Monday, February 4, 2013

On PC, Again

It's official.

After years of Internet Arguing, I've come to the conclusion that the phrase "that's a bunch of political correctness run amok [or awry]" is definitely one of the top 5 most intellectually-vapid responses to being told that one's statement is racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise problematic.

People who utter this one often think that people "cry sexism" (or any -ism) not because there's something genuinely problematic happening, but because we want to shut down thought and shut down conversation.

But, what the hell are we supposed to do with this "PC gone too far" accusation?

What does it even mean?

(I hate this over-used saying too,) but I really don't think political correctness means what people think it means.

Because I'll tell ya what it means. When I hear it, I automatically bristle, because it's become a stand-in for:
"I'm going to be a jerk and if you call me out for it, I'm going to pretend you're the problem for being oversensitive."
It's a complete failure to both listen to and to engage an argument. It's profoundly uncivil.

On all counts, it doesn't even try.

It's a refuge for people who are too lazy to form coherent, meaningful arguments as they smugly believe that the wrongness of the PC Gone Awry Crowd is so self-evident it doesn't even have to be addressed.

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