When I see someone complain about being Politically Correct, I see a person who is too selfish to care enough about others to try not to offend them.

When did being the better person, practicing the golden rule, become almost extinct?

Golden Rule in case it is forgotten is treating others better than you treat yourself.

When I see the term "politically correct" I see a person who is too intimidated by others to speak their true mind.

I could care less who gets offended if what is being said is the truth.

The Golden Rule never applied to those who dont follow it.

I see a person that lacks manners and class.

Political Correctness - a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical
liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream
media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

Theres speaking your mind and there being a dick You can chose to make those hand in hand . or communicate with reasonable respect for others

Speaking ones mind can be done intelligently with class and decorum.

No need for insults to be effective when speaking ones mind.

Plus being considerate to those one speaks of shows human respect.

It makes the one speaking more deserving of respect themselves.

Lets talk specifics?

Is it true that some people think we should call blind people "visually challenged"? or is that just an urban legend?

I remember some people a decade ago insisting that 'black' was offensive - african-american was the 'correct' phrasing.


I don't think 'black' and 'white' are offensive, but i think its stupid. We are brown and pink, not black nor white. Its inaccurate and it exaggerates our differences.

I can agree to some extent.

My best friend is black, she calls herself black and prefers black. I believe she is brown and have told her so. She agrees but if you were to refer to her race she prefers black. She is not bothered by African American but she believes she is just American at that level.

I guess this would be individual but to attempt to not offend would be the way to go still.

Politically correct=intellectually stupid.

Some people approach PC as a set of defined rules that we all must follow - not flexible guidelines that might depend on the person and circumstance.

I'm curious what other examples of PC-ness people have in mind when they say they are for or against.

Actually...I've found it to be the quite the opposite.

Good point and i agree most all "PC" terms are bs . i think the intent of Bringin up Decorum wa to bring to light the disrespectful way most of us seem to be presenting our opinions tonight. (ive done it myself tonight) we should be able to express our opinions without being ***** i think

Like this for example sure most pc terms are pushed by oversensetive people who are usually uncomfortable about whoever it may be they are supposedly defending..

But to jump straight to = stupid ..
more makes you sound unintelligent and childish than proves your point in any way

the trouble with labels, the ones who scream political correctness are usually the ones who take criticism the worst,, go figure


honesty is great, but being 'a dick' is not,,,the beauty of english language is there are numerous ways to say the same thing, so why is the RUDEST way more acceptable than the kindest way? another sign of the times

I dislike the term politically correct. It is funny. Most people
would describe me - have described me - as being a good politician.
I am aware of how things will be taken and have a certain ability
to phrase things in a way which can be viewed as sensitive to others and even politically expedient.

But when I choose my friends - I do no not enjoy being around people
who are posers and I do not consider myself to be one. I will try to
make strong and effective arguments - persuasive and compelling
ones when I need to. I find it disgusting when people appear
to pander to a constituency with insincere PC hogwash...and that is
how I define "Politically Correct" - as saying something insincerely
to pander to one group or another...

I may have a twisted understanding of the terminology. I certainly
pride myself on being a kind and caring individual who is very
empathetic and charitable. And I am. So maybe I am already "Politically
Correct" but I wouldn't prefer to be described that way as it has
the taint of insincerity attached to it in my mind....

Political correctness has given incredible power and influence to special interest groups. Most of these groups do nothing more than monitor every word their "enemies" say in hopes of being able to use it and destroy them.

It's as if we have begun a transformation back towards tribalism.

One of our basic human needs it to be accepted by other humans. We tend to think that acceptance requires something beyond simply being human, so we find qualities of individuality that will make us unique among humans. First we segregate ourselves by culture and nationality. But even that is too broad a spectrum and individuality gets lost in such a huge social unit.

So we continue to break it down ever further, states, districts, counties and more. We are always looking for ways to establish our uniqueness, even identifying with “the winning team”. “We’re number 1”.

It’s through this process that we begin to self-label, “who am I?” But we also possess another human quality, we're social animals. That means we learn to identify others by grouping. So when we don’t know individuals we must still categorize them – it’s not only a protective mechanism, but it helps us pass information on about events and who participated.

This has led society to create labels through which we identify people we really don't know.

Since no one wants to be categorized under labels that are socially negative and because we still need the ability to identify those we don’t know, we often allow groups to determine their own labels so that describing people from a particular group is not offensive and means nothing negative or positive, it’s simply a description.

In the U.S. Little People have made it clear that midget is offensive to them, while some time ago the darker skinned people, mostly made up of African descent, decided that Black was the label best suited to them.

Since the Constitution of the US demands that we respect all people and that all people are represented in government, it’s only right that politicians NOT assign negative descriptions to any group, and so being POLITICALLY CORRECT, is a sign of respect.

Just because some politicians do not adhere to the ethics of being politically correct doesn’t mean that everyone should follow their example.

I agree with the OP, that labels have a ‘Politically Correct’ usage and assigning negative qualities to those labels does not give a proper or accurate view of an entire group of people. In fact negative labeling is a completely self-serving quality as individuals attempt to gain acceptance from a particular group, those who also assing negative qualities to the group so labeled.

But we tend to be lazy and allow our individual bias to rule, as I said it's a self-serving process. We can do better than that by remembering that humans ALL possess one essential quality which demands recognition and respect – they are human.