Political Correctness, good or bad?

[DasFX]

Why are Canadians so politically correct? It is really good to hide one's true feelings just for the sake of political correctness?

Everyone is afraid of being labeled a bigot, racist, anti-Semitist and so on. I personally would rather know someone's real feelings rather than know some fake facade.

Especially online, why do people get so offended if they call you a bigot? They don't know you, probably never will so who cares what they say. Being online is the perfect medium to say what you want cause there are no social consequences so people should just say what they feel.

For example, if someone on here is part of the KKK, I want to know. I'd like to hear why they feel that way, what lead them to this. I don't want to judge you, attack you; I just want to know why?

 

[Jay]

"Why are Canadians so politically correct?"

It's part of the social engineering that the socialists have placed upon us.

"Everyone is afraid of being labeled a bigot, racist, anti-Semitist and so on."

These words are employed to stop debate. I know I don't bother trying to defend against these remarks (around here) because I couldn't be bothered; I know the true intention of the people who use them.


If you want to know more about the KKK, I'm sure you can find out a lot online.

 

[icklemiss21]

I moved to Canada a couple of years ago from the UK and am still surprised by the things you can't do/say/think etc over here.

Everything comes down to political correctness or infringing on someones rights... I was saying to a neighbour a while back about who people in the UK have to prove they are actively looking for a job by going to the job centre every however much they tell you to... and she says... they can't do that here, its against our basic rights!

For someone who has worked for 3 years of his life (her son) and been on unemployment for a further two years and has no 'reason' (in his mind) to get a job because he earns enough to live on unemployment.

They are now threatening to take his unemployment off him (the reason the conversation started) so he has decided that he has a phobia of people... got a doctors note to say so! So now he claims welfare on account of being unable to work because he can't deal with people... yet he can still take his unemployment cheque to the LCBO and deal with the cashier there!

I don't get it... its like you can't say a thing without upsetting someone!

 

[Sy]

RE: Political Correctness

There are probably thousands of cases going on like you just described icklemiss, and as long as welfare/EI are available certain people will try to exploit those systems as they do everything else in our society.

I think Canadians, in general, are regarded worldwide as decent, good-hearted people, and we can thank our decades of social engineering for this facet. Being politically correct is simply "not trying to hurt anyones feelings". I can't say wether this is a good description, or even good for society... but then I can't say that hiding one's true emotions/thoughts is good overall either.

 

[icklemiss21]

I am generally annoyed about over the top rights at the moment!

For instance... employee goes on sick leave for 4 months... ESA says after 3 months she has left... so she is replaced... start of 5th month rolls around and employee walks into the office hands over a doctors note and says 'I start back Monday!'.

So the boss says... 'oh, but we have replaced you at that position... but we do have an opening for this part time position for more $$$'... employee doesn't want that job and goes to Human Rights... small company who can't really cope with employees leaving with absolutely no warning (there are only 2 office staff 1 full time, 1 part time) are forced to take her back... only although she is medically OK she can't do her job and 6 months later... here we are again with the same problem and a useless temp!

But human rights says we still have to keep her job open!

 

[peapod]

"who people in the UK have to prove they are actively looking for a job by going to the job centre every however much they tell you to... and she says... they can't do that here, its against our basic rights!"

Ehm...last time I looked anyone collecting income from the government , be it provincial or federal most certainly did have to prove they were seeking employment. Tell your neighbour to go out more. :wink:

 

[Derry McKinney]

They certainly can, and do, require you to show up to prove you are looking for work. They can also demand that you prove that you've applied everywhere you said you did.

Doctors notes are generally hard to get and, while I don't know about welfare, I do know that pogey questions the hell out of them. I have a friend that had to switch professions due to chemical sensitivity and it took her 3 months to convince pogey that everything was on the up and up.

I have heard that the dole is incredibly easy to get in Britain though.

 

[Jay]

Re: RE: Political Correctness

I think Canadians, in general, are regarded worldwide as, and we can thank our decades of social engineering for this facet.

Well that’s a stretch. Canadians have been regarded as such because that’s who we are, not because of the decades of social engineering. I suppose that your signature spells out why you think this though. www.liberal.ca. Certainly that’s who we can thank for the decades of social engineering us into the politically correct, overtaxed machines that we have become, but they certainly didn’t create this “decent, good-hearted people”.

 

[Derry McKinney]

RE: Political Correctness

We aren't that politically correct though. We do tend, at least in public, to be anti-racist. That has a lot to do with us being a culture made up of many cultures though. I know that my ancestors suffered discrimination because they came here as immigrants and, as a result, I am unwilling to tolerate that in others. That goes for discrimination against gays and lesbians, the disabled, and anybody else who is "different" because I know that prejudice is stupid.

 

[Sy]

Re: RE: Political Correctness

Well that’s a stretch. Canadians have been regarded as such because that’s who we are, not because of the decades of social engineering. I suppose that your signature spells out why you think this though. www.liberal.ca. Certainly that’s who we can thank for the decades of social engineering us into the politically correct, overtaxed machines that we have become, but they certainly didn’t create this “decent, good-hearted people”.

Well regardless of how we got here, as canadians, would it not be better to see other countries regarded as "like us" in terms of tolerance and acceptance of minorities? But I guess we'd need a new canadian civil war for us to be regarded as "like them" in terms liberty and human rights, right?

"Them" being any country not like us.

 

[Knightman]

Re: RE: Political Correctness

There are probably thousands of cases going on like you just described icklemiss, and as long as welfare/EI are available certain people will try to exploit those systems as they do everything else in our society.

