Political Correctness

[Narei Mooncatt]

But wait... Didn't "Native Americans" also supposedly migrate here from Russia over the Bering Straits? So we can't even call them that because they too were imigrants. Something like, "First Settled Migrant Inhabitants of the Americas" sounds even more correct to me. LOL

[Kobuk]

So why don't we just call everybody Terrans? The proper name for Earth is "Terra", after all. And humans who live on Terra (Earth) should be called Terrans.

[Mooshi]

Because Terrans sounds like a Pokemon? >_____>

Aaaaand I still don't like Columbus. He did not discover America. If anything, he bumped into it by mistake and mistook it for India. People before him already been to this mass of land. Especially those who inhabited it (major DUH moment). Columbus wasn't a total half wit, trade was opened up which was really good. I wish we stopped celebrating for the wrong reason and fill kids heads up with lies that he discovered it. I guess when you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the "truth" eh?

[Narei Mooncatt]

So why don't we just call everybody Terrans? The proper name for Earth is "Terra", after all. And humans who live on Terra (Earth) should be called Terrans.

I never understood the term Terran and only heard it used in Starcraft. I mean, isn't Earth's proper name.... Earth? I'm human and an Earthling, and proud of it. Your attempts at being PC offend and confuse me.

[Mooshi]

Here is one to hurt your brains.

If an Apple computer is called a Mac and Macs have PC hardware underneath (Intel processors, DDR3 RAM, same hard drives, same nVidia/ATI cards) and PC stands for personal computers...would calling a Mac a PC...be PC?

[Yip]

Aaaaand I still don't like Columbus. He did not discover America.

Columbus did discover America. It doesn't mean it hadn't been discovered by other people previously, only that he's the one that brought news of it to the "civilized" world.

[Mooshi]

I could find a somewhat mint Model-T ford sitting in the middle of nowhere and bring up the findings to car club in a big city somewhere. Doesn't mean I deserve lots of reconition for stumbling across the thing by accident when I was looking for something else. Let alone my own holiday.

Who Really Discovered America?
Did a number of explorers discover the New World long
before Christopher Columbus staked his claim in 1492? No
less than a dozen cultures have tales of these adventurers
woven into their histories, but they are noticeably absent in
American history books. This documentary explores the
possibility that the Chinese, Japanese, Polynesians, Norse,
Welsh, Irish, Ancient Hebrews and the Solutreans all made it
to the Americas earlier than Columbus. Rebuild the ships,
trace the routes, test the artifacts and analyze blood evidence
to finally learn the answer to one of the greatest mysteries of
all time--who really discovered America.

Columbus wasn't the first to find this land and yet is credited as such. Facts are facts, PC or not. XD

Now let's get back on topic, shall we?

[CiceroKit]

Macs are PCs (personal computers). Every computer we use in our households is classified as a personal computer. They are not super computers after all. This only further emphasizes how people speak inaccurately. Oh but we can't simply call an HP computer an HP, and an IBM an IBM... not while all operate on Windows. Our simple brains simply do not compute. At least that is what the Madison Ave. crowd would have us believe. To me, there are three basic types of personal computers. Those that run a Mac OS, those that run Linux, and those that crash, er, I mean run Windows.  

[Mooshi]

OS X can freeze too, Mac Users who bash Microsoft often times dual boot into Windows (so much for superiority), Linux lacks native comercial software like Photoshop (emulation wine doesn't count) and Windows is bloated like a fat bloke who ate all he could eat at an all you can eat buffet. Yay truths.

How about terms like "mentally challenged" and "physically disabled"? Sure "retarded" and "handicaped" don't sound that great either, but their PC terms sounds like you're talking down to someone and makes you come off all smug with a superiority complex. Quite the opposite to the let's spare feelings meaning it was supposed to have.

Speaking of which..why do people get offended over retarded again? It is a literal definition. D: When something is retarded, it's slowed down and not quite working like it should. Which is why retarded gets used on people who are stupid acting rediculious. (see a certain show with Steve-O) Same for handicapped. Are we supposed to say "physically disabled" for golf too? "What's your physically disability there, Tiger?" "I'z be wife cheatin' Derp!" Madness I tells you.

[Yip]

I could find a somewhat mint Model-T ford sitting in the middle of nowhere and bring up the findings to car club in a big city somewhere. Doesn't mean I deserve lots of reconition for stumbling across the thing by accident when I was looking for something else. Let alone my own holiday.

But it would still be correct to say you "discovered" the old car. And that was my point.

Now let's get back on topic, shall we?

You brought it up. But yes, lets get back on topic.

[Mooshi]

Fine fine. :v Not the /first/ to discover. Wait a sec..did I just PC myself? EWWWW I DID! DX Mooshi now feels unclean. ;.;

[Serra Belvoule]

I do have a certain fondness for "earthlings"
But I'd say why not just do what trolls from alternia do and call everyone "humans"? X3

[CiceroKit]

I don't get why some people want to do away with retarded. Using it as an insult is improper use of the term and I guess that is why some have a problem with it. It is because it is way over used as a slang insult that when it is actually used to describe stunting of mental or physical growth that it seems somehow wrong. Not the first time humans have misused language or other symbols. The Nazi party did it with the swastika. The symbol came from Sanskrit and was used to represent rebirth. Sure, some would say the Nazis used it to represent the same thing, the rebirth of their nation, but because of the deplorable deeds perpetuated under their leadership, the swastika forever became synonymous with racism and holocaust. Something very different from the original meaning.

