Comment by A_COMPUTER | Hacker News Reader

Comment by A_COMPUTER | Hacker News Reader

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Euphemism treadmill, ridiculous proliferation of personal pronouns, victim veto, persistent assault on works like The Mikado or Dante's Inferno. Anchor babies are a thing, Chinese pay 80K for exactly what the term implies, feds shut down places being used for birth tourism, but being true's not a defense when the goal's not offending. Careful language, what could be wrong with that? Well what's the opportunity cost, what's the upper limit on the cognitive burden on that? Relatively easy for people with college degrees and lots of time, great way to signal social superiority by being able to waste fucktons of time on intricate, piddling shit, just like aristocrats used to do with clothing and politeness rules. No cost to being polite, except for all those plays I guess you can't show anymore. Let's throw a fit about a kid wearing a fucking kimono, what's that, Japanese people don't even care? That's not important to me, this is the USA and I've got to show how not racist I am by calling other people racist. Oh shit, the little girl wearing the kimono is biracial and has a Japanese mom, well she looked white so when I started that shitstorm of hate against the family on Facebook and Twitter, at least I was raising awareness about cultural appropriation. She was white-looking anyway so she has white privilege. Cool story, political correctness isn't real.

I saw a performance of the Mikado a few years ago. It's definitely still being performed. It's also not one of Gilbert & Sullivan's finest, so if it falls out of the rotation, shrug.

As for the euphemism treadmill, or the ridiculous proliferation of personal pronouns, hey, if you don't care about or respect the people who are asking you to use those labels, don't use them.

That's what it comes down to--respect. Do you want to show others the respect of using their preferred words? Fine, go for it. There really isn't any law you're breaking if you don't show them that respect. It just means you don't want to show them that respect, for whatever reason you choose.

Respect is kind of like personal hygiene. If you want to be the smelly kid, go for it. People might not want to hang out with you though.

What's so funny about the great PC-hate is that people sit there and complain that others are spending too much time being PC. Now just imagine those same fools complaining about others spending too much time on their personal hygiene, pretty ridiculous eh?

What's even more funny is that some people think that politicians could be non-PC and do just fine...do smelly kids get picked first or last?

If you think about it, PCness is such a non-issue that it really brings to light how completely botched the US political climate is. If you spend the time to post a diatribe on PCness, you are supporting non-thoughtful/non-constructive discourse on important issues. You probably think bathtime is stupid and you probably think careful, respectful communication is just too much effort. Well, sorry to burst your bubble: politics are EVERYWHERE. Everything we do is awash with political forces and the more effort/thoughtfulness/care you put in to dealing with them, the more you will gain (at least the respect of your peers). On the flipside, the more you choose to ignore PC, respect, etc., the more you will find yourself an outsider and a pariah.

So the next time you read/hear someone expressing the ills of PC or the joys of nonPC, just imagine they're school-age kids complaining of the degradation of bathtime or waxing poetic about the virtues of smelliness.

If people were more respectful, PC would never have been invented. It is the fault of bigots, the disrespectful, and the discourteous who have created a world that for tens of thousands of years was dominated by such attitudes, and is now only starting to become more egalitarian in policy and culture. Has PC gone overboard at times? Of course. But it's only been half a century since the '60s, give people time to tone it down. And stop being so damned disrespectful.

I disagree.

Political correctness has not gotten rid of bigotry or disrespect. It has merely been used as a silencing tool for opposing view points. This is why so many people (like me) are against it.

In the world that political correctness describes, the ex-Mozilla CEO wouldn't have been bullied, personally attacked, and disrespected until he was forced to resign from his position.

The guy that killed Cecil the Lion wouldn't have been bullied until he was forced to close his practice.

In many cases, people are destroyed before any of the evidence has been evaluated. Justice is now who has the loudest voice and how fast they can get a hashtag army against you. The truth doesn't matter any longer.

I thought we were supposed to be about more respect, less bulling, and actually creating a better world for all. Instead, it's a better world for only the people with a very specific narrow view of the world.

"And stop being so damned disrespectful."

The problem is that many people can't even respectfully disagree any longer. Even here on HN, I respectfully disagree constantly, give many good thoughts and ideas, but like many places, it's no longer acceptable to have an open and honest conversation.

The other problem is that somebody will almost always take any opinion as 'disrespectful' and you can't please everyone.

This entire thread has comments that are disrespectful toward Trump and anyone that supports him. You really need to ask yourself why this is allowed on a forum like HN, but if you said the same exact thing against Obama or anyone on the other side, you would be silenced.

You can't be against bigotry, bullying and disrespect and then go ahead and do the same thing to people you don't personally like. It invalidates your entire argument and makes you look like a fool.

Political correctness is rotting the country from the inside and will only be the downfall of our freedom.

The problem with critiquing political correctness is that there's no definite definition of what "PC" is. A lot of what's criticized as PC is merely leftist activism and liberal policies taken to extremes. Is multiculturalism and diversity PC? (and what exactly do those even mean in terms of specific policies?) Are sexual harassment lawsuits? Is affirmative action? Tort cases? The War on Christmas? The war against the War on Christmas? Is media censorship in favor of Israel, or media censorship in favor of Palestinians, PC? Public safety regulations (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmsV1TuESrc)?

Why is being anti-Trump considered pro-PC? What specific statements do you consider disrespectful? I'm sure there are equivalent criticisms of Obama on HN, at least in terms of civil liberties as it relates to hackers (anti-NSA surveillance, pro-Net Neutrality, anti-drone). They can be found.

How can something be even called "politically correct" when one lives in a society with multiple parties and political viewpoints?

Is online shame culture inherently PC? Why is Cecil the Lion considered PC, while the online (and other media) campaign against Planned Parenthood, or ACORN, not considered PC? All include using the internet to create viral outrage.

If you want to be against online shaming, sure be against it. If you're against excessive actions done in the name of leftist or liberal beliefs, then by all means be against them and be specific. I would be in favor of either of that. But don't try to call it under some nebulous bugaboo, a caricature.

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