Political correctness.

[angrysoba]

Additionally, there are many examples of language ignorance that lead to false accusations of bigotry. Take the case of the aide to the mayor of Washington D.C. who used the word "niggardly" (which means "miserly") to describe a budget, and was forced to resign because the Mayor (who incidentally, was black) took it as an insulting racial slur.

Hey, great news! I just looked up the example of the Mayor and the aide and the "niggardly". It turns out that the aide resigned because an employee of the "The Office of the Public Advocate" mistook the word for a racial slur and the aide resigned. BUT... there was some kind of public outcry and, after a review, the Mayor realized there had been a misunderstanding, he accepted that he was at fault for accepting the aide's resignation and, get this, reinstated him! That means that this example of political correctness going mad actually had a good result after everyone came to their senses.

However, it happened 14 years ago so that should be old news by now.

 

[Caustic Logic]

Hey, great news! I just looked up the example of the Mayor and the aide and the "niggardly". It turns out that the aide resigned because an employee of the "The Office of the Public Advocate" mistook the word for a racial slur and the aide resigned. BUT... there was some kind of public outcry and, after a review, the Mayor realized there had been a misunderstanding, he accepted that he was at fault for accepting the aide's resignation and, get this, reinstated him! That means that this example of political correctness going mad actually had a good result after everyone came to their senses.

However, it happened 14 years ago so that should be old news by now.

Apparently discussion on PC-ness tend to be stuck in the 90s. That's a great episode for a number of reasons. Like the NAACP coming out saying the escalation leading a guy to voluntarily resign (was offered the job back but declined for some reason) demonstrated a niggardly use of judgment. A simple check in the dictionary could have avoided a famous episode of "PC thought police run amok!"

 

[Ryokan]

You could apply that to Flying High (a.k.a. Airplane) as well.

Also, Monty Pythons Flying Circus, Open All Hours, The Two Ronnies, The Benny Hill Show and The Kenny Everett Video Show. None them would stand a snowball's chance in hell of being made today. Instead we get the banal crap that network executives try to pass off on us as "comedy" , such as Friends, Ned & Stacy, Big Bang Theory and Glee.

What about Ricky Gervais' Life's Too Short? Could that have been made today?

Even back then, most stuff on tv and in the cinema were safe and non-controversial. And non-mainstream, controversial stuff is made today too.

 

[angrysoba]

What about Ricky Gervais' Life's Too Short? Could that have been made today?

Even back then, most stuff on tv and in the cinema were safe and non-controversial. And non-mainstream, controversial stuff is made today too.

Yeah, I agree that most of Ricky Gervais's stuff could not be made today. Too un-PC. Same with Top Gear and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

 

[Ryokan]

And what about South Park, could that have been made today?

 

[Caper]

And what about South Park, could that have been made today?

Don't you find South Park repulsive?

 

[Caper]

The first thing I think of when I hear 'political correctness' are people complaining about it not being acceptable for them to be bigots in public anymore.

Really? I have never heard that in my life..

 

[Caper]

I thought of politically correctness during this interview on Adam Carolla last week.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e04_1362589405

And then I think of Huffington posts reply to that. They called it "Shockingly Racist".... though it appears they have since changed their title.

 

[smartcooky]

Hey, great news! I just looked up the example of the Mayor and the aide and the "niggardly". It turns out that the aide resigned because an employee of the "The Office of the Public Advocate" mistook the word for a racial slur and the aide resigned. BUT... there was some kind of public outcry and, after a review, the Mayor realized there had been a misunderstanding, he accepted that he was at fault for accepting the aide's resignation and, get this, reinstated him! That means that this example of political correctness going mad actually had a good result after everyone came to their senses.

However, it happened 14 years ago so that should be old news by now.

Oh dear, I guess you missed the point entirely

Never mind. Caustic Logic understood.

 

[smartcooky]

And what about South Park, could that have been made today?

South Park pokes fun at Political Correctness, and does it very cleverly; too cleverly for some.

That is a lot different from employing themes that seriously espouse what the PC movement is trying to curtail.

NOTE: My favorite SP quote sequence
Cartman: If dolphins are so smart, why do they live in igloos?
Kyle: Dolphins don't live in igloos! That's Eskimos!
Cartman: Dolphins, Eskimos, who cares? It's all a bunch of tree-hugging hippie crap.

 

[Ryokan]

Don't you find South Park repulsive?

I wasn't commenting on the quality of the show. My point was that South Park is not Politically Correct(tm).

 

[Ryokan]

South Park pokes fun at Political Correctness, and does it very cleverly; too cleverly for some.

So, entertainment that isn't politically correct can be made today.....

 

[lomiller]

As for the dubbing and release of Japanese anime, I think that has more to do with how animated media is seen in the west. While animation and comics are published for all ages and all possible genres in Japan, in the west it's still seen strictly as a kids media.

Did you really not expect a company called 4kids to 'clean up' an anime to make it more kid friendly according to western standards? That has nothing to do with political correctness. I'm sure some other company, someone who didn't plan to market the series strictly towards children, would probably have done a better job at introducing One Piece to a western, English speaking audience, if they had aquired the rights instead.

Yeah the atrocious dubbing 4Kids did on One Piece had nothing whatsoever to do with political correctness. It was a business decision to take a title aimed at an early – mid teen male audience and target it at pre-teens where it could be sold into well established time slots where 4Kids had previously made a lot of money with Pokémon.

It’s wasn’t necessarily a good business decision, and 4Kids played the price but that’s just how the business world works.

