If you are the member of a privileged group AND call yourself progressive

[wickerwoman]

274. It leads to social change in the sense that

you're less likely to piss other people off for no real gain to yourself. And it's the starting point of empathy which is the only way that diverse groups can eventually come and work together.

It's the very basic recognition that my right to a cheap laugh doesn't come before your right not to feel pain or disrespect.

Without that recognition, how can we possible work together on material or social change? Failure to recognize that hierarchy of rights tells me that someone has absolutely no respect for me as a person and therefore is not someone that I can trust or negotiate with (or even have a very meaningful conversation with).

And someone who complains about political correctness meaning they can't call people retards or bitches or the double standard of black and gay people being able to use slurs amongst each other while they can't (i.e. a white person who feels that not being able to call people niggers represents a tangible loss of quality of life for them), fundamentally aren't on the progressive side to begin with. I'm not so desperate to beat the GOP (who are doing a pretty damn good job of beating themselves by alienating minority groups) that I feel the need to compromise on issues of basic human respect.