PC Police: A New Low

[LynahFan]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

Especially as it started out purely as a technical, descriptive, non-judgmental diagnostic term. If you slow down a natural process, you "******" its development. Some long-established practitioners still use the term in its old-fashioned technical diagnostic sense and don't quite understand what the fuss is about.

It is only after people starting using the word colloquially, outside of its original context, that some people got their knickers in a twist.

It doesn't matter much what neutral, non-judgmental, technical, diagnostic term is used to replace it in clinical work (practitioners need to use some term to describe the condition, no?); in 20 years the same thing will have happened to that term and we'll be doing this dance all over again.

Yep - it's referred to as a "euphemism treadmill."

[Old Pio]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

Yep - it's referred to as a "euphemism treadmill."

Thanks. Learned a new concept. Some of the senior citizens may remember a flap where Jack Paar walked off the Tonight Show because the NBC censors wouldn't let him tell a joke about the minister who mistook WC for Wayside Chapel. Huge big deal.

[Kepler]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

Yep - it's referred to as a "euphemism treadmill."

In other words, stick your head in the sand when somebody co-opts a word as an insult, and don't respect the people who are offended by it?

Yeah, right, I'll remember that the next time somebody says "he was trying to jew me out of my change"?

Don't dislocate your shoulder with these gyrations, folks. If something becomes hurtful, just stop using the freaking term. How hard is that? Does it really destroy your personal freedom not to call some poor kid a "******"?

There is a point where "principle" is just another word for being a jerk.

[Old Pio]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

In other words, stick your head in the sand when somebody co-opts a word as an insult, and don't respect the people who are offended by it?

Yeah, right, I'll remember that the next time somebody says "he was trying to jew me out of my change"?

Don't dislocate your shoulder with these gyrations, folks. If something becomes hurtful, just stop using the freaking term. How hard is that? Does it really destroy your personal freedom not to call some poor kid a "******"?

There is a point where "principle" is just another word for being a jerk.

It's a miracle. Yes sir, a gosh darn miracle!

[LynahFan]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

In other words, stick your head in the sand when somebody co-opts a word as an insult, and don't respect the people who are offended by it?

Yeah, right, I'll remember that the next time somebody says "he was trying to jew me out of my change"?

Don't dislocate your shoulder with these gyrations, folks. If something becomes hurtful, just stop using the freaking term. How hard is that? Does it really destroy your personal freedom not to call some poor kid a "******"?

There is a point where "principle" is just another word for being a jerk.

Hey now. I didn't advocate anything - I just pointed out that words' starting out neutral but then picking up enough negative connotation that they fall out of favor is a common enough phenomenon that there's actually a term for it. I made no value judgments whatsoever.

Completely agree with the bolded sentence above.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

Don't dislocate your shoulder with these gyrations, folks. If something becomes hurtful, just stop using the freaking term. How hard is that? Does it really destroy your personal freedom not to call some poor kid a "******"?

We don't want to call a poor kid a ******, we want to call our buddy that acts moronic a ******!

[Bakunin]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

We don't want to call a poor kid a ******, we want to call our buddy that acts moronic a ******!

Right, I mean what's next? Are they going to run PSA's telling us we can't call our buddies "****ies" because it's offensive to women? Where does it all end?

[FreshFish]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

We don't want to call a poor kid a ******, we want to call our buddy that acts moronic a ******!

Now that is a great, if unintended, example of the "euphemism treadmill" in action, except that the original term may not actually have been a euphemism....

When IQ testing first came into vogue, terms were developed to apply to various ranges of scores:

0 - 25: idiot
25 - 50: imbecile
50 - 75: moron

These terms soon came out of the diagnostic manual and became part of every day language; at one time there was even a joke, "I may be a moron, but at least I'm not an idiot" which of course would just be a head-scratcher today.

I guess I understand both sides here, if a person maliciously uses a hurtful word knowing ahead of time it will injure, that is mean. If a person innocuously uses a term that has multiple meanings, some of which are purely denotative, they deserve a little slack.

