:24 AM »
Quote from:
....treating all people with the respect and sensitivity with which they wish to be treated.

PC has NEVER been about treating people the way one would want to be treated.  If that were the case, and if the DUmp were to exercise it, you'd never see a thread on their site speaking ill of those who hold religious beliefs.

PC has always been about power and using it against those of whom you disagree politically.  It's too easy to note the differences between, let's say, NOW's reaction to liberal Bill Clinton's sexual romps as opposed to how they would have reacted were it a conservative.  Their inconsistencies reveal their agenda.

The individual who wrote this is a quack.  Look at this:

Quote from:
Interestingly enough, according to this non-sarcastic, relatively unconsidered, more meaningfully precise definition of the term, the USA is a politically correct nation indeed; but not in the way that most Americans are led to believe. Some examples: Magnetic yellow ribbons are PC. Denouncing Islamism in the name of 9/11 is PC. Reciting the pledge of allegiance is PC. Not talking about radical politics at work or in polite company is PC. Gay-bashing is PC. Standing and placing your hand on your heart during the national anthem is PC. Smiling and applauding when the president enters the room is PC. On the other side of the equation: Marching for civil rights is not PC. Protesting a US war is not PC. Questioning US-Israeli neo-colonial policy in the Middle East is not PC. Calling the US government a white male supremacist corporatist kleptocracy is not PC. Agitating for structural change in our society's distribution of wealth and power is not PC. Refusing to shake a corrupt president's hand is not PC.

Frankly, I can think of far more extreme examples of politically incorrect acts and statements, but it's a testament to the real coercive power of the police state — not some imaginary "PC police" — that I hesitate to publish these thoughts even hypothetically, even with ample theoretical padding. Given this reality, perhaps we might reconsider exactly whose free speech is being violated by whom. As far as I know, "the PC police" haven't thrown any insensitive white men into Gitmo or launched CointelPro operations against white bloggers who publish blackface. For some reason, people of color who oppose US imperialism haven't had that same good fortune.

Simply put, the great "PC" cliché, as commonly deployed in mainstream discourse, is cultural propaganda designed to befuddle and misdirect while defending the current power structure. All politics deal with power relations, and in the debate over America's alleged climate of "political correctness", there's a stark asymmetry of power between the defiant megaphone-wielders who complain of being constrained by humorless hypersensitivity from below, and the under-represented people of color, women, LGBT, disabled, poor, and otherwise marginalized or dispossessed people who have no choice but to absorb the linguistic, cultural, and physical barbs of the ruling class. The former feel psycho-emotionally oppressed by their inability to crack puerile ethnic jokes without criticism; the latter simply are oppressed.

Looks like some of the junk I used to read on Indymedia.  And this "I would say more, but I dare not because they might come and get me, which in itself is a form of terrorism since I am afraid of where my supposed free speech might land me" is a crock.  Paint yourself as a victim (of your own imigination), claim that it's real, and it elevates your status as one who's willing to go as far as the "white male supremacist corporatist kleptocracy" will allow, at least in the eyes of your fellow whackos.

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