Political Correctness is counterproductive

"My dear friend, the above statement is somewhat hypocritical, wouldnï¿½€™t you say. The equivalent of this would be to say that you are a vegetarian, but you are delighted to have KFC across the road. You have to decide if you are for or against the political correctness, otherwise just arguing weather PC has being counterproductive, without necessarily coming to a conclusion of whether we need it or not would be a waste of time for both of us. " This is all entirely untrue. Being against something does not mean one cannot see *any* good in it. I do not deny that the PC movement has been beneficial in some ways, I simply contend that *overall* it has done more harm than good. "I'm certainly not sad to see the word "nigger" fall out of favor has suddenly turned into our intelligent well-being being put at risk because Alan Gribben has decided to substitute the word "Nigger" for the word "Slave" in Huckleberry Finn. Hypocrisy all over again. " This is not hypocrisy. I don't care for the word "nigger" being used in a derogatory way and having it be socially acceptable because I am not a racist, and generally, those using that word are doing so out of bigotry. The reasons Twain used the word were to make the story believable (that is how people spoke in that time period), and to highlight the bigotry prevalent in those times. The fact that the book needs to be edited so that students are allowed to read it shows that an astonishing ignorance of context, irony and lack of critical thinking, which bolsters my point about our intellectual well-being. "First of all there is no US and THEM. It's just US. " You have missed my point. Of course it's just "us", but we are all creating divisions by constantly overemphasizing our differences. "Second of all please define - who are already discriminated against, I assume by descriminated you reffer to people being victimized by those who DO NOT FOLLOW PC. " Just about everyone is discriminated against by someone else, but I am mainly referring to racial minorities, anyone who isn't heterosexual or doesn't assume a standard gender role, certain religions, etc. Political correctness doesn't prevent discrimination. All that the PC movement really does is force people to censor themselves; it cannot force them to change their ideas. Take racism, for example. We can ban all racial slurs from use, but the people who once used them will still be racists. They will still treat other races poorly, they will still teach their children not to like other races, and discrimination will remain. If we want to prevent discrimination, we need a better approach than censorship. "In other words you are saying lets not use PC so we would not draw attention to people to whom attention has already been drawn by those who do not follow PC. " Not at all. I'm saying that the only way to achieve true equality is to *actually* treat people equally. Pointing out our differences does not lead to equality, nor does pandering and patronizing. "If I understand it correctly, what con saying is that substituting the word Nigger for the word Slave belittles Black People? ?? ?" "Belittle" isn't the word I would use, but in a sense, yes. Using this same example, Mark Twain was not a racist and, in fact, Huck Finn has an anti-racist message. The book could be useful in teaching children that racism is wrong, but the PC movement helped to have it banned from schools instead. (1) "May I state that you are marginalizing by putting your Intellectuall well-being (I don't even see how this is relevant) above the feelings of those with disability, those of ethnical minority, religion, sexual orientation etc. " Not *my* intellectual well-being, *everyone's*. It's relevant for the reasons I stated above -- we are willing to ban a book that teaches racism is wrong so that we don't have to publish the word "nigger". If that's not counter-productive, I don't know what is. "One example is all I ask for. I am sure you could do better than a Canadian rock band. When did the use of political correctness hurt the society? ?" First of all, Dire Straits isn't Canadian, the ban on the song happened in Canada. I'd appreciate you actually reading the source if you are going to criticize it. This is just one short list of books that have been banned or censored in the name of political correctness, many of which have strong moral messages *against* racism, sexism and other forms of bigotry. I think it's pretty obvious that banning or changing educational literature is damaging to society. . http://www.time.com... "It is not the political correctness that creates tension in the society but the lack of knowledge of what PC means. " Can you elaborate on this claim? "We are not educated enough as to what is a right thing to say and what is a wrong thing to say. " How did you reach this conclusion? How do you propose we get this education? Who ultimately decides what is right and wrong speech? The problem is, political correctness does not prevent or reduce discrimination and bigotry. The only way to do that is through knowledge and wisdom, and the PC movement has actually made that harder to attain. (1) . http://en.wikipedia.org...