That said, I would like to say that "mentally challenged" or "physically challenged" can be more accurate a description for people with a disability. These are broader, more general terms. For example, if someone has ADHD, that person is not retarded but can be classified as mentally challenged since he or she has a learning disability. If someone has a heart condition that limits their life activity that very few people know about, it would be proper for the person to say he or she is physically challenged or differently abled. It would seem foolish for that person to call themselves a gimp or a cripple, which have specific meanings that don't apply to every type of disability. See what I mean? It is all a matter of logic. We could test this out syllogistically if you would like, and then I can point to logical fallacies that apply to misuse of what now seem to be archaic terms.

But honestly, even what you classify as PC terms for the disabled can demean a person. It all has to do with context. You wouldn't want to be introduced in this way, "this blind man is my fiance," but rather, "this is my fiance, he happens to be blind." Sometimes it is essential to point out a difference. I know this, my fiance is blind, and when people don't know this they often become a**holes, saying stupid things like, "why did he just ignore me?" I realize that most people posting to this board are probably not in this kind of minority. Well, that limits your understanding as far as this goes. You may be getting all defensive that I just said that, but you do not have the experience in being anything other than what/who you are. That is it. All of us with different experiences strive to describe our experiences the best way we can.

It would be nice if acceptance was just an automatic and that people didn't need an explanation of someone else's experience to understand that maybe that person didn't just flip you off. That would be nice, but it isn't how the world works. We cannot read each others' minds and we aren't all born into the same culture or raised to believe the same things.

PC language may be inherently flawed when people try to apply universals by using it. That too is a misuse. The more we know about correct usage of language, any language, the better we will be able to communicate effectively.

[Yip]

The symbol came from Sanskrit and was used to represent rebirth. Sure, some would say the Nazis used it to represent the same thing, the rebirth of their nation, but because of the deplorable deeds perpetuated under their leadership, the swastika forever became synonymous with racism and holocaust. Something very different from the original meaning.

Which is sad 'cause as a symbol, it looks cool.

[Serra Belvoule]

It's the same why some people use "Gay" to say something is bad. It's just something we've as a cultured carved on. The power on symbols is that they represent a general idea to a big public. Basically, the fact that we use gay to address ourselves, and others use it as a derogatory word is part of the same construct, and the same with "retarded"- we allowed that link to happen because it caught on, and the fact that people gets offended on it meets the purpose of letting it be derogatory. (think of it as a psychological equivalent of "DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS").
Oh well.

[Mooshi]

CiceroKit, I hope to one day word things as wisely as you. :3

I think we should refer to things for what they are. Be blunt like the Dutch instead of sugar coating everything. Not go out of our way to offend, but to say what things are. Retarded is a direct definition, but I agree it's the slang used as an insult that made people get all offended. And I do agree that "X challenged" covers more ground, but maybe it's best to be direct. "This is my son, he's alittle hyperactive since he has ADHD." Being blunt isn't always a bad thing and sound so much less offensive than "Please pardon my mentally challenged male child,"

[Itico]

   Hello everyone,  My opinion is that Political correctness was started by a group of people that were fed up with words that they found offensive and they thought they were doing us all a favor.

The problem is that we are all people and people come from all over this world.  we speak different languages, have different beliefs and different values.  Now, that makes things a bit complicated.

I'm going to use myself as an example.  I am someone who is moderately blind, but i also use blind when a degree of clearity is not required.  i also use visually impaired, but i do not use visually challenged.  I do not find it physically hard to see, that is it doesn't make me tired, I just see poorly.  I don't know.

I have had a lot of friends who had no problem with me calling them black or mexican or even chinese.  you need to talk to the people around you and see what they would like to be referred to as.  I normally find it totally unnecessary to refer to anyone's race, except as an aspect of their physical appearance or an indication of the culture that they may have been raised in.

Political correctness is such an interesting phrase anyway.  firstly, politics is a very messy, misunderstood and often villified term.  Not off to a good start there.  well, okay, correctness?  oh, that's a good word, isn't it?  when something is correct, it is right?  right?  who says what is right?  Everyone thinks that they have the right answer, but we all can't be right.  Correct?

If Columbus was so important, then why do we call this the americas?

Now, what is the best word for the people who are native to this planet?  Earth is a new word, Terra goes back a bit further, but I say that we may never know the true name for this planet because the word is lost in our protolanguage past.  My theory is that it was first used when an ancestor fell out of a tree.

For many people, political correctness was dropped because it made things less clear and aided some people in the continued seperation of people.

When people start talking about other people as equals, then we will have true equality.  When you usewords to seperate you from them, that is not equality.

I am not white, i am a mutt.

Peace.

[Serra Belvoule]

   Hello everyone,  My opinion is that Political correctness was started by a group of people that were fed up with words that they found offensive and they thought they were doing us all a favor.

And the phrase "don't do me any favors" come to mind 
It is true, many things are done with people thinking they were doing what's best for everyone, even if everyone tells them they're wrong. It's the line of thinking "you will thank me when you see it" that makes so many wrongs and so many rights in humanity.

[Narei Mooncatt]

Was digging through my CD collections and ran across something I hadn't listened to in a while. If you're wanting to rebel against political correctness, go look up some of Floyd Tolston's songs. Here's a sampling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqhN1CGRe4k

I don't know which is more odd. That my parents gave me a copy of his first album, or that Mr. Tolston was one of my Jr. Highschool principals. 

[Mooshi]

Ugh. Stumbled up a random thread on another forum and this only proves that if you support being PC, you are both a horrible person and a half wit of epic proportions.

This reminds me of when a girl who came to live in Tennessee
from South Africa and was very white filled out her ACT
papers as African-American and got into a lot of trouble. She
didn't know it was a term used for Black people. The entire
thing is stupid.

[Serra Belvoule]

Wow, seriously? I guess someone at that office must have had a nice laugh >>;