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Political Correctness - Mind Control?

Political correctness - Good or bad?


  • Total voters
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Please define political correctness.

RT...providing definitions are too...hmmmm, forum incorrect. I have a sneaky feeling that you've taken hundreds of hours classes learning psychic techniques.

I would suspect that you've failed most of those times (as have most of us), but you might want to give it one more try.

You just never know, dude...
 
it i s politically correct to let gay organisations take over your school and there is notheing you can do about it. :mad:
 
it i s politically correct to let gay organisations take over your school and there is notheing you can do about it. :mad:

yeah it's really too bad all those gay organizations will turn your kids gay and you'll end up with no grandchildren! :2mad:
 
Depends on what a person means by "political correctness".

To me, PCism is trying to stop people from being offensive, like fines/extra punishment for racial slurs and/or sexually suggestive things (words, pics, whatever) or not recognizing that words can have different meanings and just because a certain word is used to describe something does not mean it is meant to be offensive in any way or looking for something to be offended by. There are places where these things shouldn't be allowed, but those places should be few and far between (school, TV without warning, during government business). I am a strong believer in you do not have a right to not be offended.

I do not consider things such as being pro-SSM or anti-SSM as being politically correct, for the most part. Nor do I consider being either pro-life or pro-choice either as being politically correct, for the most part. It would depend though on why a person holds the position they do on a certain issue. Basically holding a certain position because you believe in that position is not about political correctness. However, if you hold a certain position to "fit in" or because you are afraid that if you hold the opposite position you will be shunned or face some negative feedback/reaction, then you are being politically correct. I do believe some of our politicians may do this, but I don't think that most people on the forum do. Although some may hold a certain position due to their religious beliefs, I still do not think that it would be political correctness, but rather religion faithfulness (if someone has a better word/phrase, please provide).
 
I think it depends where I am and what I am doing. If I am in class or at work I tend to be PC because those are places that are serious. If I am hanging out with my friends then I say whatever the **** I want.

Then you go along to get along. Not exactly honest, wouldn't you say?
 
Depends on what a person means by "political correctness".

To me, PCism is trying to stop people from being offensive, like fines/extra punishment for racial slurs and/or sexually suggestive things (words, pics, whatever) or not recognizing that words can have different meanings and just because a certain word is used to describe something does not mean it is meant to be offensive in any way or looking for something to be offended by. There are places where these things shouldn't be allowed,

So.................. sometimes the First Amendment does not apply?
 
Then you go along to get along. Not exactly honest, wouldn't you say?

How so? When I am in class or work I am expected to act professionally, so I do. When I am hanging out with my Poli Sci friends, who make fun of PC stuff, we aren't nearly as PC because our group is just that way. They are two different situations and just because in one place I act professionally does not mean I am being dishonest. In a social setting with people who actually study the stuff with me we all know how we actually feel and we just joke around.
 
How about if we didn't have any political correctness? Suppose everyone who was racist and hated black people could still say the N word. Wouldn't that make it a hec of a lot easier to spot the assholes so we knew who to associate with right off the bat. :)

Damn near every black I know and work with use the word everyday all the time in their normal conversation, does that make them racist or politically incorrect?
 
So.................. sometimes the First Amendment does not apply?


Of course it does.

There is no law that says you have to be "politically correct" (Thank God). And there is no law that says you must not be (or as quoted above - have a right not to be) offended by the actions of another.

"Political correctness" is (are?) informal cultural standards enforced by no one specific.

They are an expression of the spirit of the age. Some good... lots of bad. They are what they are. My thoughts are: Give them no more credence than you feel they are worth.
 
So.................. sometimes the First Amendment does not apply?

Absolutely.

If you are in class or even at school, for those still in K-12, you should not be making racial slurs or showing nude pics around or disrupting class. Because there is a specific purpose for you and everyone else to be there, and it is to learn. Making others feel uncomfortable or hated or disrupting class negatively affects the learning process. Punishment should be used as needed to correct the situation.

If you are conducting government business, such as in court or in some sort of meeting, then you are there for a specific purpose. Being rude to those who are trying to help you conduct that business should be considered intolerable and a waste of their time. And if you are the government employee that is being rude, then you are not doing your job to the best of your ability. If that gets you fired, it is on you.

