thread: 2007-03-19 : Tonight we dine
On 2007-03-21, xenopulse wrote:
Kaare,
I didn't think you were that confrontational :) And thanks for reminding me of the violence thread—I forgot how much I posted there. Had a great follow-up discussion via email with Ralph and someone else as well, on the requirement to enforce law.
But back on point: I don't support the idea that we can never say or do anything that offends other people. I think that's what opponents of "political correctness" are afraid of. But calling it PC isn't helping. If we want to talk censorship, that's a different thing. The whole concept of the Oppressive Political Correctness, as it's applied, is used to attack people who criticize established prejudices.
So again: this is not about forbidding people to say what they want. People who oppose PC think that it's not ok for public groups, like the government, to think about whether what they are doing is sexist, racist, etc., because it "paralyzes" them, as you say. I think that's a way of paralyzing the efforts to be progressive, to reflect on what we do and how we do it. Not to avoid offending anyone's sensibilities, but to avoid being racist, sexist, and so on, which is much more serious than just Political Correctness.
