Political Correctness: A Blessing or A Curse?

[Thepowaofhax]

Is Political Correctness a blessing or a curse?

By definition (if you are new to PC), this is Politicall Correct (Merriam-Webster doesn't have correctness. Forgive me.):

: conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated

As for me, I do believe political correctness is a curse for our society. Political correctness is toxic; it is pro-censorship (examples include Capcom's recent censorship of Street Fighter V), is often used to justify attacking others over petty things (see Tumblr's SJW populous) and to me has been ruining entertainment such as comedy and gaming.

For the rest, what do you think of PC? Is it a blessing or a curse?

 

[Melody]

I actually strongly disagree with the OP.

Political Correctness, in moderation, is a reasonable thing to expect from society and others as a whole. Society has decided that "Politically Correct" is the most "polite" way one can carry themselves.

Oftentimes I see people who throw around the words "Politically Correct" tend to be throwing those words around for the wrong reason. They're sore because their conservative beliefs are not being affirmed by society. So they lash out and complain about "Political Correctness" which does nothing nice or useful for anyone. It's divisive. So I don't usually recommend complaining unless someone is legitimately taking it to extremes. Yes, extremists do exist, just with every spectrum of beliefs and/or values. This is why the term exists.

While there are some ah, "tumbrinas" and "SJWs" who definitely embody the abuse of Political Correctness, that in no way should shape one's perception of it. Typically I don't ding anyone as long as they're trying to be formal or polite. I think most people should, and do, have that level of common sense.

 

[Thepowaofhax]

I actually strongly disagree with the OP.

Political Correctness, in moderation, is a reasonable thing to expect from society and others as a whole. Society has decided that "Politically Correct" is the most "polite" way one can carry themselves.

(I'd rather not take half a page so w/e.)

I can actually agree with this somewhat. Tumblrinas and other neo-Progressives of the like tend to use it as an excuse for censorship, doxxing and all that kind of fun so-called "sanctimonious" ****. "Holier-than-thou" if you think about it. However, all forms of political correctness in my eyes are prone to some form of censorship, albeit self-censorship or not. I do not believe political correctness should still be a thing because of this reason alone. I do not want my entertainment to be censored unless it is illegal.

 

[Melody]

(I'd rather not take half a page so w/e.)

I can actually agree with this somewhat. Tumblrinas and other neo-Progressives of the like tend to use it as an excuse for censorship, doxxing and all that kind of fun so-called "sanctimonious" ****. "Holier-than-thou" if you think about it. However, all forms of political correctness in my eyes are prone to some form of censorship, albeit self-censorship or not. I do not believe political correctness should still be a thing because of this reason alone. I do not want my entertainment to be censored unless it is illegal.

It literally has nothing to do with censorship. Saying that it does is just rhetoric. Are there abuses and excesses? Yes. But in case you didn't notice, we don't ban things that have a good effect; just because some people don't know the meaning of Moderation!

 

[Thepowaofhax]

It literally has nothing to do with censorship. Saying that it does is just rhetoric. Are there abuses and excesses? Yes. But in case you didn't notice, we don't ban things that have a good effect; just because some people don't know the meaning of Moderation!

Political Correctness is damaging comedy and gaming right now. Thousands of people are screaming about how these two things should be more "inclusive" and all this other rhetoric. GamerGate and MetalGate would've never been a thing if we hadn't had political correctness in the deal. Political Incorrectness is what will always lead to freedom of speech, even if we do not necessarily agree with it.

Maybe I wouldn't be like this if GamerGate never became a thing, but I digress.

 

[Melody]

Political Correctness is damaging comedy and gaming right now. Thousands of people are screaming about how these two things should be more "inclusive" and all this other rhetoric. GamerGate and MetalGate would've never been a thing if we hadn't had political correctness in the deal. Political Incorrectness is what will always lead to freedom of speech, even if we do not necessarily agree with it.

Maybe I wouldn't be like this if GamerGate never became a thing, but I digress.

