3 ms·

This article makes the mistake of conflating dislike of political correctness with opposition to political correctness. Nobody likes having to be PC, but I thi

This article makes the mistake of conflating dislike of political correctness with opposition to political correctness. Nobody likes having to be PC, but I think we all to some extent realize that there are words that we can use whose very usage is considered offensive. For example, Donald Trump is often called non-PC by his supporters and racist by his opponents; but even he's not going around using the "N-word" (which I'm not even comfortable writing in this pseudononymous context). Of course we chafe at perceived restrictions to what we are "allowed" to say, and we all dislike that things not intended as offensive will be automatically interpreted as offensive even if we were not aware of the offensive implications. Nobody likes that we have all become mini-police officers who wince when someone makes an innocent mistake. And it's entirely possible that this has a slippery slope of treating things as offensive that nobody actually finds offensive because we're worried that some possibly imaginary people will be offended -- that is, we are offended on other people's behalf. But even so we continue to tiptoe around the fringes, waiting for pop culture and colloquial usage to tell us whether it is appropriate to say "black" or "the gays", both of which seem to have entered ordinary non-offensive usage, but at one point felt pretty offensive.

munchbunny 8y ago
For example, Donald Trump is often called non-PC by his supporters and racist by his opponents; To be clear, even if he had used entirely politically correct terms, the "racist" charge would still be there over the clearly-racist-in-intent immigration ban, supporting literal white supremacists, and dog whistling on the national stage. Reality is that you won't suffer much at all in repercussions if you get a word slightly or somewhat wrong. Most people know to avoid using the N-word, or "chinks", or "fags", etc. You see repercussions when it's clear you also carry actual racist beliefs, or when it's clear that you're intentionally calling someone by the wrong pronoun because you're trying to take a political stand. I've used the wrong pronoun plenty of times, and people have subtly corrected me, but nobody has batted an eyelash because I wasn't making some sort of stand. "Oh, it's 'she' now, ok, sorry." Despite only living in extremely liberal areas, I've also never been asked to use any exotic pronouns. The more I see people complaining about it, the more I think that it's a straw man. Sure, there are examples of people being oversensitive, but oversensitive people are a fact of life. You can choose not to be around them.

munchbunny 8y ago

For example, Donald Trump is often called non-PC by his supporters and racist by his opponents; To be clear, even if he had used entirely politically correct terms, the "racist" charge would still be there over the clearly-racist-in-intent immigration ban, supporting literal white supremacists, and dog whistling on the national stage. Reality is that you won't suffer much at all in repercussions if you get a word slightly or somewhat wrong. Most people know to avoid using the N-word, or "chinks", or "fags", etc. You see repercussions when it's clear you also carry actual racist beliefs, or when it's clear that you're intentionally calling someone by the wrong pronoun because you're trying to take a political stand. I've used the wrong pronoun plenty of times, and people have subtly corrected me, but nobody has batted an eyelash because I wasn't making some sort of stand. "Oh, it's 'she' now, ok, sorry." Despite only living in extremely liberal areas, I've also never been asked to use any exotic pronouns. The more I see people complaining about it, the more I think that it's a straw man. Sure, there are examples of people being oversensitive, but oversensitive people are a fact of life. You can choose not to be around them.