Fun:More insidious examples of political correctness

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 429.

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The following contains an admixture of parody. This notice-box has been stuck here to prevent readers from suffering the sort of confusion to which Poe's Law refers.

Share your prejudices one and all! We don't discriminate here.

• The ridiculous use of "gender-neutral" pronouns like "sie", "zir", or whatever. (Though if we get high enough levels of endocrine-disrupting environmental toxins, we might see a need to revisit this one.)
• Inability to make up your mind about just one name to use, and therefore using both because you are a sensitive wimp who doesn't want to offend anyone. "Kosovo/a", "He/she", "Latino/a", "Dear Sir/Ma'am". (But not "Zimbabwe-Rhodesia" - that one's not PC. You get the difference?) Also, the inability to decide whether to call it F.Y.R.O.M. or Macedonia (who cares since it's not in the United States anyway?)
• Worse, always putting the more "oppressed" one first: "Sisters and brothers" instead of "brothers and sisters", "She/he" instead of "He/she". (But not "ladies and gentlemen" - that one's not PC. You get the difference?)
• Ridiculous mis-spellings. "Womyn", "Wimmin", "Femal", "The/rapist", "Xianity" or "Xtianity", etc.
• News interviewers in the field in third world countries interviewing "poor wimmin of colour" and translating her annoying stacatto voice on the air, instead of interviewing an English-speaking white male expert on the subject
• Using the Metric System instead of the more complicated U.S./U.K. system of measurements
• Calling it "SI" which I think is some French thing, instead of the Metric System
• Using Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) unless one is actually in England
• Calling it "UTC" (Universales Temps Coordinaire or some such French abomination) instead of GMT
• Pronouncing them "Ih-Rahk" and "Ih-Rahn" instead of the correct American English pronunciations, "Eye-Rack" and "Eye-Ran".
• Making a fetish of pronouncing the names of South and Central American countries in Spanish even when one is speaking English: calling Nicaragua "Nee-ka-ha-gua" and Chile "Chee-le" are the most grating and obnoxious examples. ("How do these people say 'France?'" - P.J. O'Rourke.)
• "All Things Considered" devoting 80-90% of their airtime to news items from Pakistan, Iraq, Venezuela, Somalia, Sudan, China, Kosovo, ad nauseum. Yawn, who cares? They give precious little coverage to news from within the United States.
• "Pok-e-stahn" instead of "Pack-i-stan".
• "Tolly-bahn" instead if "Tal-ih-ban".
• Having an American Sign Language interpreter present at every public event
• Special parking spaces, ramps, and automatic doors for the crippled, infirm, and lame
• Calling them "differently-abled" or "physically challenged" instead of crippled, infirm, lame, or genetically-lacking
• Refusing to use words like "stupid", "lame" or "crazy" because these may be offensive to the disabled.
• "Diversity"-this and "diversity"-that
• "Global"-this and "global"-that
• BCE and CE instead of B.C. and A.D which imply that Jesus was Christ and Lord.
• Saying "Happy Holidays" and "Seasons Greetings" instead of "Merry Christmas", calling it "Winter break" instead of "Christmas break", a "Holiday party" instead of a "Christmas party", etc. Dammit, the Baby Jesus is really pissed off about this one.
• Saying "sexual orientation" instead of "sexual preference"
• Saying that there is such a thing as a "sexual orientation"
• Any use of "queer" in a positive context
• The following terms: hegemonic, performativity, discursive practice, and queer (as a verb).
• "Mt. Denali" instead of Mt. McKinley, if you live in Ohio
• "Mt. McKinley" instead of Mt. Denali, if you live in Alaska
• "Companion animal" instead of pet
• "Homeless" instead of bums and tramps
• Instead of "homeless": "houseless", "living outdoors", "camping".*
• "Holocaust denial" instead of "Holocaust revisionism"
• Capitalizing the H in holocaust
• "People of color" instead of colored people. This is supposed to emphasize that they are primarily people instead of primarily colored, by putting "people" first. Ridiculous!
• Allowing Spanish language media to be granted broadcast licenses in this country when they obviously serve no public good. WTF do we even have an FCC for if they are going to allow that?
• Advertisements always depicting a minority woman, if only one person is shown. Look at any cell phone ad and say it ain't so. If more than one person is shown, the token male is always a minority and the token white is always female.
• Plastering your late model riceburner with bumper stickers like "C03x1$7", "FIGHT RACISM", "My Karma Ran Over Your Dogma", "Free Tibet!", "Just Say No To Sex With Pro-Lifers", Darwin fish, or anything in any way referencing Bob Marley
• "Andre the Giant Has A Posse" and "OBEY", whatever that incoherent drivel is supposed to mean
• Any use, in any context, of images by Keith Haring. I don't exactly know why but they absolutely reek of P.C.
• Drinking organic-grape-chocolate-oatmeal ale instead of cheap swill
• "(fill in the blank) is a social construct"
• "The bad old days". A PC oxymoron!
• Applying the social standards of today to the past and therefore arguing that, for example, older editions of the Encyclopedia Brittanica were marred by racism and sexism.
• The belief that racism is "system" of "oppression" based on institutionalized white supremacy, instead of it being prejudices held by individuals.
• The shift from using "prejudice" to the term "racism" as the canonical term, which is a subtle and insidious way of promoting the above belief. Don't think we haven't noticed. When's the last time you heard "prejudice" used in the media or academia? The 1970s?
• Related to both of the above, the belief that only whites can be "racist". Nobody else can be since "racism" is by definition the institutionalized system of white supremacy.
• Any use of "white supremacy" to refer to society as a whole, especially America in the past, rather than limiting its use to groups like the Aryan Nations and Klan.
• Changing the names of major world cities overnight just because some PC globalist group says to. The city is called Peking, dammit, not Beijing.
• "Rainforest" instead of jungle
• Calling men "people with penis", This one takes the cake.
• Likewise, calling women "people lacking in penis."
• Calling a rape victim an "unwilling affection recipient"
• Metabolically inconvenienced rather than dead.
• Children's records that teach that it is okay for boys to cry and play with dolls. You know the one I'm talking about.
• People thinking Jack Chick tracts are funny, over the top, and hip in an ironic way, instead of taking their message deadly seriously and immediately falling on their knees to repent before the LORD
• Pretending that you care about swarthy people or furrigners
• "Mouse" instead of "[rat]"
• Pronouncing it the "App-a-LAY-shun" Trail south of the Mason-Dixon Line, instead of the "App-a-LATCH-an" Trail. What are you, some kind of effete New York Times reading, latte drinking, National Public Radio listening Ivy Leaguer?
• Pronouncing it the "App-a-LATCH-an" Trail north of the Mason-Dixon Line, instead of the "App-a-LAY-shun" Trail. What are you, some kind of Communist folk-music-and-arts-and-crafts type trying to show solidarity with oppressed and exploited coal miners?
• Threatening to shove an obnoxious door-to-door salesperson down a personhole, instead of shoving an obnoxious door-to-door salesman down a manhole.
• Watching a zombie or vampire movie and cringing when the monsters involved are called undead instead of "differently alive."
• Being removed from a funeral for arguing that real Christians wouldn't be upset, since they'd know that the dearly departed is having a great time choosing drapes for their mansion in happy la-la land in the sky.
• "Half-dozen" instead of "six".

