source: http://rashmanly.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/political_correctness_by_chazlene-d4d45jh.png |
The meaning of the term "political correctness" that we know today came to mainstream usage in the 1990s mostly in the US and shortly after it appeared in the UK. However, the origin of this term reaches to the early-to-mid 20th century and it was used mainly by Communists and Socialists in political debates. Obviously, back then it had another meaning from what we are familiar with these days.
Modern political correctness
Nowadays political correctness is rarely used correctly. Therefore, there are many cases we can certainly describe as the ones that "crossed the line".
source: http://www.brucesallan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/PC-at-Elementary-School.jpg |
In my
opinion the good example of proper usage is replacing all kinds of physical
disabilities with less offensive names. For instance the word blind is replaced with “visually
impaired” and deaf with “hearing
impaired”. To me this replacement seems very reasonable and it simply
makes people affected by such disabilities feel less
offended.
Another
example, but this time about overdoing with political correctness, is encouraging people to use the word
chalkboard instead of blackboard
because it might sound racist. Maybe it is just me but personally I find such
things very amusing. If you are interested, there are more this kind of funny examples at
http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2011/10/07/11-cases-of-political-correctness-gone-mad/page/1/
Future?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77M2e3APoXk
Since the political
correctness is not a very old phenomenon I
guess it is probably going to change constantly. However, I am afraid it will
go into even more ridiculous direction where It could become a serious threat to people's freedom. What do you
think about this? Am I just overreacting or there is actually a grain of truth in it?
At the end I would to recommend this video, which I think most of you will find very funny :D
Sources:
http://listverse.com/2010/10/26/10-ridiculous-cases-of-political-correctness/
http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2011/10/07/11-cases-of-political-correctness-gone-mad/page/1/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2014/07/22/political-correctness-gone-rampant-use-these-3-communications-tips-to-survive/
http://smackins1974.hubpages.com/hub/Political-Correctness-gone-too-far
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_correctness
At the end I would to recommend this video, which I think most of you will find very funny :D
Sources:
http://listverse.com/2010/10/26/10-ridiculous-cases-of-political-correctness/
http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2011/10/07/11-cases-of-political-correctness-gone-mad/page/1/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2014/07/22/political-correctness-gone-rampant-use-these-3-communications-tips-to-survive/
http://smackins1974.hubpages.com/hub/Political-Correctness-gone-too-far
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_correctness
Comments
Recently, developers of a popular web framwork called Django applied a patch to its source code (or documentation) so that all ocurences of well known Master/Slave term (which referred to relationship between data) were replaced by leader and follower :P
"[...]Why ? Because 'Ho Ho Ho' is too close to the American (not Australian, mind you) slang for prostitute.[...]" is my personal favourite, it might be fun to be a Santa in English spoken country.
Political correctness is one of the worst phenomenona present these days. The funny thing is that it led to the opposite racism by blacks. They can make jokes about white people now, brag with this "black-power", pride etc. and it's all fine. In the same time somebody's career may be broken if they said "Nigger" 30 years ago. Did you see Jeremy Clarkson apology for: "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" how much scared he was?
I don't believe this fenomena will ever become a threat for people in general. It may for some, though.
Also in case of race issue is i really don't know how to call what now is correct "african - american". Most cultures didn't have any slaves from africa, or not every descendant lives in america. I just have no idea how we can describe a person with other type of skin without bringing the word "Black".
Moreover, thank You very much for information about Jeremy Clarkson and his video. I haven't seen it before but I have just watched it. I find it quite funny how hard Jeremy tried to mumble during this counting rhyme :D
I was talking to a friend recently and we both agreed that soon racism will be directed towards white people, as it is "politically incorrect" to call someone "black", but absolutely acceptable to call another person "white" with a fully disgusted tone of voice.
The other thing are neverending debates on what is politically correct and what is not. I don't even remember if there was or wasn't a cross on my classroom's wall, is it worth months and months' of discussions?
As for the problem of defining what is political correct and what is not, I think the best solution would be setting up a consortium where many companies, government etc. could debate on that matter. Just like how it is done with technology standards.
And I love one of the comments there:
This seems to imply that people are anthropomorphising code.
Slavery is bad because when refers to people in horrible conditions.
Equally, killing is bad because when refers to people. We don't care about killing processes. Nor should we care about enslaving blocks of code.
We don't get irked about discrimination between classes in switch statements. We don't mind voltage biases. We don't get angry about parents owning child processes. We don't, in general, struggle to distinguish a person from a block of code.
I'm not claiming that political correctness is unfair because I want to be racist. I'm complaining because the need to be nice to people should have no bearing on whether I should have to be nice to computers.
Political correctness is a disease. People are afraid to say what they think, because they could be seen as being rude or racist, etc. But because of it people are afraid to say what they really think, because they could easily get misunderstood.
Another thing is that many politicians try to be politically correct even if it would have bad consequences because then you have lesser chance to offend someone, so it's good for your PR.
So in the end people start to say different things in private that the would say in public.
I totally agree that the political correctness today is being used wrong
because people use it nowadays to hide things that would harm their
own honor instead of deffending other people from offensive acts.
It became a weapon to change meanings of things, for example many times
people are being called a racists because they don't agree with other minorities
and you can go to jail because of it! And the worst thing - politics use
this brutal weapon to hide the truth and that's tragedy...
I think political correctness is one of the biggest lies of 21st century. Why? Because we're correct only about certain groups when it's popular and demanded by society, as it was for Jews, then for black people, now it's time for muslims. We forget about equality in the process, and instead of actually helping anyone, we're only harming them even more with enforcing new and new laws for minorities, forgetting about majority and making it mad.
Nowadays, lots of people are scared to say what they are thinking because another people can say that it's manifestation of racism or intolerance. That's the result of the blurring of boundaries - people love to arrguing and they are looking for the best time to start it.