I am actually not fond of the FCC, but I do think that ratings and/or adviseries about the content of media should be given for you to be able to decide if you want to watch something and/or whether you feel it is appropriate for your children to watch. When I went to see the movie Black Snake Moan in the theater, they messed up and started playing The Astronaut Farmer in our theater by mistake. After seeing the opening scene of Black Snake Moan, I remember thinking that I hope to God that they didn't switch the two and start playing that one in place of the The Astronaut Farmer, because I could certainly understand parents being a little upset at their children seeing a sex scene as the opening scene when they were supposed to be watching a family movie.

And I specifically stated that restrictions should be few and far between. They should be shown to have a legitimate purpose, as I described above.
 
So.................. sometimes the First Amendment does not apply?

One of those oh so clever comments that sounds good until you look at it. The first amendment is superseded in a number of cases. There are things from when I was in the service I simply cannot discuss. Of course, in pretty much all the cases, if I did discuss it you would be bored stiff, but still, classified material is exempted from free speech laws(sorta, sometimes). You cannot commit liable.

The government does not, to my knowledge, mandate anything that would be considered PC, and that is because of the first amendment. However, a message board owner could make all sorts of PC rules for his message board and it would be perfectly legal since the first amendment does not apply to privately owned message boards.
 
One of those oh so clever comments that sounds good until you look at it. The first amendment is superseded in a number of cases. There are things from when I was in the service I simply cannot discuss. Of course, in pretty much all the cases, if I did discuss it you would be bored stiff, but still, classified material is exempted from free speech laws(sorta, sometimes). You cannot commit liable.

The government does not, to my knowledge, mandate anything that would be considered PC, and that is because of the first amendment. However, a message board owner could make all sorts of PC rules for his message board and it would be perfectly legal since the first amendment does not apply to privately owned message boards.

Quite. Hence, you can understand why a lot of people roll their eyes when American posters bang on about enjoying the greatest freedom of speech of any country in the world. There may be the least heavy government censorship of expression, but there is a much heavier hand of private and corporate censorship and self-censorship. US TV is amongst the tamest and most timid in the world.
 
Quite. Hence, you can understand why a lot of people roll their eyes when American posters bang on about enjoying the greatest freedom of speech of any country in the world. There may be the least heavy government censorship of expression, but there is a much heavier hand of private and corporate censorship and self-censorship. US TV is amongst the tamest and most timid in the world.

It's ok. The people in the US understand that it's government censorship that is a problem, and that TV shows can be good without heavy swearing or nudity. Have you ever watched, for example, Japanese TV?
 
Quite. Hence, you can understand why a lot of people roll their eyes when American posters bang on about enjoying the greatest freedom of speech of any country in the world. There may be the least heavy government censorship of expression, but there is a much heavier hand of private and corporate censorship and self-censorship. US TV is amongst the tamest and most timid in the world.

Big difference between not being able to say the f word on network TV and actually being criminally prosecuted just for saying something. I'll gladly accept the former in order to live where I can enjoy the latter.
 
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Big difference between not being able to say the f word on network TV and actually being criminally prosecuted just for saying something. I'll gladly accept the former in order to enjoy the latter.

You are trying to ruin all my credibility, aren't you.
 
Along with Racism, Threats, and Intimidation, it is used to control and coerce people to a way of thought they would otherwise oppose.

I see it as useless
 
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Like so many questions, its looking for a black and white answer when there's not one.

I think there's four major "types" of things that are often shouted "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" now a days.

The first are honest attempts to be less "insulting". Think of no longer calling Deaf and Mute people "Deaf and Dumb". Or even not calling a person with Downs Syndrome "A retard". Some of these things are absolutely good things in my opinion, attempts to change the general social view of things as more information is gained. Others can go a bit too far, such as the push for "handicapabable" at one point instead of "handicapped", where its attempting to push something for a "rah rah" type reason more than anything else. You also have some that are attempted to be used to spare feelings but frankly are rather pointless such as "african-american" and "caucasion" instead of "black" and "white". It can also be a bit counter productive. Take for example deaf aboved and trying to go "hearing impaired". Deaf is easy to understand, deaf means they can't hear. Hearing impaired could mean they don't hear well? They hear only out of one ear? They're completely deaf? What? It creates confusion out of nothing but a social desire to really, really not offend.

The second are done generally for political reasons. These are things like referring to Illegal Aliens as "undocumented workers", terming people like blackwater "Private Security Forces" rather than "mercanaries". These are things where people change the terminology in hopes of changing the image of the thing being talked about to be more favorable/negative depending on their intent. These generally don't greatly bother me either way, except in cases where the people using it are so deluded to believe that the term they're using is some kind of absolute truth rather than political spin.

