PC
POSTED BY: Wulfenstar
UPDATED: Monday, June 30, 2008 15:11
VIEWED: 5631
PAGE 2 of 3
Quote:You can have open discourse w/o a verbal slugfest, but that's prolly beyond the imaginings of most Americans, raised as we are with the Stallone/ Norris version of negotiation.
open discourse and thus resolution
Sometimes I think most Americans simply want to tantrum. Not because it'll resolve any issues but because we're taught that anger is righteous and pure.
I've been on both side of that equation. Trust me... you can intimidate people into doing what you want or at least shutting up, but you won't reach an understanding that way.
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Let's party like it's 1929.
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Interesting true story. Back a ways back I worked with a group of guys from east London. Now anybody that has ever seen a Guy Richie film has at least a passing idea as to how these guys speak and I was stuck with them for five years.
So at the end of that time here I am with this wide boy east end accent, which didn't bother me much because it got me out of trouble on more than one occasion.
Still for the next ten years I wondered around sounding like Badger and in that time I must have visited and worked in at least a half dozen different countries.
Anyway, I move to the US start working for a US company and two weeks after I started I receive a note to report to HR. Reason? Apparently saying the word "luv" as in "thanks luv" could be construde as borderline sexual harassment.
Needless to say I was gobsmacked, not least because I'd lived in Scandinavia where they are very serious about actual equality and nobody had turned a hair.
Now as this wasn't my natural accent and just a bad habbit I picked up along the way I did work to change it but if that had been the way I'd grown up, if "mate" and "luv" had been in there from an early age I'd be inclined to view this as cultural harassment.
The point about PC is that it's an example of the American fixation on style rather than substance. Glossing over the superficial is always better than dealing with root causes of real problems.
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There is absolutely no downside to saying things in an inoffensive way. Altho cultural differences can cause confusion, for example, the Britishism of calling a cigarette a "fag". (Something you DEFINITELY want to avoid here. 
)
Being PC doesn't mean you use it as a substitute for real problem -solving either. Yes, it's frustrating dealing with sensitivities in place of real equality, but that's not a problem caused by PC but by the underlying power structure which seeks to maintain a system of inequality.
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Let's party like it's 1929.
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The tantrums, I think, are nearer the surface than ever, in part because of prolonged exposure to PC sentiment.
I agree discourse is possible, it just becomes less likely the longer you've been biting your tongue.
The tighter the constriction, the wider the explosion.
--WhoDied
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Quote:It's a little like farting. You gotta let it out at the right time and amount.
The tighter the constriction, the wider the explosion.
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Let's party like it's 1929.
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That's pooting it lightly!
--WhoDied
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All those secret(ion)s you've been concealing
Say you're happy now...
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Been reading along.
I think, as was said above, the whole PC thing came about b/c there was some real a-holes doing some real a-hole things, generally from some position of power (hierarchy, superior numbers, or both). So, since nuance and judgemnent are diffcult to enforce, to bring the a-holes under control, rules were created that said - nope, never. Not in any way. Not even in the slightest. If it's even a sensitive topic - still nope. No matter how neutrally, factually and logically discussed.
So here we are today - being extorted by the least tolerant, most twitchy, smallest-minded among us. As the alternative to having reigning a-holes.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
Being PC doesn't mean you use it as a substitute for real problem -solving either. Yes, it's frustrating dealing with sensitivities in place of real equality, but that's not a problem caused by PC but by the underlying power structure which seeks to maintain a system of inequality.
.
I think that's my essential point. Actually dealing with inequality in practice takes time, effort and money. What PC does it cover over the underlying problem rather than expend resources to fix it. The who deal is superficial.
A Swedish woman knows she is equal under the law that she has equal rights to a job and to promotion, has equal pay and equal chance of a full career because she doesnt have to chose between a career and a baby.
Knowing all that she isn't really concerned what the bizarre English guy says as long as it isn't intentionally insulting.
PC plasters over the fact that none of that is true for her US counterpart, it's a platitude, a slight of hand used to give the illusion of empowerment rather than pay the costs of actual empowerment.
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Quote:
So here we are today - being extorted by the least tolerant, most twitchy, smallest-minded among us. As the alternative to having reigning a-holes.
Sadly, we ended up with both. :(
Mike
"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence[sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero, Real World Event Discussions
I can't help the sinking feeling that my country is now being run by people who read "1984" not as a cautionary tale, but rather as an instruction manual. - Michael Mock
The Myrmidons were an ancient nation of very brave and skilled warriors as described in Homer's Iliad, and were commanded by Achilles. - Wikipedia
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