Political Correctness in Canada

[Bandage]

Cultural Appropriation, Bill C-16, white privilege, SJWs, etc. Have your say before this thread gets closed

[Acajack]

Canada is the political correctness capital of the world. (Like most things, this has both good and bad sides.)

Anglo-Canada in particular is extremely politically correct.

Lucky you, Bandage! (Assuming this gets on your nerves.)

[Bandage]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Canada is the political correctness capital of the world. (Like most things, this has both good and bad sides.)

Anglo-Canada in particular is extremely politically correct.

Lucky you, Bandage! (Assuming this gets on your nerves.)

It would get on my nerves if you felt like you weren't free to say it

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Bandage

It would get on my nerves if you felt like you weren't free to say it

Free to say what? That the society is very politically correct?

Sure, you can say that.

But there is a bunch of stuff that you can't say (at least not in polite company) as a result of that political correctness.

And as I alluded to earlier, in some cases it's actually a good thing that certain things people can say or think are looked down upon in public discourse.

[Acajack]

As an example of the positives...

In a few instances things have gone a bit too far, but overall I think it's a very good thing that political correctness has led to many derogatory and offensive names for certain groups of people to be fairly effectively banished from use.

[esquire]

I expected more dumping on elites in this quality thread.

[Mikemike]

^Kinda, but it's often just removing the words that we used when we were more racist, rather than actual racist words. Is Chinaman really any more racist than Irishman? Why is one OK and not the other? And frankly, why is it OK for some people to say to say n***** but not others? Shouldn't it just using it in a disparaging way be frowned upon, independent of the speaker?

PCness on identity issues are really annoying, inconsistent and frankly incompatible with truth.

[Mikemike]

On the other hand, "PC" suppression of trump-style "Locker Talk" is a good thing.

[MolsonExport]

People who hate political correctness don't understand it, or simply feel it is OK to be an Asshole.

[MolsonExport]

The opposite of political correctness is not unvarnished truth-telling. It is political expression that is careless toward the beliefs and attitudes different than one’s own. In its more extreme fashion, it is incivility, indecency or vulgarity. These are the true alternatives to political correctness.

http://time.com/4405217/trump-politi...ectness-obama/

[hipster duck]

Political correctness is an example of a "positive right" that has to be in place to protect people's "negative rights". That's not to say it shouldn't exist, for the reasons that Acajack mentioned, but the opportunity for its misuse is very easy.

[Elmira Guy]

There is much good that has come from political correctness. This is an example of the ridiculous side of political correctness. Not simply that some brainless twit was offended, but that the government would even take action against the man.

Too rude for the road — government yanks man's last name from licence plate

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/n...name-1.4037912

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

I expected more dumping on elites in this quality thread.

Elites (and their followers) deserve to be dumped on in the PC debate but not because they're perfect paragons of political correctness.

It's because the parameters of political correctness aren't applied equally, and even in today's uber-PC Canada there are groups against whom it is still socially acceptable to say hateful and discriminatory things: mentally challenged people, overweight people, hirsute people, people with certain disabilities (think of being cross-eyed) but not others, country music fans, rural folk, moms with stretch marks wearing bikinis, etc.

So many of the PC trendsetters are deserving of scorn because they're not doing it out of a higher form of human values. They've just picked and chose the types of people who bug them and the types of people who don't.

We're a far cry from the influence of benevolent, magnanimous "philosopher king" élites on this one...

[someone123]

I'm old enough to remember when it was much more socially acceptable to disparage anyone who didn't adhere to strict gender norms, including appearance, sexual orientation, and a whole bunch of other behaviours. I'm not sure what we lost in the transition to the current day, but we gained a lot in terms of social freedom (do you really want to live in a world where morons feel free to constantly police what you do to enforce gender conformity?), safety, and acceptance. Most of the remarks that have become taboo were misinformed; they weren't "truths" that have been covered up. And a lot of the shift happened due education that changed perceptions and brought them more in line with reality.

[khabibulin]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Elites (and their followers) deserve to be dumped on in the PC debate but not because they're perfect paragons of political correctness.

It's because the parameters of political correctness aren't applied equally, and even in today's uber-PC Canada there are groups against whom it is still socially acceptable to say hateful and discriminatory things: mentally challenged people, overweight people, hirsute people, people with certain disabilities (think of being cross-eyed) but not others, country music fans, rural folk, moms with stretch marks wearing bikinis, etc.

So many of the PC trendsetters are deserving of scorn because they're not doing it out of a higher form of human values. They've just picked and chose the types of people who bug them and the types of people who don't.

We're a far cry from the influence of benevolent, magnanimous "philosopher king" élites on this one...

And don't forget Nickleback and Nickleback fans being acceptable targets of scorn (according to some on this forum anyways)!

[p_xavier]

English Canada is. QC media is reporting how silly the discussions about Ze, or cultural appropration complains are in English Canada.