The third are done for social reasons. These are what many people likely think about with regards to this. Can go from not talking about or mentioning a stereotype of a group, or suggesting something was just "wrong" to say, and other such social interactions. These type of things are really situational, often going from way overboard to understandable.

You also generally have hybrids of those. Two big ones in recent memories were actually from the right, with "Freedom Fries" instead of "French Fries" and condemnation towards the Dixie Chicks for suggesting negative things about the president during a time of war...so much so that some labeled it "treasonous". That'd be an example of a Social thing. Where as something like the attempts to not recognize christmas happening in stores or various places could be viewed as a mix of the one concerning feelings and social, going so overboard to be "sensitive" and respect other cultures.

The fourth type in my mind isn't political correctness, but often gets lumped in with it. And that's simply being tactful. Some people have become so ingrained against Political Correctness that they go over board, to the point of feeling like anything should be said at any time for whatever reason. This notion of it being fine to have no tact, no class, and be offensive and then to defend it by accusing someone of trying to be "political correct". This is one version of it I dislike, as I think too often we've had an honest lack of tact in our society.

Political Correctness also suffers the same thing as any movement, be it the feminist movement, the civil rights movement, or even what will befall the tea party movement if it continues on. And that is the notion that you reach a point of acceptability where the idea you are pushing is worth while, legitimate, and implimented well and you're stuck with two options...

Cease the push you've been making and the cause you've been striving for and embrace the change you've created, or adapt your cause, change it, and continue the push. "Lets stop calling people in the country illegally wetbacks" happens giving us illegal aliens and then pushing for undocumented immigrants could be an example of this. While there have been some worth while and good changes to our culture and vocabulary based on political correctness, the majority of those changes are now rooted in and rather than letting the push go they move onto other things that don't need it or where its being done simply for the sake of being done.

So all in all, I guess I typed a lot to give a none answer. Political Correctness, as a concept, is not in and of itself a bad thing. It can absolutely be bad, and I'd wager slightly more often then not it is, but it can also be good. Its also sometimes applied to things where it just doesn't fit and is really simply being respectful/tactful.

The one difference I would say is with regards to government forcing individuals to participate in political correctness through law, which generally I would say would be a bad thing.
 
Big difference between not being able to say the f word on network TV and actually being criminally prosecuted just for saying something. I'll gladly accept the former in order to live where I can enjoy the latter.

I absolutely would too...

Doesn't make it any less a form of political correctness
 
I speak how I choose until somebody tells me I've offended them. I'll remove the offending speech for their benefit, but outside of their presence I don't censor myself. I've said before, I feel you are only offended if you choose to be. You play an active part in deciding whether or not you'll allow the speech of a stranger to cause you emotioanl distress. I don't get offended easily, but I'll often push right back at people who are blatantly trying to be offensive, simply to see where their line is.
 
It's ok. The people in the US understand that it's government censorship that is a problem, and that TV shows can be good without heavy swearing or nudity. Have you ever watched, for example, Japanese TV?

Hey, hey, hey...

One of the best shows on American TV right now has a fair amount of nudity and swearing and I'll not have any belittling done. :p

Not to mention that other US show on every monday that you like with people with their naked chests and tight fitting clothing grabbing and grinding against each other.
 
I am sure people know what political correctness. Is it bad for society, or good?

Should it be lessened? Increased?

Also, it'd be awesome if you could give examples of political correctness to support your beliefs.

Thank you.

In some ways. We even have PC reeducation camps as well. It can easily be viewed as a form of thought control
 
I think Political Correctness is the mental weakness of this country. People want to cry about being called a name or labelled a certain way...it is ridiculous. If the PC crap keeps going, I postulate the Chinese will be able to take over our nation by simply calling us names, which will hurt our feelings sooo much that we will give-up.
 
Big difference between not being able to say the f word on network TV and actually being criminally prosecuted just for saying something. I'll gladly accept the former in order to live where I can enjoy the latter.

I think the FCC should lose the vast majority of its power, and the only thing it should do is police against piracy. As for saying words. I think we should be able to say the f word on network TV AND not be criminally prosecuted just for saying something. No reason we shouldn't enjoy the FULL of our freedom instead of part of it. Ceding freedom is stupid anyway.
 
I've said before, I feel you are only offended if you choose to be.

I think this is exceedingly accurate. For one to react offended, one must take offense. It can always be dismissed, so it goes. There's always a choice, you can choose what you say, and you can choose how you react to what others say.
 
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