It's "Pickle on a Soapbox" time! Where I complain about something without a lot of jokes. I'll try, though.
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| I Googled "pickle on a soapbox" and this came up. Apparently these guys raced a pickle in a soapbox derby. They didn't win the race, but they won my heart. Source |
There are a lot of people out there who are obsessed with being politically correct and correcting people who aren't. In reaction to the political correctness, something more sinister has arisen, the "I hate political correctness" crowd. These people ("What do you mean 'these people'?") obsessively complain about the people who correct people who say offensive things.
Of course political correctness can get out of control, but let us not forget that people who are being politically correct are just trying to make life pleasant for the disadvantaged. Is it really that hard for us all to use a word other than "fag"? I can think of waaaayyy better insults, like "enema waste" or "anal herpe" or "tambourine player".
The problem I have with anti-political correctness is that it's unimaginative. Do we really need another "Asian people can't drive" stereotype? Haven't we heard everything there has to be said about a woman's place being in the kitchen? Is the world enriched because some racist came up with another black people/watermelon joke? Stereotypes are dumb. Racist jokes aren't funny (the best reason why racist jokes aren't funny can be found
here).
Oh, I get it, people don't want to change, so attacking a person as being "too sensitive" is a way to avoid correcting horrific behavior. But who is so excited to make people feel bad that they won't slightly adjust their way of speaking? "It makes me feel so good to call something gay that I don't care if a teenager contemplates suicide due to a pervasive societal demonizing of certain sexual proclivities. Being a decent human being is so gay." Yes, that's an exaggeration, but the attitude that it takes not to care about
Are little people, already disadvantaged by circumstance of birth, really "too sensitive" for not wanting to be called "midgets"? That word has been used to humiliate and ostracize little people for years. It's a term of oppression. They will hide behind a "free speech" argument. Yes, you're free to say horrifying things, but the rest of us who aren't racist or sexist have the right to say what a racist/sexist human cancer you are.
You know who doesn't complain about society being "too PC"? Anyone who has ever played a video game online or read the comment thread of any article having to do with a Jewish person.
The problem with political correctness is it has the term "political" in it, automatically causing a knee-jerk reaction. So let's call it what it is, "not being a dick." The other problem is that people who most often complain about PC AND those who are looking for an excuse to call something racist, don't understand the difference between "racist" and "racial". You can make a joke about a race/ethnicity without being racist, it's really really easy.
- It can't be malicious
- It can't reinforce oppressive stereotypes
- It can't rehash the same thing we've all heard a thousand times from racist grandpas.
Besides, once you take peoples' feelings into consideration, you can be non-PC and have it actually be funny because people know it's not coming from a malevolent place. Now I'm off to sing the N-word whilst taking mass transit.
Off the soapbox.
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| I'm sorry for ranting. We're still friends, right? Source |
Well said, especially the part about online gaming.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger I found it EXTREMELY amusing to speak with a homosexual accent on Xbox Live, just for the reactions. Eventually, someone would remark "dude you sound gay", to which I would respond "If touching another man's balls makes me gay, then I guess I'm gay!". The whole server would erupt in homosexual slurs, quite often resulting in me getting loads of abusive messages and negative feedback.
I hear ya. My cursing alphabet stays away from homosexual slurs, the r word (which is hard because what other "bad words" begin wth an r!?) and the n-word, obviously. Because, not cool.
ReplyDeleteWow!
ReplyDeleteLove the pickle soap box and the ride.
Your collection of insults up there is far better than the tired collection of racist/sexist slop thrown about on the typical internet forum. You tell it to those triangle-playing, vomit-sipping seahorse fetishists!
ReplyDeleteNot to be non-PC about seahorse lovers or anything.
My son is gay and the least of our worries is how people use the word "gay". Verbal abuse, threats of violence and inequality are our primary concerns. We've learned to react with dignity when confronted with ignorance, we've had to.
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you what fries my ass though-the celebration of St. Patrick's Day in the States. An entire country gets together, drinks green beer, takes on fake accents, dresses up like leprechaun's and takes a pubic piss on my culture. Somehow the PC police have neglected to give a shite about Irish people. Next year when everyone on blogger posts their racist St Patrick's Day posts, I'm going to respond and it's going to get ugly.
That's my soapbox.
Quite frankly, St. Patrick's Day is the LEAST racist thing we do regarding the Irish. There's a college whose mascot is "The Fighting Irish" with an embarrassing Irish stereotypical cartoon. But no one makes a stink about it because we have to first deal with all of the other shockingly racist Native American mascots first.