Oh you're one of those. Yeah, you're completely wrong. Personally I feel those controversies are insignificant.

 

[Grey Wind]

Stewart Lee had a really good piece about political correctness that basically sums up my opinions:

It really worries me that 84% of this audience agrees with that statement, because the kind of people that say "political correctness gone mad" are usually using that phrase as a kind of cover action to attack minorities or people that they disagree with. I'm of an age that I can see what a difference political correctness has made. When I was four years old, my grandfather drove me around Birmingham, where the Tories had just fought an election campaign saying, "if you want a n***r for a neighbour, vote Labour," and he drove me around saying, "this is where all the n***rs and the c**ns and the jungle bunnies live." And I remember being at school in the early 80s and my teacher, when he read the register, instead of saying the name of the one asian boy in the class, he would say, "is the black spot in," right? And all these things have gradually been eroded by political correctness, which seems to me to be about an institutionalised politeness at its worst.

And if there is some fallout from this, which means that someone in an office might get in trouble one day for saying something that someone was a bit unsure about because they couldn't decide whether it was sexist or homophobic or racist, it's a small price to pay for the massive benefits and improvements in the quality of life for millions of people that political correctness has made.

I feel like political correctness naysayers are blowing things out of proportion and jumping to use extreme examples as reasons for it being "toxic". Describing it as censorship is a complete exaggeration and it really has nothing to do with freedom of speech; it's less "you can't say this" and more "you should know better than to say this". I think it's just basic human decency to avoid saying/doing things that are offensive and I don't see why what's basically just treating people with respect causes such a huge backlash from some people. There's always gonna be extreme opinions out there, but I'd rather put up with people being annoyingly correct about things than live in a world where blatant bigotry is accepted.


Also can we please have one thread where people don't bring up """SJWs""". It's seriously one of the dumbest monikers ever.

 

[Thepowaofhax]

Oh you're one of those. Yeah, you're completely wrong. Personally I feel those controversies are insignificant.

Insignificant? So we should just ignore unethical journalism? Misinformation and ignorance is a bliss. Why should news agencies follow any ethical standard if we ignore something such as what happened in the controversy? Especially those who cling to radical groups like radical feminists to try and belittle a consumer revolt because one of the key parts of their corruption happened to be female? Because, you know, according to radical feminists, you cannot criticize a female because that's politically incorrect.

I feel like political correctness naysayers are blowing things out of proportion and jumping to use extreme examples as reasons for it being "toxic". Describing it as censorship is a complete exaggeration and it really has nothing to do with freedom of speech; it's less "you can't say this" and more "you should know better than to say this". I think it's just basic human decency to avoid saying/doing things that are offensive and I don't see why what's basically just treating people with respect causes such a huge backlash from some people. There's always gonna be extreme opinions out there, but I'd rather put up with people being annoyingly correct about things than live in a world where blatant bigotry is accepted.


Also can we please have one thread where people don't bring up """SJWs""". It's seriously one of the dumbest monikers ever.

So we should ignore the majority that are a bunch of SJWs anyways and not call them that at all? That is what they are. They hide under social justice to justify their actions of abuse. Quite simply, they are not victims, they are the attackers; why should we listen to their fundamental jargon? I'm sick and tired of seeing people fired everyday because of a bunch of neo-Progressives pretending to be offended for groups that they portray as weak enough to be felled by words, neo-Progressives bring people to the brink of suicide just because their theology isn't straight or other reasoning to justify it, neo-Progressives want to kill our free speech, neo-Progressives bring about hate speech such as the Black Lives Matter group want cops dead, and so on and so forth. It isn't in moderation if all I see nowadays are a bunch of hipster racists crying over which group is the most oppressed using political correctness. Especially hypocritical ones who believe they're being oppressed by people who can't even afford a ****ing decent living.

