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Politically Correct?

Am I being politically correct in the example given?

  • Total voters
    36
radcen said:
A simple 'No.' would suffice, but I have to have at least ten characters in my response.

"Not necessarily" would probably be more accurate, which is exactly what qualifies it as being PC... the grouping together in an attempt to be fair all the while ignoring the intended purpose and being overly broad.
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It can be PC, but it's can also be just a way of accurate stating an ethnic category. Consequently, your initial statement was inaccurate. That was my only point.
 
spud_meister said:
Yeah, that's pretty much the definition of PC. Modifying behaviour so as not to give unnecessary and unintended offence.
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To me, PC is about trying to control language. Trying not to randomly offend people is courtesy, not political correctness. By your definition, not belching in some ones face would be PC, and I don't think it is, I think it is just common courtesy.
 
StillBallin75 said:
"Oriental" has traditionally referred to Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ethnicities. "Asian," as it is used today, covers a much broader group of people. So I'd say it's not simply a matter of political correctness, but a shift in terminology due to the fact that we have more folks in this country of Asian origin who aren't Orientals than we did when the term "Oriental" was more in vogue.
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When the conversation happened, I looked it up to be sure I was right(I do this alot). Technically, Asian is the correct term for people from Asia or of Asian descent and not Oriental, which is considered generally derogatory. However, this is very weak I think is the best way to describe it. Most people when using the term Oriental are not using it to offend, and many Asian people do not know the difference.
 
apdst said:
You're being very PC, because I bet you wouldn't normally make a reference to, "oriental", food vice, "Asian", food.
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Food is an object, hence Oriental is technically correct.
 
liblady said:
personally, i don't see why anyone thinks being "PC" is wrong. if there's a chance that a person would think you were being rude, why not avoid that? for me, it's common courtesy, good manners. which some people seem to think can be overlooked.
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apdst said:
Because it's idiotic to tippy-toe around people's silly sensibilities. People should have more important things to get excited about and if they don't, there's something wrong with them.

Besides that political correctness is nothing but thought engineering, that sometimes results in trampling on our liberties.
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Apdst, to me it depends. It's the difference between making a big deal about it, and just passively doing something. If I was trying to tell people "oh mu god, don't use Oriental, it's offensive", that would be PC. Doing it myself, that is just me trying to be polite. Part of what I was thinking when I made this thread was how we overuse the term PC and make it into a big negative, when a person just trying to not offend others is not really to my mind PC, it is just showing common courtesy. I am not tippy-toeing around any one's sensibilities. Realistically, the other person's reaction and thoughts are not important, it's doing what I, myself feel is right.
 
liblady said:
polite people respect others and their sensibilities.
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Yes and no. I might add a "within reason" to the end of that. Many years ago I had a conversation with a friend of mine and he was talking about bringing up his daughters(1 and 3 years old at the time) and some of the complications he would run through his head. For example, he felt the golden rule was improperly worded. It should not be "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", since there is no guarantee that the other person wants to be treated the same way you do, and in fact they probably didn't in all aspects. The rule more properly should be "do unto others as they would have you do unto them". The problem though was to not just teach his daughters his version of the rule, but to teach them it in such a way they did not end up as sycophants or similar. There has to be a line drawn where there are reasonable expectations for how people should treat you, and unreasonable.
 
apdst said:
I agree, but people who are overly sensitive need to grow up, too.

My point is, political correctness has, in more than one instance, been used for thought control.
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And this is a good point, and it is where I kinda draw the line between PC and courtesy. Courtesy is how I think I should treat others. PC is trying to control how people treat others, if that makes sense. In my example, it is the former, not the latter.
 
theplaydrive said:
I know it's not politically correct and I've mentioned in other threads about political correctness that I say it without complaining about other people's reactions to it and PC in general. Social retards, as I said in my post, are the people "who relentlessly complain about political correctness". If you say a word, you should be willing to accept the consequences of it and not run around whining and bitching about how unfair it is to you that people don't like it when you say "black" instead of "African-American".
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Wow, that's a lot of spin to justify your use of a non-PC term while complaining about a lack of "common courtesy" in others. What's the PC term for that? Consistency challenged?
 
