Political Correctness?

[garrett7855]

OK, let me give this a shot. Everybody, please go easy on me, I'm totally new to this!

I listen to talk radio everyday as I travel the country in the truck. I even try to stomach NPR as often as I can stand it, just so I can try to stay "fair and balanced"

I have to confess, I am totally confused by the term "politically correct" .

It seems that this seemingly innocuos sounding term almost always reflects the "minority" opinion .

Can somebody please help me out?

I don't want to spend the rest of my life being politically incorrect, but i surely can't accept the prospect of becoming a liberal hanky wringer!

[JesterCerberus]

Political Correctness is the attempt to not offend anyone. Since this is virtually impossible it often times can get out of hand rather quickly. Euphemism for just about anything can be made in cases where political correctness is important. I would say that unless anyone tells you that what you are saying or doing is offensive to them or insensitive you don't have to worry about it. After all you can end up offending more people if you try to be too politically correct. Like for instance you attempt to stop using black as a description for someone and you instead use African American and that person is from Jamaica. They might not like the way you assume they are of African dissent whereas they might not mind the term black.

[garrett7855]

8-)Jester, I admit, that makes more sense than any of the gobbledygook I've gotten from anyone else. With your permission, I'll go with that til something better comes along. Thanks for taking the question seriously-it reflects far more thought than others have seemed to direct that way that I've seen. ;D

[Sentinel]

garrett7855 said:

I have to confess, I am totally confused by the term "politically correct" .

"Politically Correct" are the things your allowed to say without someone calling your hateful, ignorant, bigot, or other such name.

For example, it is a statistical fact that black individuals are about FIFTY TIMES as likely to commit violence against whites than whites against blacks. But, anyone in the meanstream media who says this will likely get fired; and in public forums, liberals will tell you that you're racist and the moderator might even ban you.

But, if you sob about how blacks are so vicitmized by whites then no one will call you names. If you work in the mainstream media, you'll get a pay raise.

Contrary to what you've been told, most issues are matters of truth vs. lies, not of opinion vs. opinion (where one of the opinions is suppose to be rejected because it's "bigoted"). But, liars cannot defend their lies with the Truth so they resort to other means such as name calling or censorship (if they have the power).

[dollygal]

And speaking of political correctness, wonder what will happen to the BLACK baseball manager who said today that "minority players do better in the sun than whites."

NOT A DARN THING, but they ruined John Rocker for just stating his opinion. Political Correctness is a joke. It is only for the media and politicians to use to destroy some poor person who makes an observation.

[Sandy]

America is not supposed to have minorities! Hell, I learned that back in the early 40s. America is the only country where everyone is considered equal! Again I learned that in the 40s too!

I had no idea of the amount of bigotry and racism still existed in this country until I went on line. I certainly learned that the Civil War was fought to keep the south from removing itself from the United States ane I felt it had every right to do so. It says in the Constitution that stepping out of the federal government is possible.

I didn't like the reason that the South wanted out because I never felt that any race or religion was inferior or superior than any other. Once I started communicating with the bible belt or the people from the southern states I was horrified.

Now we have the religious right taking a terrible position against gays. I honestly don't understand why this is necessary. As an American I take it as a personal insult when any other American is bashed the way I read it on many forums and articles printed on the internet. How could this much hatred come out of a free Nation?

Of course, it comes directly from the churches!

[Sentinel]

Sandy said:

I didn't like the reason that the South wanted out because I never felt that any race or religion was inferior or superior than any other.

The start of the civil war had NOTHING to with slavery. There was no mandate for the south to end slavery. In fact, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation only applied to states wanting to leave the union and only as long as they continued to want to leave the union. The South could have laid down their arms and preserved slavery!

Slavery was part of the propaganda. Those northern white boys were dying in mass in part to end slavery. But, those southerners were not dying to preserve slavery. They were dying in mass only for their natural and constitutional right to be a free people from an increasingly lawless central government. And, the northern victory in the Civil War was more a defeat for the Constitution than the already doomed insitution of slavery.

Now we have the religious right taking a terrible position against gays. I honestly don't understand why this is necessary.

Why do you want to champion perverts?

[dollygal]

Sentinal, you are my hero. Right on............................................................. ;D

[garrett7855]

:)See, Sentinel? I can agree with you!!! I think that answer was fantastic . And the best part of all, we are in total agreement.

Political correctness is such a load it makes me want to choke every time I hear the phrase. It makes about as much sense as "Where's the beef"! No, wait, I take that back--"Where's the beef" is more intelligent.

[Bandwagon Boy]

Poltical correctness make me so mad I cant stand it who do these people think they are they all aught to go back where they came from!
We use to be able to call anyone any name we wanted but now if you do it you get called all racest! unreal! These liberels make me SICK!

[USA50]

Sentinel,

You give all that Civil War stuff like slavery had NOTHING to do with it. Most Southern soldiers were 19th century small town boys who had NO IDEA what they were fighting for (like in most wars); they just did what some weird sense of 'honor' and the big boys told them.

Slavery alone was the cause of real war in Kansas before 1860. Kansas was an issue of exteme importance in the Congress and between the North and the South. Slavery was, if not THE key, then a sure major one in why the South finally seceded (see below regarding 'lawlessness').

It is interesting, isn't it, that Lincoln, looking for some spark for the North when times were tough, thought to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and tie the war to the freeing of slaves officially. I think the the South got that message, and stiffened itself appropriately.

You see, the South boys thought the Northern boys were pushing a lawless government because THEY THREATENED TO TAKE THEIR SLAVES AWAY ....and they threatened to REFUSE NEW STATES TO BE ADMITTED AS SLAVE STATES which would kill the hand the South had in using slaves in their vote count.

By the way, when you get over your raceaphobia, the dust will settle and you can see that it ain't 'political' correctness, it's just common decency. In the mean time, you can look up common decency in the dictionary.

[AgentOrange]

PCness was invented by the right-wing as a means of appeasment for the Negro. The Negro was oppressed by the conservatives of the USA for centuries. We Liberals finally gave them freedom in that we let them vote after LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act. Conservatives tried to one-up that by introducing Affirmative Action which led to PCness.

[MO]

About the 1964 Civil Rights act-
From www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/12/13/194350.shtml
"Remember that the Republicans were the minority party at the time. Nonetheless, H.R.7152 passed the House on Feb. 10, 1964. Of the 420 members who voted, 290 supported the civil rights bill and 130 opposed it.
Republicans favored the bill 138 to 34; Democrats supported it 152-96. Republicans supported it in higher proportions than Democrats. Even though those Democrats were Southern segregationists, without Republicans the bill would have failed. Republicans were the other much-needed leg of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."