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In the last three years on city-data, I've seen a political correctness (PC) backlash that people should be able to say what they want. However, I have wondered for the last week if being anti-PC is really just a way to get away with saying something offensive. I mean don't get me wrong, the first amendment gives you and I both the right to say something, but at the same time, it don't mean you can't get criticized or ridiculed for making such a statement. The example I use is that I could say the n-word in a crowd of African-Americans but I would likely get a beating. Just because I can say something don't mean I one, should and two, shouldn't be punished for saying such a statement.
IMHO, PC while a bit crazy right now, is best for the world. You say something wrong and get called out on it, that is the way of the world. Anti-PC, jut seemingly wants you to be able to say anything and nobody can cal you out on it because you are free to say it. The first amendment is best described as you have the right to free speech but it don't make your free speech right.
Interesting
This is a subject near and dear to me, but I do not have the time to expound at the moment. So I will only touch upon the PC you unknowingly injected into your OP. That being the aspect of the hyphenated-American term.
Your example with saying the word [snip] in a crowd of [PC term] "African-Americans" is not really what the debate centers around. Call anyone names, even their mother a name, and you are more likely to eat a fist sandwich than if you said good day sir.
Instead being PC, which is in many forms is more akin to using the term hyphened-American rather than referring to someone by the color of their skin. If you ever noticed, it is only minorities that get that special hyphened title, not whites.
This has not been the case in most of American history. Being separated by using those terms was considered an insult throughout most of our history. It was a way of calling someone less American that the generations of people who were born here. So if you called someone an Italian-American it was fighting words, because the person calling you that implied your allegiance was to the native homeland, not here.
This is a great speech on the subject by Teddy Roosevelt given just 100 years ago;
Teddy Roosevelt: "No Room in This Country for Hyphenated Americans"
“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.”
“This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.”
“But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.”
“The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English- Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian- Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic.”
“The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Address to the Knights of Columbus
New York City- October 12th, 1915
The irony of course is that many black people do not even like the term "African-American", nor do they call each other that. I actually know certain black communities around where I live, that despise the term for different reasons. For example someone from Jamaica wants to be referred to as black because they say I am not from Africa, and are proud to be Jamaican.
Plus, they look down their noses at Americans that are black in this country, as being generally less intelligent. So they do not want to be mistaken for them. Bigoted yes, but a reality.
I wish I had more time to go on, but suffice to say PC is an insidious form of cancer that strips away peoples rights to freedom of thought and speech when they must censor themselves. Real issues are not discussed, thus avoided, so as to not be ridiculed or worse just for expressing them.
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Last edited by Jeo123; 11-28-2016 at 11:44 AM..
Reason: Censor Bypass
The irony of course is that many black people do not even like the term "African-American", nor do they call each other that.
No, the irony is that the majority group Roosevelt was speaking to never accepted his proposal. Just a few years later, there was a WASP backlash against immigrants and black Americans that Roosevelt never envisioned.
I remember when I was a kid in the late 50s, my youngest aunt played clarinet in the Booker T Washington High School marching band. The town had a parade, and my mother took me to watch it. When I saw young people in band uniforms marching past, I strained to see my aunt--and saw no black people at all. I asked my mother, "Where is Aunt Faith?"
She told me, "We can't be in this parade."
A parade is explicitly a display of local culture. A parade is intended to say, "This is who and what we are, this is what we stand for."
The fact that "we"--black people--were excluded from the town parade was a deliberate statement that we were not part of the culture or community, not wanted to be, intentionally excluded.
So Roosevelt's ideal could not be realized, and it was not the fault of those of us who would have gladly fit in, who tried so hard for so long to fit in.
In the last three years on city-data, I've seen a political correctness (PC) backlash that people should be able to say what they want. However, I have wondered for the last week if being anti-PC is really just a way to get away with saying something offensive. I mean don't get me wrong, the first amendment gives you and I both the right to say something, but at the same time, it don't mean you can't get criticized or ridiculed for making such a statement. The example I use is that I could say the n-word in a crowd of African-Americans but I would likely get a beating. Just because I can say something don't mean I one, should and two, shouldn't be punished for saying such a statement.
IMHO, PC while a bit crazy right now, is best for the world. You say something wrong and get called out on it, that is the way of the world. Anti-PC, jut seemingly wants you to be able to say anything and nobody can cal you out on it because you are free to say it. The first amendment is best described as you have the right to free speech but it don't make your free speech right.
PC is for the weak. It's a way to force people to get along who other wise wouldnt. It's a tattle tell, I can't fight my own battles type of thing. You can call someone whatever you want, just be prepared for the consequences. You use ni9er as your example. I'm black and encourage anyone to say just to see the results. The PC doesn't pretect blacks and their feelings. You can't call coworkers FAT, Smelly, Lazy, Stupid, even if you feel a certain way about a certain person society forces people to mussel themselves. Anti PC is a big reason Trump won the election the way he did. People are tired of being told what they can and can not do. I don't like everyone and neither does the OP.