 

[Somewhere_]

Screw political correctness. Its at the root of overly-sensitive groups like SJW's, radical feminists, and Black Lives Matter. Say whatever you want, and no one has the right to stop you. Its their problem for being offended.

Yes, people want to restrict freedom of speech in the name of political correctness.

 

[Grey Wind]

So we should ignore the majority that are a bunch of SJWs anyways and not call them that at all? That is what they are. They hide under social justice to justify their actions of abuse. Quite simply, they are not victims, they are the attackers; why should we listen to their fundamental jargon? I'm sick and tired of seeing people fired everyday because of a bunch of neo-Progressives pretending to be offended for groups that they portray as weak enough to be felled by words, neo-Progressives bring people to the brink of suicide just because their theology isn't straight or other reasoning to justify it, neo-Progressives want to kill our free speech, neo-Progressives bring about hate speech such as the Black Lives Matter group want cops dead, and so on and so forth. It isn't in moderation if all I see nowadays are a bunch of hipster racists crying over which group is the most oppressed using political correctness. Especially hypocritical ones who believe they're being oppressed by people who can't even afford a ****ing decent living.

This is... completely exaggerated. Congrats for finding some extremists/trolls on the internet I guess? The internet is more at fault for festering extremism in various movements than the actual beliefs at their cores, and I don't think we should be shutting down anyone with a belief system that's even vaguely similar to some trolls you've seen online. You defended Gamergate, yet that whole debacle produced an obscene amount of misogyny with people literally sending death threats. I could easily turn your post on its head and bring up the multitude of people with similar opinions to yours abuse others online and generally being shitty people.

Also, do actually see people being fired everyday because of minor offences? Do you actually regularly see people being brought to the verge of suicide because of PC-gone-wrong? Is it really all you see nowadays? Because the impression I'm getting is that you've just blown everything completely out of proportion and/or completely misunderstood people's actions because of your own biased views.

Like I said, the core idea of political correctness is treating people with respect. As far as I'm concerned it's just basic human decency to not blatantly offend offend people. It's not a political party you need to sign up to and people being shitty in the name of PC doesn't mean that being careful not to offend people is a bad idea.

Screw political correctness. Its at the root of overly-sensitive groups like SJW's, radical feminists, and Black Lives Matter. Say whatever you want, and no one has the right to stop you. Its their problem for being offended.

Yes, people want to restrict freedom of speech in the name of political correctness.

It has nothing to do with freedom of speech. You're entitled to say anything you want, just like people are entitled to call you tf out when you're being a blatant bigot. Again, it's a basic sense of decency.

 

[Thepowaofhax]

This is... completely exaggerated. Congrats for finding some extremists/trolls on the internet I guess? The internet is more at fault for festering extremism in various movements than the actual beliefs at their cores, and I don't think we should be shutting down anyone with a belief system that's even vaguely similar to some trolls you've seen online. 4. You defended Gamergate, yet that whole debacle produced an obscene amount of misogyny with people literally sending death threats. 5. I could easily turn your post on its head and bring up the multitude of people with similar opinions to yours abuse others online and generally being shitty people.

1. Also, do actually see people being fired everyday because of minor offences? 2. Do you actually regularly see people being brought to the verge of suicide because of PC-gone-wrong? Is it really all you see nowadays? Because the impression I'm getting is that you've just blown everything completely out of proportion and/or completely misunderstood people's actions because of your own biased views.

Like I said, the core idea of political correctness is treating people with respect. As far as I'm concerned it's just basic human decency to not blatantly offend offend people. It's not a political party you need to sign up to and people being shitty in the name of PC doesn't mean that being careful not to offend people is a bad idea.