Here's 11 examples of political correctness gone mad.

1. The BBC has dropped the use of the terms Before Christ (BC) and Anno Domini (AD) on one of their programmes and decided that the terms 'Before Common Era' / 'Common Era' are more appropriate

2. The European Parliament introduced proposals to outlaw titles stating marital status such as 'Miss' and 'Mrs' so as not to cause offence. It also meant that 'Madame' and 'Mademoiselle', 'Frau' and 'Fraulein' and 'Senora' and 'Senorita' would be banned.

3. Throughout several US councils and organisations, any terms using the word 'man' as a prefix or suffix have been ruled as not being politically correct. 'Manhole' is now referred to as a 'utility' or 'maintenance' hole.

4. Loveable cartoon rogue Dennis the Menace has been given a politically correct make over. BBC chiefs decided to take away his edge in the remake. Gone are his bombs, catapult, water pistol and pea shooter - and in their place is a simple boyish grin.

5. Spotted Dick - a classic English dessert has been renamed to avoid embarrassment. The traditional pud Spotted Dick has been given the title Spotted Richard, after UK council bosses feared the original name might cause offence.

6. A school in Seattle renamed its Easter eggs 'spring spheres' to avoid causing offence to people who did not celebrate Easter.

7. A UK council has banned the term 'brainstorming' – and replaced it with 'thought showers', as local lawmakers thought the term may offend epileptics.

8. A UK recruiter was stunned when her job advert for 'reliable' and 'hard-working' applicants was rejected by the job centre as it could be offensive to unreliable and lazy people.

9. Gillingham fans had begun to fondly offer celery to their goalkeeper, ‘Big Fat' Jim Stannard. The club, however, decided that celery could result in health and safety issues inside the ground. As a result, fans were subjected to celery searches with the ultimate sanction for possession of celery allegedly being a life ban.'

10. In 2007, Santa Clauses in Sydney, Australia, were banned from saying 'Ho Ho Ho'. Their employer, the recruitment firm Westaff (that supplies hundreds of Santas across Australia), allegedly told all trainees that 'ho ho ho' could frighten children, and be derogatory to women. Why ? Because 'Ho Ho Ho' is too close to the American (not Australian, mind you) slang for prostitute.

11. Some US schools now have a 'holiday tree' every at Christmas, rather than a Christmas tree.