X Factor said:
Wow, that's a lot of spin to justify your use of a non-PC term while complaining about a lack of "common courtesy" in others. What's the PC term for that? Consistency challenged?
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It's the hypocrisy of what "tolerance" has evolved to be.
 
theplaydrive said:
It's pretty childish and egotistical to treat other people however you feel like treating them without considering how they prefer to be treated which seems to be the MO of most people who complain about political correctness.
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Why should i be expected to treat every individual how "they want to be treated"? And how is that even possible?
 
X Factor said:
Wow, that's a lot of spin to justify your use of a non-PC term while complaining about a lack of "common courtesy" in others. What's the PC term for that? Consistency challenged?
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To my mind, and I think others, there is a difference between being PC and being polite. He also makes the valid point that if you choose to be impolite, you should be willing to accept the reaction you get.
 
I dont see how anyone could have a problem with either term being used in conversation...I really dont have time to sit there and think about what I "HAVE" to say and "HOW" I have to word what I want to say and worry about offending people when I obviously have no intention of doing so....life is enough of a pain in the ass without worrying about trivial nonesense.....not saying this thread is nonesense...just saying the whole IM OFFENDED thing has gotten old...to me anyway
 
lpast said:
I dont see how anyone could have a problem with either term being used in conversation...I really dont have time to sit there and think about what I "HAVE" to say and "HOW" I have to word what I want to say and worry about offending people when I obviously have no intention of doing so....life is enough of a pain in the ass without worrying about trivial nonesense.....not saying this thread is nonesense...just saying the whole IM OFFENDED thing has gotten old...to me anyway
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This thread has nothing to do with being offended.
 
Redress said:
To my mind, and I think others, there is a difference between being PC and being polite.He also makes the valid point that if you choose to be impolite, you should be willing to accept the reaction you get.
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What do you mean 'be willing to accept the reaction you get'? Agree with it? Not respond to it?
 
X Factor said:
What do you mean 'be willing to accept the reaction you get'? Agree with it? Not respond to it?
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"Willing to accept": if you walk up to a black man and call him a nigger, you have no room to cry if he kicks your ass. Realize that not calling him that is, by some of the definitions here, only being politically correct.
 
Redress said:
This thread has nothing to do with being offended.
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I assumed if you were worried about asian or oriental being pc then it was a concern about offending someone...If I responded out of context...my apologies
 
Redress said:
This thread has nothing to do with being offended.
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it has everything to do with being offended

being knowingly offensive is the opposite of being politically correct
 
justabubba said:
it has everything to do with being offended

being knowingly offensive is the opposite of being politically correct
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Thats what I was responding too but obviously that wasnt Redress' intention..
 
justabubba said:
it has everything to do with being offended

being knowingly offensive is the opposite of being politically correct
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Offended is a reaction, but the question is not with the reaction, but with the initial action.
 
Redress said:
"Willing to accept": if you walk up to a black man and call him a nigger, you have no room to cry if he kicks your ass. Realize that not calling him that is, by some of the definitions here, only being politically correct.
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Well, I could quibble with you over the legality of assaulting someone based on verbal provocation alone, but I do understand the point you're making. Nigger is an obvious perjorative, as is retard, but some things that are taken to be offensive just aren't or intended to be. It just seems that some people really just aren't happy unless they have a reason to be offended, and if they can't find something real, they'll manufacture a reason.
 
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X Factor said:
Well, I could quibble with you over the legality of assaulting someone based on verbal provocation alone, but I do understand the point you're making. Nigger is an obvious perjorative, as is retard, but some things that are taken to be offensive just aren't or intended to be. It just seems that some people really just aren't happy unless they have a reason to be offended, and if they can't find something real, they'll manufacture a reason.
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Again, I point out that the question in this poll has nothing to do with the reaction, but with the choice of action. Is it PC to choose to use a term, like Asian, so as not to risk offending people? The actual reaction is irrelevant to the question.

And yes, I understand the legality of assault over verbal provocation, and to my mind the black guy doing the assaulting has no room to complain about getting arrested, just as the person using nigger has no room to complain about the assault. We are all responsible for our actions, and blaming others for them is childish.
 
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