I think Canadians, in general, are regarded worldwide as decent, good-hearted people, and we can thank our decades of social engineering for this facet. Being politically correct is simply "not trying to hurt anyones feelings". I can't say wether this is a good description, or even good for society... but then I can't say that hiding one's true emotions/thoughts is good overall either.

For us to be respectful of others should be the norm but having said that we can not be fearful of saying what needs to be said. We should be allowed to verbally point out problems, difficulties and attitudes that we find distasteful. That is part of human communication and without it we can not correct social inconsistencies. The right of open organized protest, the art of the political cartoon which are not always flattering or the sting of an editorial that is also our right and part of our society.

The problems most are pointing to here are irregularities in our governance and the fact that we know about them and talk about them openly is a good thing, if the discussion leads to correcting the problems then that is a better thing.

In terms of the work place the federal governments employee unions are responsible for much of this "politicaly correct" attitude and not all of it is good or just, especially when applied to small bussiness who do not have the financial clout or manpower required to abide by it all.

We are entitled to our opinions and we are entitled to strongly voice those opinions however throwing out personal assaults simply makes the caller look like an idiot in many peoples view and gives the one who insults less credibility. That may be the line that has to be drawn more than any other.............

 

[Gordon J Torture]

Dasfx, I am with you on this one. I actually used to purposely exaggerate certain aspects of my personal beliefs, especially online, just to see the intense collective reactions generated from "politically correct" ignorance.

The way I see it, the more "politically correct" one becomes, the less independent and creative he then becomes. It has, in it's current ridiculousness, become a definite hindrance to intellectual development.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Don't think that "political" correctness is a form of dumbing down a society. Seems that politeness, tact and staying away from slurring language, is part of an evolving society. Reality is that there is no need for aggressive labelling, branding in order to make one's point. (which only antagonizes folks...and causes divisiveness).

 

[peapod]

And that would be your opinion only torture.

 

[Gordon J Torture]

And that would be your opinion only torture

How interesting of you to say.

 

[peapod]

. I actually used to purposely exaggerate certain aspects of my personal beliefs, especially online, just to see the intense collective reactions generated from "politically correct" ignorance.

Sounds like BF Skinner to me, but than again not all of us are seals 8O

 

[Hard-Luck Henry]

The way I see it, the more "politically correct" one becomes, the less independent and creative he then becomes.

I think you mean s/he, Mr Torture.

 

[Gordon J Torture]

"Political correctness" gradually deteriorates the public's perception that freedom of choice and freedom of speech are important things. Instead, people become gradually persuaded to simply do what they are told, to say what they are told to say, and even to think how they are told to think. It is a system that annihilates the free will of man, and destroys creativity! And for what? ... For political nonsense based on whatever trend became popular enough at the time to exploit in order to benefit whatever B.S. government agenda it happened to fit into.

I don't see how some of the things certain people in this thread wrote as PC examples has anything to do with "political correctness", however I do observe an obsession with not "offending people". I find this disturbing, and so do thousands of other Canadians. Why? ... Because in most cases, it is up to the way the offended person CHOOSES to perceive a comment, or idea, that dictates subjectively for that person, if that comment or idea is "offensive" or not.

P.C. for the most part, is a system built to protect the feelings of insecure individuals who chose to perceive an idea or comment as offensive. This system, is carefully implemented with great accuracy and attention to current events and popular opinion, in such a way, it makes those responsible look like heros. However, now, rather than an insecure person grow up, and become secure with who they are, or what they do, or who their children are, they are cursed to perpetual insecurity as the whole of society must change around them instead. Sure, there may be legit examples where certain PC ideas may infact truly be beneficial, but for the most part, it is ridiculous!

"Political correctness" is basically the banishment of certain ideas, expressions and behavior, that used to be excepted, and in many cases, with no more negative effects than with what we deal with in our current methods. It has lead to the conformity of an entire community to do and say as they are told, and to shut out completely, any potentially conflicting possibilities.

God forbid one, without negative implications intended, call a 400 lbs woman "FAT". or a homosexual man a "FAG"!, or a mentally impaired individual "retarded" in front of that individuals family. God Forbid inadvertently subjecting people to their OWN insecurities.. May one burn in hell for all eternity for such a malevolent act of apparent pure evil.

Someone mentioned the "KKK" around here, well, mobs of enraged "politically correct" activists attacking one for exercising his apparently now superficial right to "free speech" and free choice, are often surprisingly not far off from old-school KKK style lynchings.

This happens at schools, at work, and all over the Internet. The majority have been completely brain washed, and see anything outside their little absolute definitions they have been so carefully programmed to perceive as acceptable, as either an enemy, evil doer, or just plain ignorant and uneducated, never realizing, they themselves may infact be the ignorant.

It is more often then not, only the way certain people choose to perceive certain things that cause those things to be labeled as "offensive". Thus, those beliefs are to be forced upon the whole of society, shielding those individuals from their own insecurities they could have ever so virtuously defeated subjectively.

 

[peapod]

:happy1:

 

[Gordon J Torture]

"Why are Canadians so politically correct?"

It's part of the social engineering that the socialists have placed upon us.

Wrong. It's part of the engineering that the complete idiots placed upon us.

A true socialist would see that the proletariat more then anyone else, would be effected more negatively by the implementation of "political correctness" than anyone else... A "low class" person is less likely to be educated as in depth about such things as "political correctness" and less likely to have family or friends to influence them into the conformity. As a result such an individual, may find himself in a potentially violent or financially detrimental confrontation. Not to mention, the idea itself, of telling people what they can and can not say is a blatant violation of our rights to begin with, and a contradiction of the definition of "freedom", period.

It's a system where spoiled little insecure brats who do not like their parent's values, have grown up to force their selfish and illogical beliefs upon the rest of society. The now grown up insecure brats, do not have to deal with their own problems as a result.