Political Correctness

P

Pique318

Registered User
Messages
162
I wanted to post this in the thread about the Best Man speech but it got me thinking about Political Correctness in a broader sense, and how OTT it's been for quite some time now.

Isn't freedom of speech available to all (so long as you don't insult religion any more!) ?
I mean, I'm white, male and Irish. Can I get 'offended' every time someone makes a joke about one of those things ?
IMO, people are too quick to find something that 'offends' them....whether they really care about it or not. You can't call a person a 'spastic' or 'Mentally handicapped' anymore, it's 'intellectually challenged'. Well correct me if I'm wrong, but the first 2 terms weren't applied originally as offensive, merely descriptive, so that people had a point of reference. The nom-de-jour is the same, until that's adopted as an offensive taunt in the playground and off we go again. Besides, a comedy show referred to in the link posted by Complainer was called Spastic Fantastic. Is Irony not offensive, or is it offensive for me to utter the name of that show aloud, because I'm not a spastic (oops, sorry, intellectually challenged)?
Some of the moral outrage posted in the comments on that link are frankly (excuse the pun) pathetic. "how can it be legal?" was one I saw. Sheesh.
Has anyone seen "Delirious", or "Bigger, Blacker & Uncut" or any of Richard Pryors stuff ? Which brings me onto the hilarious uproar and cries of 'racism' that greeted the release of Blazing Saddles (which was written by a black man and a jew).
Comedy is about making people laugh, end of. If you don't find it funny, then switch off, or leave. Don't get offended by what someone said and sit and wait to hear more, so that you may be offended more and have more to shout about.
The Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross voicemail for Andrew Sachs drew thousands of complaints from people. Only a handful were from people who actually heard it. The rest were from people who heard about it!!
PC is a pathetic excuse for people to have a soapbox to complain about their feelings being hurt about absolutely anything. all the while diluting the importance of someone having a valid, weighted, reason to be genuinely offended by something that most people would be.
It's not far off when the likes of being called a Jackeen or Culchie will be deemed as offensive as the 'N...' word.
That, to me, is ridiculous.


<Stands back while the multitudes are offended by every word of what a thick white male Irish culchie wrote>
 
Pique318 said:
...Besides, a comedy show referred to in the link posted by Complainer was called Spastic Fantastic...
Click to expand...

In which the writer of the piece praised the comedy genius of someone disabled who took the p... out of abled bodied people. Riiiiight.

And how exactly is that then OK?

The same thing happened with chauvinism/feminism and it surfaced in TV adverts throughout the 90s. For some reason, despite women being up in arms when the roles were reversed, it was somehow deemed fair game to make "insenstive neanderthal men" the butt of jokes and for adverts to end with a punchline of sorts where the man was the "idiot".

It's all a bit sad and pathetic really - anything you can do, na-na-na-naaah-na mentality. And of course it makes an utter mockery of the "principles" in the first place.
 
People are just way too touchy these days over the slightest thing. It won't be long now until you'll have to compose every day conversations in advance so as to make sure they are PC. In reality, PC is the joke.
 
I sometimes feel sorry for comedians. It is a very difficult skill.
I am not easily offended but I was at the London gig of Billy Connolly when he joked about Kenneth Bigley and how he wished they would just get on with it and execute him. Now, I am a huge admirer of Billy Connolly. I think he is a genius but I have to say that I think he crossed the line that night and I haven't had any time for him since. The problem is that where that line is differs for different people. My girlfriend at the time laughed at the joke which I couldn't understand. Also is it any worse than laughing at starving kids in Africa or the disabled like Ricky Gervais does and I don't find offensive. I don't know why I find some things offensive and other things less so.
 
PaddyW said:
In reality, PC is the joke.
Click to expand...

In reality, the vast majority of what the media says is PC gone made is completely made up by the media.

However, I'd be on the side of the right to offend and that being part of comedy in particular. But there's a grey fuzzy area where it isn't humour and there are other motivations behind the joke/phrase.

Like it or not "spaz" has never been used in a polite sense. Spastic maybe, but not spaz or any other derrivative of the word. It's what was behind the term in the first place, so while you might not like it but there are terms that are inherently racists, homphobic, sexist, etc and have no place in a modern society.

Common, so-called polite words always fall out of use because new generations see them in a different light as tolerances and attitudes change. That's why some late 19th Century and early 20th Century literature uses "pickanniny" without blushing or seeking controversy, but it fell out of use as new generations balked at the term.

Richard Pryer (I'm a huge fan) isn't without his critics from within the black community for his language, but he was also a pioneer in not just comedy, but in reclaiming terms in trying to take away the armour of the racist whites in America and elsewhere. And that's the point, words do have an impact.

It's easy to be white and male and wonder what the fuss is about, because we've not had to live with names and words and discrimination. It's unlikely we ever will, so it is a bit alien to us. I'll probably never see a salary ceiling no matter how well I do at work, I'll probably never have someone of a different race selected ahead of me in employment with the equal qualifications and experience. In America, I'd be less likely to see the inside of a prison once convicted, etc, etc.

It's all well and good protesting against PCism when you're the one it isn't designed to protect.

Having said that it's double-edge sword, so there does have to be care in how it is implied. However, I would still state that the vast majority of the hype around PC is media generated and does not exist.
 
As a friend of mine said the other day - "it's gettin' so you can't say what you think anymore"
 
PaddyW said:
People are just way too touchy these days over the slightest thing. It won't be long now until you'll have to compose every day conversations in advance so as to make sure they are PC. In reality, PC is the joke.
Click to expand...

Good man PaddyW...proceed with your planned speech
 
Latrade said:
It's easy to be white and male and wonder what the fuss is about, because we've not had to live with names and words and discrimination.
Click to expand...

Irish working abroad were subjected to racist discriminatory comments for years. We all know people who were racially abused.

I too would take the view that the media have a big part to play.

What about Chris Rock slagging off the "n.....", Joan Rivers the jews.

I am with Pique on this thread
 

So we're ok with the British stereotypes of the Irish that plagued so much comedy in the 70s?

There's a difference in Chris rock and Joan Rivers, in that they're commentating from within their own culture. In same way it's ok for the Irish to joke about Irishness, but not others.

I still agree it's a very undefinable principle, The Simpsons used to be close to the bone and South Park always was and yet I can (did) find them funny. So when is it satire, humour and when is it offensive? I dunno, but I know it when I see it...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register