1). Yes.
2). No, but it shouldn't be happening at all.
3). My own views? It's not my fault I see people taking "Don't be a dick" to "Attack this person because their ideology isn't straight!" almost all the time.
4). GamerGate was never misogynistic. Otherwise, why the hell would they have donated to a radical feminist group such as The Fine Young Capitalists? You're the one defending a pathological liar who used cronyism and corruption to get better game coverage on her mediocre game. The radical feminists spewed a rhetoric because we decided to criticize her for doing it. The only ones who were sending death threats and doxxing people at a huge scale were those PC nuts. It got to the damn point to where people wished TotalBiscuit would die by his cancer just because he was critical of Quinn.
5). By that logic, how about I post a bunch of examples of the majority in politically correct culture, aka the SJWs? You're just a minority when it comes to political correctness if you essentially think it's just "don't be a dick".

 

[Daydream]

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. You can't say hateful or inappropriate things and expect no one to react. Political correctness is about everyone having the right to feel comfortable and safe in a public setting. It isn't about censorship, it's about stopping hate speech.

 

[Kanzler]

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. You can't say hateful or inappropriate things and expect no one to react. Political correctness is about everyone having the right to feel comfortable and safe in a public setting. It isn't about censorship, it's about stopping hate speech.

But a lot political incorrectness falls far short of indictable hate speech. Political correctness is not just about stopping hate speech - in fact, I'd argue that it has little value for that purpose, since there are laws that criminalize hate speech. By and large, we invoke "political correctness" for everyday "offenses". There must be an element of censorship in that.

 

[Sopheria]

It isn't about censorship, it's about stopping hate speech.

Just to point out, stopping speech is censorship by definition. Even if we agree that such speech needs to be stopped, there's no sense in not calling it censorship, so we just have to admit that it's censorship that we happen to agree with :v

 

[Thepowaofhax]

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. You can't say hateful or inappropriate things and expect no one to react. Political correctness is about everyone having the right to feel comfortable and safe in a public setting. It isn't about censorship, it's about stopping hate speech.

It is still freedom of speech unless said person is going around protesting in the streets calling for genocide. There is a difference from being bigoted and using hate speech.

 

[Daydream]

What do you mean by "everyday "offenses"", though? Perhaps we're at odds with definitions. By hate speech I'm being more general - including things that display hate or prejudice that are not criminalized.

Just to point out, stopping speech is censorship by definition. Even if we agree that such speech needs to be stopped, there's no sense in not calling it censorship, so we just have to admit that it's censorship that we happen to agree with :v

This is true, I'll concede that. I suppose I was considering censorship in the extreme.

 

[Drake.]

Political correctness can be a bad thing if taken to the extreme, but other than that, I think it is actually beneficial. Political correctness exists to try and deter people from being rude, which I don't see as a problem. If terms can be expressed in a politically correct way and a politically incorrect way, I don't see why everyone wouldn't just use the politically correct definition since it's the more cordial thing to do.

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

Cultural differences is the reason why political correctness exists. If all countries shared one culture, then there will be no need for political correctness, but that would also sacrifice the unique quirks of each country's culture, so there's really no solution to end political correctness so long as countries have different views on certain subjects.

As for me, I do believe political correctness is a curse for our society. Political correctness is toxic; it is pro-censorship (examples include Capcom's recent censorship of Street Fighter V), is often used to justify attacking others over petty things (see Tumblr's SJW populous) and to me has been ruining entertainment such as comedy and gaming.

Wasn't the main reason behind that was due to some clipping issue?

 

[Thepowaofhax]

Cultural differences is the reason why political correctness exists. If all countries shared one culture, then there will be no need for political correctness, but that would also sacrifice the unique quirks of each country's culture, so there's really no solution to end political correctness so long as countries have different views on certain subjects.



Wasn't the main reason behind that was due to some clipping issue?

I doubt that unless Capcom has a history of having poor localization quality like NISA. I'll look into that more, but I still don't think they can excuse censorship.

Also, regarding cultural differences, I could see the point. I just don't see why the majority from my observation seems to be a bunch of extremists to that matter. Unless they're all a vocal minority like the travesty Feminism has been dealing with with a vocal minority of extremists.

 

[Psychic]

Yes, being politically correct is a good thing because it means not being a jerk, and not being a jerk is a good thing.

