I know that what you can do in a poll is limited, but frankly any answer to this question will tell me almost nothing:
> Please tell me if you agree or disagree with the following statement: A big problem this country has is being politically correct.
I would ask anyone who agrees with this statement, what concrete problems does it actually cause? Is it depressing wages for the middle class - is PC culture to blame for increasing disparity in wealth and income? Is PC culture shipping jobs overseas? Is PC culture shooting unarmed men in the streets? Is it spying on us and reading our emails?
There are aspects of political correctness that irritate the hell out of me, as well, but it's almost always very abstract. Rarely does it encroach on my personal life at all. As near as I can tell it is mostly restricted to college campuses, and the gulf between academia and real life is a much larger leap to make than most people realize, I think. PC culture has no chance of co-opting the broader American culture to any significant degree. I have a single friend who has gone all-in on PC lately, and yes frankly talking to him sometimes can be a real pain in my ass. But he's still my friend because he's still a decent person, he can still be reasoned with, and he often makes good points.
On the other hand I have several people in my life who years ago doubled down on the opposite of PC culture - right-wing arealism, and I can tell you that these people are orders of magnitude more insufferable than the most ardent Social Justice Warrior I can imagine. They ruin Thanksgivings. They tell racist, or sexist, or otherwise bigoted jokes and get incredibly upset if you don't laugh or, heaven forfend, you insist they cut that shit out. They repeat outrageous lies they read about on the Internet or heard on talk radio or occasionally cable news, and it is absolutely impossible to reason with them about any of it because they have been basically brainwashed beyond all reason at this point.
Frankly I think all the bloviating we see about "PC culture" these days serves mainly to draw attention away from the fact that much of the right wing in America has become completely disconnected from reality, to the point of it being a mental health issue. Why is no one talking about that?
I'll give it a shot. Political correctness stops us from having honest conversations about real problems. It's why educators have to tip toe around basic science topics like evolution. It's why people like Sam Harris are put into the "bigot" box instead of us having frank discussions about militant Islam on the evening news. Political correctness is why the educated people in news can't speak honestly to how stupid climate change denial is. It's why we can't talk about real problems that seem to be unique to some minority groups.
And when these problems don't get talked about, they don't get solved. And unless people go out of their way, they simply can't be truly informed about the issues. Hell, they can't even learn that there's more to be informed ABOUT.
You seem to be suggesting that political correctness and right-wing arealism are two sides of the same coin. I can buy that. However, and maybe this is just my personal experience, but I've found that it's a much bigger impediment to clear thinking on the right, than on the left. Would you agree? If so (and because I'm pretty sure I'm brushing up now against my daily post limit on HN of 5-6 posts), why do you think we hear so much more about "political correctness" than the horror show that is right-wing media?
I disagree. It's the left that won't let us speak honestly about problems in some minority cultures or militant Islam. The left also won't let any real discussion of men's rights or potential problems with 3rd wave feminism.
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[ 6.2 ms ] story [ 634 ms ] thread> Please tell me if you agree or disagree with the following statement: A big problem this country has is being politically correct.
I would ask anyone who agrees with this statement, what concrete problems does it actually cause? Is it depressing wages for the middle class - is PC culture to blame for increasing disparity in wealth and income? Is PC culture shipping jobs overseas? Is PC culture shooting unarmed men in the streets? Is it spying on us and reading our emails?
There are aspects of political correctness that irritate the hell out of me, as well, but it's almost always very abstract. Rarely does it encroach on my personal life at all. As near as I can tell it is mostly restricted to college campuses, and the gulf between academia and real life is a much larger leap to make than most people realize, I think. PC culture has no chance of co-opting the broader American culture to any significant degree. I have a single friend who has gone all-in on PC lately, and yes frankly talking to him sometimes can be a real pain in my ass. But he's still my friend because he's still a decent person, he can still be reasoned with, and he often makes good points.
On the other hand I have several people in my life who years ago doubled down on the opposite of PC culture - right-wing arealism, and I can tell you that these people are orders of magnitude more insufferable than the most ardent Social Justice Warrior I can imagine. They ruin Thanksgivings. They tell racist, or sexist, or otherwise bigoted jokes and get incredibly upset if you don't laugh or, heaven forfend, you insist they cut that shit out. They repeat outrageous lies they read about on the Internet or heard on talk radio or occasionally cable news, and it is absolutely impossible to reason with them about any of it because they have been basically brainwashed beyond all reason at this point.
Frankly I think all the bloviating we see about "PC culture" these days serves mainly to draw attention away from the fact that much of the right wing in America has become completely disconnected from reality, to the point of it being a mental health issue. Why is no one talking about that?
And when these problems don't get talked about, they don't get solved. And unless people go out of their way, they simply can't be truly informed about the issues. Hell, they can't even learn that there's more to be informed ABOUT.