More broadly, people are getting pretty aggressive about hurt feelings, it seems, no? Has the entitlement mentality really become so pervasive that hurt feelings over a misunderstanding (i.e., where clearly no malice was intended) are now a legitimate source of moral outrage?

[Bakunin]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

The purpose behind using the words in question with our friends is to get a rise out of them. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the various groups that are apparently itching to be offended by the words' usage. People need to grow a thicker skin and find something more worthwhile to generate their outrage of the day.

[CLS]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

. . . If a person innocuously uses a term that has multiple meanings, some of which are purely denotative, they deserve a little slack.

If you're talking about the word "********", I give that slack. If you're talking about the term "******", IMO, that was a slang, pejorative term from the get-go and never had a purely denotative meaning.

More broadly, people are getting pretty aggressive about hurt feelings, it seems, no? Has the entitlement mentality really become so pervasive that hurt feelings over a misunderstanding (i.e., where clearly no malice was intended) are now a legitimate source of moral outrage?

I think you’re oversimplifying here. For one thing, I don’t think it’s just because of a sense of “entitlement” that’s causing people to be offended when they didn’t use to be, or to speak up when they’re offended when they used to remain silent.

For one thing, now there isn’t a penalty, or there’s less of a penalty, for expressing the hurt feelings. There was a time that complaining about the use of a racially pejorative term at best wouldn’t change any behavior, and at the extreme worst it might mean you get lynched. Now, at best it changes behavior and at worst doesn’t.

Today, I think that many more people are aware of the effect that their language had on others, and I think that’s a good thing. If I someone tells me that a term that I use is offensive, I’ll probably stop using it, not because of a desire to be “politically correct”, but out of simple courtesy. There’s almost always a term that’s equally easy to use, and probably more accurate anyway.

With regard to “misunderstanding” , to some extent, that’s what the link in the base note could be all about (I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know) If the message is “That term is hurtful to me, please don’t use it” then all it’s doing is trying to prevent misunderstandings. If you’re using a term that offends someone, don’t you want to know? There’s a point where “misunderstanding” becomes “willful ignorance”.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

I use the terms ******** and ****** at work everyday and I promise that neither are ever taken as being offensive or disrespectful.

[Slap Shot]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

Much ado about nothing. I've got no problem 1) Calling a buddy a fa**ot as friends are prone to do nor 2) Saving it for a rainy day depending upon who else is around.

"Wait a minute, dear sir!!! Your being offended offends me to the highest order!!"

[geezer]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

I use the terms ******** and ****** at work everyday and I promise that neither are ever taken as being offensive or disrespectful.

friendly warning - because I used to have the same attitude - you're in for a conflict when you call someone a ****** in front of the dad whose daughter actually is ******** and doesn't think she deserves any less respect because of it.

[The Rube]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

Much ado about nothing. I've got no problem 1) Calling a buddy a fa**ot as friends are prone to do nor 2) Saving it for a rainy day depending upon who else is around.

"Wait a minute, dear sir!!! Your being offended offends me to the highest order!!"

Yup.

My SIL has a relative that is ********, and I made some sort of joke about retardation. SIL snapped at me. I replied, "If people with 'mental disabilities' want to be treated like everyone else, like I'm sure they want to, then they get made fun of, too. How often do you hear 'That's mighty white of you?'" SIL didn't like that answer.

[duper]

Re: PC Police: A New Low

This thread has no point.

To guarantee that no one is offended when you say things is ignorant.

To say that no one has the right to be offended is asinine.

I see 2 things that could really be argued here:

1) This word isn't as bad as that word.

2) Freedom of speech allows me to be an a-hole if I want.

Both of those things are true.

Now, what is there about this video that's offensive? Does it bother you to be reminded that some people have an affliction that they can't control, and might be sensitive about being made fun of, in a way that they historically have been. (Seriously, do you think any of us were made fun of more or more cruelly than the kids in special ed in school?) Does it bother you for someone else to exercise their right to put a goofy ad on tv? I don't understand how this could possibly be more annoying than, say, a Shane Company commercial, which I find truly offensive.