 

[angrysoba]

Oh dear, I guess you missed the point entirely

Never mind. Caustic Logic understood.

Oh, I thought you might be relieved to hear that the incident which you found so anguishing turned out to have been resolved very amicably, that the black guy admitted his mistake, that whole swathes of the media came out in support of the aide and that it was a single incident that happened quite some time ago.

Apparently not.

 

[smartcooky]

Oh, I thought you might be relieved to hear that the incident which you found so anguishing turned out to have been resolved very amicably, that the black guy admitted his mistake, that whole swathes of the media came out in support of the aide and that it was a single incident that happened quite some time ago.

Apparently not.

A. You still missed the point, which is, as Caustic Logic pointed out, this should never have happened in the first place!!

B. If you think this is a single isolated incidence of ignorance, then think again

1. University of Wisconsin, WI - Feb1999:
A junior English major and vice chairwoman of the Black Student Union complained when an English Lit. professor teaching the works of Henry Chaucer used the word niggardly.

2. Wilmington, NC - Feb 2002:
A fourth-grade teacher in was formally reprimanded for teaching the word and told to attend "sensitivity training" (more PC Crap). Said she used the word during a discussion about literary characters. A parent complained because it sounded like a racial slur. The teacher was made to apologise or lose her job.

3. Mendocino County, CA - May 2009:
A history teacher, who was wage bargaining on behalf of local schoolteachers, wrote a letter saying that the "tenor of the negotiation tactics of the district office has become increasingly negative and niggardly." Ten individuals in Mendocino County school stated that the teacher's comments were "racially charged and show a complete lack of respect and integrity toward the District Superintendent," who happens to be black. The history teacher sued the ten individuals for defamation, and the worst aspect of this is that the judge ignored over 200 years of English language teaching, and found for the school district. This is what I call PC gone mad!!!

4. Broward County, FL - Nov 2011:
A drug counsellor was fired (and another suspended) for using the word "niggardly" A junkie complained saying that the counsellor called him "niggardly dumb". The county's professional standards office found the workers, who are both white, engaged in "unprofessional, unethical and discriminatory" behaviour.

And these are just a few of the many.

All of these incidents would have been avoided if the officials involved had just looked in a *********** dictionary.

The most disturbing thing about the first three examples above is that they took place in places of education!! I expect better from such institutions.

 

[angrysoba]

A. You still missed the point, which is, as Caustic Logic pointed out, this should never have happened in the first place!!

B. If you think this is a single isolated incidence of ignorance, then think again

I do get the point: political correctness has gone mad! I know, I know there are excesses and that some of the parodies are indistinguishable from the real thing; I've already said that.

But I did ask you earlier if you thought it would have been acceptable for the aide to the Mayor to be asked to resign if he had called the Mayor the n-word. What do you think?

 

[smartcooky]

So, entertainment that isn't politically correct can be made today.....

You are missing the distinction aren't you? Calling a person the "n" word is not the same as discussing the "n" word.

Wikipedia has an entry for the "n" word, in which it explains the origin of the word. Does that make it a racist website?

Poking fun at Political Correctness is not the same as acting politically incorrectly, per se,

Its all about context.

 

[smartcooky]

But I did ask you earlier if you thought it would have been acceptable for the aide to the Mayor to be asked to resign if he had called the Mayor the n-word. What do you think?

Sorry, missed that

Absolutely.

"Mr. Howard. Clean out your desk and be gone by lunchtime"

Similarly, had the aide been black and the mayor white, and the aide had referred to the Mayor as "white, redneck trash" I would expect the aide to be asked to resign too. The trouble is, that would be unlikely to happen.

 

[angrysoba]

Sorry, missed that

Absolutely.

"Mr. Howard. Clean out your desk and be gone by lunchtime".

Good. Then you do accept that some terms can be considered ethnic slurs so offensive that they cannot be said by a public official to his employer without say, being fired.

Similarly, had the aide been black and the mayor white, and the aide had referred to the Mayor as "white, redneck trash" I would expect the aide to be asked to resign too. The trouble is, that would be unlikely to happen.

So it sounds to me as though you are not really offended by political correctness so much as to want it applied more evenly with sanctions on black people who make offensive comments too.

 

[smartcooky]

Good. Then you do accept that some terms can be considered ethnic slurs so offensive that they cannot be said by a public official to his employer without say, being fired.

Yep

So it sounds to me as though you are not really offended by political correctness so much as to want it applied more evenly with sanctions on black people who make offensive comments too.

Actually the sanctions should apply to anyone who uses ethnic or racial slurs or vilification, regardless of their colour or race

However, don't make the mistake of thinking that Political Correctness is all about racism. Race is only a very small part of the issue. There are other things it encompasses, such as education standards, language, revisionist history, culture, social engineering and others. It is a growing cancer on our society, that is slowly eating away at its fabric, although I'm not suggesting its a conspiracy of any kind.

It was once described to me as an an uncoordinated and misguided set of ideas that spread through the western world as the free-love, free-thinking pot-smoking crowd of the late 1960's began arriving in their mid-life crisis years without a cause...so they went looking for one.

Political Correctness gives us such things as;

► diversion of youth offenders instead of rehabilitation or punishment
► education standards that provide me with candidates for employment who appear to have passed their NCEA Level 3 (broadly equivalent to British GCE A-Levels) but who cannot spell to save themselves or do simple arithmetic without a calculator.
► allowing teachers and school councillors to arrange the supply of contraceptive pills to under aged girls without the knowledge or consent of their parents.
► the feminist promoted ideology that all men are rapists.