Political correctness, good or bad?

[OriginalGeek]

115. Personally

I can be respectful and courteous without necessarily being politically correct. I think we are talking about 2 different things here.


To me ( and I am perfectly willing to be educated if my notions are way off base) PC was created by right-wingers as code so they could talk about "those people" without offending anyone that might hear them. It has morphed into something else entirely.


I don't use the N word but not because I'm PC. Good gravy I am not PC. Just ask anyone who knows me in real life. I do not use the N word because I raised in a racist culture where it was OK to use the N word and every single instance of me ever hearing it, it was used is a vicious, hateful, hurtful word. I can't personally use it because I can't separate that usage from my upbringing HOWEVER I know plenty of people who use the word differently. I hear people use it among themselves and nobody is offended or disrespected because their experience with the word is completely different from mine and I cannot apply my experience to theirs in order to judge how they use a word.

As is so often said, it's a matter of context. I don't think there is an "anti-PC" backlash as much as there is an anti-"don't consider the context" backlash. Maybe folks need to get better at explaining their context but I would rather think folks are pushing against not getting context instead of pushing against being courteous and respectful. Maybe I'm just dreaming.