DeleteMy racial jokes are ALWAYS funny. I think I rally against the PC movement only because in my late teens, early 20s, when I was going to hardcore shows and supporting a lot of riot grrrrl bands, I saw it get so out of hand it was people being assholes with the excuse of being PC. I think it is necessary to be compassionate to all people. At least to all people who aren't total douche canoes.
ReplyDeleteBut when my friend Josh and his wife come over, and she is Chinese, and she is picking on him, I will sometimes say, "Ahhh Crystal. Why must you be such a chink in Josh's armor?" and we all die laughing and carry on. My friends and I all say terribly inappropriate things to each other. But that's because we all know how much we care about and would take a bullet for each other as well.
Also, when the whole Daniel Tosh rape thing came out I told people not that I was offended that he made a rape joke, but that it wasn't funny. That didn't go over so well.
Every single person has a different idea about what is/is not funny. Which is why I don't think we can police what people make jokes about. To me it's all about where someone is coming from. Racist jokes are coming from a place of hatred. Racial jokes, like what you're doing with your friends are coming from a loving place.
DeleteI agree 100%. It's not the words themselves that are horrible, but what the person's intent behind the words are.
DeleteYou know that I would take beef with you for this "It makes me feel so good to call something gay that I don't care if a teenager contemplates suicide due to a pervasive societal demonizing of certain sexual proclivities. Being a decent human being is so gay."
ReplyDelete- Sometimes the crowd targets a wrong person or a totally unrelated entity just to make their concern heard and sometimes they do overreact, which sometimes may frustrate the neutral crowd or even the pro crowd.
Yeah, the killer is too powerful and has lot of support from "mom" crowd,"christian" crowd, so less us target the meek innocent one because we can even beat up and send him to electric chair that maynt send the message but would threaten the people to even talk about us.
That is when this crowd pops up the so called ANTI-PC crowd. It is not that we are all evil and nasty but the overreaction and playing the victim card for long frustrates us.
Playing racism card, orientation card, discriminiation card for anything and everything isnt cool either.
Note: Yesterday while coming back from swimming, me and friend were joking about "handball" and "football" and were saying that it is difficult to understand these American names because they are so different like American football game and there came a eavesdraopper screaming loud into our ears "WHY DONT YOU GUYS CHECK YOURSELF OUT FROM THE COUNTRY THEN?"
This incident is a thing to get hurt or just a angry xenophobe's shame?
Total xenophobic shame. I wouldn't be hurt by it, but anger is certainly acceptable.
DeleteI get your point and I agree. Victimization of any sort, even self-inflicted, is to be demonized.
It all boils down to my thesis statement for this blog, "don't be an asshole."
"...my thesis statement for this blog, "don't be an asshole."
DeleteOh how I love it. So perfect in it's simplicity even the most obtuse can understand.
I think we should just replace the phrase political correctness with being nice to people. If we all just did that, it wouldn't even be an issue :D
ReplyDelete"So let's call it what it is, "not being a dick."" - Yes, this.
ReplyDeleteGreat rant.
I remember back in the day my Mom trying to tell me about some silliness called "The Golden Rule". Pfft. What rubbish. If I let her prattle on she'd soon be going off about some crap called common courtesy. It's like she grew up in the Dark Ages instead of some farm in Ohio.
ReplyDeleteIt is awesome posts like this that make you one of my very favourite bloggers.
ReplyDeleteVery well said my friend. The world needs less hate and more nice
Agree! Agree!
ReplyDeleteIt can be confusing sometimes, which words to use, because what used to be okay is no longer. An example is we have special needs students from a school nearby that help out in my office. Their tag line is that these kids are mentally impaired, but other groups say using "impaired" is not okay. Another group we work with is called the Disability Network, yet some say not to use the word "disabled.". My strategy, though, when I have to discuss it is just to admit I'm not sure which word to use and the person tells me what is okay for them. Pretty simple and not a hardship.
Is it still racist if you make fun of your own race? I'm still very fond of the tiny Asian penis one for whatever reason.
ReplyDeleteI want you fighting my corner Picky should I even encounter any hate being sent my why. I agree totally, most racism or anti PC ness usually comes from the dim-witted or ignorant. Bravo on this sentiment.
ReplyDeleteI guess I agree with you to a certain extent. People should be nice, and the comment section on almost anything on the internet is foul beyond belief. Racism, homophobia, and misogyny are the ugly norms. But as a reader of 1984, it is disturbing to see things given a label to disguise what they really are. And also when somebody has to apologize for calling themselves a "spaz", I think that is too much.
ReplyDelete