From: karish@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Chuck Karish)
Subject: political correctness (was: Re: rec.moto.harley)
Organization: Mindcraft, Inc.
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 19:46:43 GMT

In article <1992Jul22.043353.29311@cbnewsj.cb.att.com>
car377@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (charles.a.rogers) writes:
>In article <1992Jul21.015809.8545@morrow.stanford.edu>,
karish@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Chuck Karish) writes:
>> In article <1992Jul20.161912.18595@ncsu.edu>, steve@bucolix.ncsu.edu
>> (Steve Garnier) writes [as quoted by Seth Zirin]:
>> 
>> > The only thing my post *proves* is how I feel about your libeling me,
>> > Chuck Rogers, and other people who have been diligently working at 
>> > mitigating biker-bigotry.
>> 
>> Translation: Steve and Chuck are doing their best to
>> enforce political correctness in the motorcycle
>> newsgroups, regardless of the effects on the usefulness
>> of the groups.

>The careful reader should be aware that this translator is not, in fact,
>a Universal Translator (UT), but is, rather, a Karishspeak Filter (KF).  

But of course.  If I'd been conveying Revealed Truth,  I'd
have been much more liberal (BRONNK! code word alert!!) in
my use of capitalization.

>Specific phrases (error codes) are known to be produced when the employed 
>translation heuristic encounters unresolvable referents.  The most common 
>of these error codes is the ascii string, "political correctness".

It's most often been used in ways I deplore.  I use it
here because I'm so impressed by the self-righteous
zeal of many opponents of rec.moto.harley.

>The
>heuristic is also known to generate as output non-objective approximations 
>when input syntax, phrasing, or dialect incorporates concepts alien or 
>unfamiliar to (or unpalatable for) the heuristic's developer.  Such 
>approximations may include the terms "enforce", "effects", "usefulness", 
>and "misplaced".  

Chuck Rogers has, in the past, agreed with the motivations
expressed by Steve Garnier in the text quoted above.  He's
said he wants to keep rec.motorcycles as the general discussion
forum for all motorcyclists for two reasons:

  - He likes to converse with a wide variety of people
    on a wide variety of topics.

  - He wants to convert others to his view that all bikers
    are siblings and should be tolerant of each others'
    tastes.

I agree with both notions.  However, I don't think it's
appropriate to campaign against rec.motorcycles.harley
for these reasons.

Harley group enthusiasts don't feel a need to continue to
participate in rec.motorcycles, for Chuck Rogers' amusement
or for any other reason, just because there is no
alternative on mainstream USENET.  A few stay because
they enjoy the rough-and-tumble or because they have
friends there or because they have interests in many
non-harley topics.

Many of the rest have simply left.  Creation of
rec.motorcycles.harley would give Chuck more access to
their views, rather than less.  He'd be able to
communicate with them in the new group, through messages
cross-posted to and from rec.motorcycles, and in rec.motorcycles
itself when cross posts and other communications interest
them in goings-on on rec.moto.


I have problems with attempts to promote togetherness
by denying that there is diversity.  Tito did it, and
it worked as long as there was someone in control with
the power to enforce the party line.  Now that that
power is gone, well, you can see the result in your
morning paper.

Whatever future we want for the world or for the net,
we have to acknowledge that other people will go their
own ways whatever we do.  The right way to promote
togetherness is to respect the others and show them
that you respect them.  Constraining their ability
to express their identity can hide some symptoms of
the problem, but it'll never solve it.

rec.motorcycles.harley should be created because many
potential participants want it and feel that their needs
are not served by existing groups.  Whether others feel
that these people should, instead, be participating in a
different way is irrelevant.  Telling Harleyites to
"get a better newsreader" is silly, given that the
Harley content isn't present on rec.motorcycles any
more.  Telling them to participate because it's good
for their bikers' souls is not particularly effective.


The primary issue in new group creation should always be
whether the new group will serve the wants and needs of a
significant number of users.  As long as it can do so and
its charter and name are appropriate, it should be
created.
--

    Chuck Karish          karish@mindcraft.com
    (415) 323-9000 x117   karish@forel.stanford.edu
Newsgroups: news.groups