Political Correctness

[jackfaire]

The thing that amuses me is that I have never ever heard a non christian freak out about Merry Christmas it was always people that celebrate Christmas freaking out and saying we need to be considerate of those that don't.

[Hyena Dandy]

I plain forgot who made a comment about Halloween costumes, but that's something I'm good at talkin' about.



I pride myself on my costumes, of course mine are always fictional characters. Last few years I had Two-Face, Joker, Sandman (Wesley Dodds), Comedian, and this year its Pavi from Repo.

Halloween is a time to have fun. If people can't handle it, that's there problem. My mom wouldn't let me have a Raiden (from Mortal Kombat) costume because it was offensive to Chinese people 'cause of the hat. But hell, Raiden didn't even look Chinese. He just had the hat. I wasn't making a 'Chinese Guy' costume.

See, there's a level where things are stupid, and a level where they ain't, far as PC is concerned. Saying someone is handicapped isn't a problem where I'm concerned. Its an accurate description. Don't mean they're any less of a person for it, just means they can't walk right, or can't do whatever it is they can't do. And disguising it don't help. I got a friend in a wheelchair. He never had a problem with bein' described as wheelchair-bound. Got another friend, nice guy, pretty physically deformed. He didn't call himself "Differently shaped" Or nothin'.

This whole idea that you gotta tiptoe around the issue. I mean, its one thing to avoid callin' someone a freak, which you shouldn't do, and calling someone handicapped. I'd consider it a mighty fine thing to be handicapped and still do what non-handicapped folk do. Saying some term like handicapable just feels condescendin' to me. If you started back, and managed to get ahead of the game, that feels like somethin' to be proud of to me. Never had anybody with a handicap I knew be offended by describin' it as a handicap.

Now, the real question here is, how in the hell did I write an entire post like a guy in a western movie and not notice it?

I figure y'all can see what I mean. You wanna put it in proper English, be my guest, but I think my point was made right enough.


Edit:

The thing that amuses me is that I have never ever heard a non christian freak out about Merry Christmas it was always people that celebrate Christmas freaking out and saying we need to be considerate of those that don't.

I had some atheist fella threaten to burn down my church when I wished him a merry christmas. We'll take my double crazy and your lack o' crazy, average it out, and come to the conclusion the whole damn world's fucked up.


Man, seriously, why the hell am I typin' like this? I swear I ain't controllin' it.

[Amanita]

Hyena, it was me talking about the halloween costumes. I think there's a world of difference between a mocking, racist cariacature, and an honest portrayal of something outside of your culture.
If you put on that chinese hat, a fake fu-manchu mustache, and a set of plastic buck teeth, and run around talking in a fake accent all night, then that's not cool at all.

But if you bring out that same hat and dress as Raiden, I don't see a problem at all. Or even if you think Shaolin monks are pretty cool and dress up as one, I don't see that as offensive.

One article I read said that pretty soon, the only safe costume choice is gonna be some kind of animal, because animals are the only ones who won't complain.
Hell, even that might not be safe, because somewhere, some furry might complain- "Oh how evil, non-furries wearing OUR stuff" or something like that.

[Hyena Dandy]

Heh. Never seen a furry would act like that, honestly. We're too busy hating each-other to hate anyone else.

[Amanita]

lol I have a friend who's furry, and I remember the burned furs vs the frozen furs.

[Hyena Dandy]

lol I have a friend who's furry, and I remember the burned furs vs the frozen furs.

Yeah. That hardly scratches the surface. X3 Sometimes I think they could rewrite National Brotherhood Week about this fandom.

[Android Kaeli]

Around here, we get to celebrate "Sparkle Season."

At my work, we may have Christmas stuff out but Christmas Season doesn't officially start until us peons start sneezing, peeing, and pooping glitter.

Seriously, though, I don't get being PC all the time. I'm techincally deaf in my left ear, I'm not "hearing impared" nor do I see myself that way. You don't like it? STFU and go somewhere else where people will feed you that stuff. I much rather say something that may or may not offend someone, rather then sugar coat something.

If someone doesn't like the context of a word because it might belittle or hurt someone's feelings or offend them, then that's not one person's problem. These same people also have got to understand that chaning words around to make it less offensive might just offend someone else in turn.

[MrsEclipse]

When it comes to political correctness, I never use a term unless I've heard it's proper or appropriate for the group from either a member of that group who identifies with it, or else a recognized representative.

I once used some PC term or another when talking to several people in that group, and they snorted and said, "Seriously?" and we all had a good laugh on how ridiculous it is. On the flip side, someone used a PC term to describe me, and I just plain don't like that particular one- it makes me feel really embarrassed, for some reason. What I really want people to refer to me as is "Short-bus veteran." But I'm not getting a whole lot of backing on that one...

I just remember Scott Adams saying once in his blog, "I rarely offend people. But I almost always offend 'other' people." Meaning, people offended on the behalf of the people he poked fun at, when the people he made fun of almost never complain. So when it comes to PC terms, I always try to listen to people, and not 'other people.'