3 ms·

Political correctness isn't bad, overreacting is the problem.

acjohnson55 10y ago
^ Exactly. And the backlash against "PC" is yet another overreaction. We're in a time where voices that didn't command respect in the past now have vastly more access to an audience. On the balance, I think this is a really good thing. However, we haven't yet evolved an ability to reliably sift the real complaints from the unfounded ones. This, of course, is not a black and white distinction. From what little I know, this seems like an incident where a hasty decision was made, without much of a process. Hopefully, as a community we'll learn and improve, but with the maturity to do so without discrediting the very real issues of diversity and inclusion in tech.
- vertex-four 10y ago
  > From what little I know, this seems like an incident where a hasty decision was made, without much of a process. Interestingly, the vast majority of the time this happens at conferences, it happens "the other way" - some minority member is entirely ignored because people don't really understand that shitty things happen to people and/or don't believe an incident was as bad as it sounds, without having witnessed it. (Mostly because nothing that bad has ever happened to them at a conference, failing to realise that different people have different experiences.) Codes of conduct along with a reasonable review process before doing anything, as have been implemented at various conferences, hacker camps, and other tech-related public spaces, and by large community projects, mostly ensure this sort of issue - lack of review - doesn't happen so often, in both directions.
xiaoma 10y ago
Political correctness is actually pretty horrible. Try living in a communist country for a few years and you may start valuing tolerance of "incorrect" views more than you currently do. For the most part, the US isn't too bad as far as political correctness yet. That said, it's been getting worse since the Bush presidency (when it was "unpatriotic" to oppose the Iraq war, etc). Now it's fair to say that areas of scientific research (e.g evolutionary psychology) are rapidly becoming verboten and abandoned by the younger generations of scientists.
- tomca32 10y ago
  As someone who grew up in a communist country, thank you for this. I love the US, but one of the things I really hate is that I have to triple check everything I want to say. It's fine. I'm the immigrant and I'm the one who should adapt. It still bothers me, though.

^ Exactly. And the backlash against "PC" is yet another overreaction. We're in a time where voices that didn't command respect in the past now have vastly more access to an audience. On the balance, I think this is a really good thing. However, we haven't yet evolved an ability to reliably sift the real complaints from the unfounded ones. This, of course, is not a black and white distinction. From what little I know, this seems like an incident where a hasty decision was made, without much of a process. Hopefully, as a community we'll learn and improve, but with the maturity to do so without discrediting the very real issues of diversity and inclusion in tech.

vertex-four 10y ago
> From what little I know, this seems like an incident where a hasty decision was made, without much of a process. Interestingly, the vast majority of the time this happens at conferences, it happens "the other way" - some minority member is entirely ignored because people don't really understand that shitty things happen to people and/or don't believe an incident was as bad as it sounds, without having witnessed it. (Mostly because nothing that bad has ever happened to them at a conference, failing to realise that different people have different experiences.) Codes of conduct along with a reasonable review process before doing anything, as have been implemented at various conferences, hacker camps, and other tech-related public spaces, and by large community projects, mostly ensure this sort of issue - lack of review - doesn't happen so often, in both directions.

xiaoma 10y ago

Political correctness is actually pretty horrible. Try living in a communist country for a few years and you may start valuing tolerance of "incorrect" views more than you currently do. For the most part, the US isn't too bad as far as political correctness yet. That said, it's been getting worse since the Bush presidency (when it was "unpatriotic" to oppose the Iraq war, etc). Now it's fair to say that areas of scientific research (e.g evolutionary psychology) are rapidly becoming verboten and abandoned by the younger generations of scientists.

tomca32 10y ago
As someone who grew up in a communist country, thank you for this. I love the US, but one of the things I really hate is that I have to triple check everything I want to say. It's fine. I'm the immigrant and I'm the one who should adapt. It still bothers me, though.