Why should private citizens and entities be disallowed from calling out others for what they say? That is the other side of free speech, you can say what you want other people can criticize and dispute what you say.
If someone has the stones to say something unpopular then they should have the stones to take the criticism.
The PC culture is extremely one sided and prevents an honest discussion of the problems in our society - the problems that can't be addressed without naming them first.
And "calling out" usually takes form of an angry leftist mob shutting down any form of disagreement with their party line. This is not healthy for the society and only breeds contempt. Once that contempt reaches certain point, you get Trump. Which is not the worst because he's actually rather socially liberal. Keep pushing the party line, and shutting off any serious discussion, and soon we'll get Le Pen.
The PC culture is extremely one sided and prevents an honest discussion of the problems in our society - the problems that can't be addressed without naming them first.
And "calling out" usually takes form of an angry leftist mob shutting down any form of disagreement with their party line. This is not healthy for the society and only breeds contempt. Once that contempt reaches certain point, you get Trump. Which is not the worst because he's actually rather socially liberal. Keep pushing the party line, and shutting off any serious discussion, and soon we'll get Le Pen.
And how do these angry leftist shut you out? Seriously? If you think right-wing opinions and politically incorrect statements are being shut down go to the comment sections of YouTube, Facebook, Yahoo. Log on to Twitter.
You just claim that your opinions are being censored when really just don't want to listen to what you have to say. There is a big difference.
PC is for the weak. It's a way to force people to get along who other wise wouldnt. It's a tattle tell, I can't fight my own battles type of thing. You can call someone whatever you want, just be prepared for the consequences. You use ni9er as your example. I'm black and encourage anyone to say just to see the results. The PC doesn't pretect blacks and their feelings. You can't call coworkers FAT, Smelly, Lazy, Stupid, even if you feel a certain way about a certain person society forces people to mussel themselves. Anti PC is a big reason Trump won the election the way he did. People are tired of being told what they can and can not do. I don't like everyone and neither does the OP.
So you could always not talk to the person you don't like instead of being abrasive. This is what most rational people do.
And how do these angry leftist shut you out? Seriously? If you think right-wing opinions and politically incorrect statements are being shut down go to the comment sections of YouTube, Facebook, Yahoo. Log on to Twitter.
You just claim that your opinions are being censored when really just don't want to listen to what you have to say. There is a big difference.
There's a big difference between not listening and calling people "racist sexist misogynist deplorable Nazi scum" for voting for the candidate you don't like.
Or, how many times did you hear media and public figures erupt in indignant hysteria when a black person uses C-word to describe white people ? What about waging a media war on the three thugs who beat up a white person while screaming "don't vote Trump" ? Where's the massive coverage of that ?
The PC talk would be more tolerated has it not been so one-sided, biased and unfair.
There's a big difference between not listening and calling people "racist sexist misogynist deplorable Nazi scum" for voting for the candidate you don't like.
Or, how many times did you hear media and public figures erupt in indignant hysteria when a black person uses C-word to describe white people ? What about waging a media war on the three thugs who beat up a white person while screaming "don't vote Trump" ? Where's the massive coverage of that ?
The PC talk would be more tolerated has it not been so one-sided, biased and unfair.
You and your fellow Conservatives are providing the coverage. You can now create your own media new outlets tailored to your beliefs thanks to the internet.
As for being called "Racist, sexist, misogynistic deplorable". Why get offended by that? You could care less about all the trolls on social media sites like YouTube, 4Chan, Reddit who use racial and sexist slurs all of the time.
You like so many others would probably tell the target of this harassment to grow thicker skin, get over it.
So why should empathy be shown to those same people when they are offended when they are called Racist and Sexist?
You and your fellow Conservatives are providing the coverage. You can now create your own media new outlets tailored to your beliefs thanks to the internet.
As for being called "Racist, sexist, misogynistic deplorable". Why get offended by that? You could care less about all the trolls on social media sites like YouTube, 4Chan, Reddit who use racial and sexist slurs all of the time.
You like so many others would probably tell the target of this harassment to grow thicker skin, get over it.
So why should empathy be shown to those same people when they are offended when they are called Racist and Sexist?
I don't care for your empathy. I want an equal, fair treatment. And Reddit / 4chan are not mass media.
What you're seeing this election is just the beginning, and the more the Left keeps fighting for the old one-sided biased PC ways the farther right the pendulum is going to swing. As evidenced by what's going on in Europe. This is something that bothers me too.
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