Is our society too PC? This article says Seinfeld was racist, sexist, and homophobic at times... [View all]

[gobears10]

Last edited Fri Jul 24, 2015, 07:38 PM - Edit history (4)

In your view, has our society become too sensitive? Many comedians feel that today, we are addicted to the rush of being offended. Comedians ranging from Chris Rock to Amy Schumer have asserted that excessive political correctness is undermining free speech, expression, and liberties. It is a form of "social censorship" in which in an attempt to shield marginalized groups from harm, the PC police is being counter-productive, going too far and killing comedy in the process. We can help combat genuine sexism, racism, homophobia, etc. that comes from a place of hate, without being the word police, PC police, the anti-humor police.

Comedians lamenting free speech include Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Bill Maher, Jerry Seinfeld, John Cleese (of Monty Python), Russell Peters, Daniel Lawrence Whitney, Lisa Lampanelli, and various others. Comedians who have gotten in trouble for "politically incorrect statements" include Stephen Colbert (#CancelColbert), Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah, Joan Rivers, Seth MacFarlane. and others. In the past, we had liberal comedians like George Carlin and Bill Hicks critique excessive PC culture and oversensitivity.

I do think there is some truth to the notion that in some ways, our society is becoming too PC in some areas. I read this Salon article entitled, "10 'Seinfeld' episodes that are racist and sexist in retrospect." Here's a link: http://www.salon.com/2015/07/22/10_seinfeld_episodes_that_are_racist_and_sexist_in_retrospect_partner/

In my view, this article misses the point of the show entirely. Seinfeld was to make fun of self-absorbed, privileged people and horrify us at their shallow, uncaring attitude. It punched up, mocking their constant negativity, never portraying the main cast as the "good guys." This was done intentionally, so we could see how a bunch of clownish idiots live, and from this the comedy was derived. 99% of the people who watched this show understood this intuitively. But apparently, we still need to explain it explicitly to the PC police who don't how to have any fun.

This article completely reinforces Jerry Seinfeld's recent comments about how society has become excessively PC, with people saying "that's racist," "that's sexist" without knowing what these words mean. The author's piece epitomizes the sort of hyper-critical, overly-sensitive assessments shutting down a lot of thoughtful comedians, social critics, and commentators. To me, this article is the "boy who cries wolf" versions sexism and racism: the author is going out of their way to find racist and sexist subtexts in the show about which to be offended. The show is tounge-and-cheek, not at all meant to be taken seriously; therefore, going out of your way to take it seriously is ridiculous to me. In my view, instead of wasting our time on such trivial issues, let's be productive and fight actual, marginalizing instances of sexism and racism.

My fear is that if some people are too sensitive about minor issues, people who would otherwise be socially progressive are turned off and won't support efforts to overturn actual sexist and racist policies. Of course, political correctness isn't just a thing on the left: if you make a joke about Israel, plenty of right-wingers will automatically label you "anti-Semitic."