I have zero empathy for people who complain about not being able to use offensive terms that hurt and annoy others. It's nearly 2016 - we know better than to use shitty, outdated words or to be exclusionary of other people's experiences and emotions. We live in an age where we are more aware than ever of how diverse our society is - we can't feign ignorance anymore, and we have to update with the times. I don't want to live in a society that's intentionally ignorant and insular.

I absolutely love stand-up comedy, and I rather enjoy video games. Both of those fields are known to be "old boys' clubs" that are predominantly ruled by straight white dudes who have felt free to do or say whatever they wanted, and haven't really been challenged for it. The comedians and game devs complaining about having to be PC or inclusive need to git gud - it's 2015, and if your comedy routine or video game relies on racism or sexism to be good, then the problem is that you're bad at your job, not that the PC police is too mean. I have seen many comedians and video games that don't have to bend over backwards to be PC, and who don't complain about it.

However, all forms of political correctness in my eyes are prone to some form of censorship, albeit self-censorship or not. I do not believe political correctness should still be a thing because of this reason alone. I do not want my entertainment to be censored unless it is illegal.

Everybody self-censors every single day. We all think things like "wow, that person has bad taste" or "I want to punch the person who cut in front of me" or "I hate screaming babies," but we don't say those things out loud, because saying those things would make us rude assholes, and we would be unable to function in society. This is the same thing.

Political Correctness is damaging comedy and gaming right now. Thousands of people are screaming about how these two things should be more "inclusive" and all this other rhetoric. GamerGate and MetalGate would've never been a thing if we hadn't had political correctness in the deal. Political Incorrectness is what will always lead to freedom of speech, even if we do not necessarily agree with it.

Maybe I wouldn't be like this if GamerGate never became a thing, but I digress.

As I said above, I have seen plenty of comedians and video games that do just fine, and I legitimately question the skill level of those who complain about having to be PC. It's really not that difficult to do.

Also don't you pro-Gamegaters believe that GG is about "ethics in game journalism" as you state below? Of course, what it turned into was mostly just a pile of misogyny and rape threats, but I'm not sure what any of that has to do with political correctness.

Insignificant? So we should just ignore unethical journalism? Misinformation and ignorance is a bliss. Why should news agencies follow any ethical standard if we ignore something such as what happened in the controversy? Especially those who cling to radical groups like radical feminists to try and belittle a consumer revolt because one of the key parts of their corruption happened to be female? Because, you know, according to radical feminists, you cannot criticize a female because that's politically incorrect.

All of this is entirely unrelated to the subject. Political correctness has nothing to do with ethics in gaming journalism, and criticizing women is not politically incorrect.

If you care about "ethical standards," then surely you would believe we must be ethical in not using ignorant and outdated terms.

Screw political correctness. Its at the root of overly-sensitive groups like SJW's, radical feminists, and Black Lives Matter. Say whatever you want, and no one has the right to stop you. Its their problem for being offended.

Yes, people want to restrict freedom of speech in the name of political correctness.

Oh, anyone can still say whatever they want, that's the beauty of freedom of speech. But freedom of speech is not freedom from criticism, so people shouldn't be surprised to receive backlash when they say hateful or ignorant things. And then they can't be "overly sensitive" when they get that criticism. :)

But a lot political incorrectness falls far short of indictable hate speech. Political correctness is not just about stopping hate speech - in fact, I'd argue that it has little value for that purpose, since there are laws that criminalize hate speech. By and large, we invoke "political correctness" for everyday "offenses". There must be an element of censorship in that.

We censor ourselves all the time so as to function in society. You can't just say whatever you want all the time if you want to have friends or hold down a job. There has always been a set bar of what can and cannot be said in public, but that bar has been really low for a very long time. Now that it's 2015 and we're starting to recognize how diverse our society is, we cannot accept keeping that bar set so low. It's time to expect more from ourselves.


~Psychic