Posted on 03/07/2004 6:00:25 AM PST by Clive
Stand well back, please, while I unleash a sentence I've been working on. Here it is:
That kooky nutcase tossed a fruitcake at the madman and was sent to a mental hospital suffering from a nervous breakdown.
There. According to the Nova Scotia government, I managed to break the laws of political correctness a total of six - six! - times in one sentence.
It wasn't easy. I had to work at it for oh, maybe 30 or 35 seconds to cram all those bad words in and it doesn't make a lot of sense. But see if you can guess which words I mean.
You can't? Then perhaps you'd better stay away from Nova Scotia. The provincial word police will be gunning for you.
The province's health department has joined with the Canadian Mental Health Association to create a list of words and phrases related to, if you'll excuse the expression, mental illness that it considers outdated, inappropriate or, heaven forbid, negative.
Among them: demented, madman, maniac, nutter, schizo, a nervous breakdown, cracked up, crazy lunatics, he went insane, lose their marbles, madness, lunatic asylum, mental hospital, nutcase, something wrong in the head, raving lunatics, a fruitcake, a psycho, kooky, you're off your head.
The idea, according to the health department, is to find out how often these words and phrases are used in the mass media, either written or said - and to discourage them. They've established a six-month-long contest, which kicked off last Monday, with total prize money of $4,000 for entrants who use the bad word checklist to scrutinize news stories for inappropriate language or negative stereotypes. Everyone who sends in examples will be entered in a draw.
Ironically, there's one slang word that isn't on the list - loony. Too hard to distinguish between Canadian $1 coins and loony behaviour, I guess.
This is all the brainchild of a health department committee called the anti-stigma/discrimination working group.
'Appropriate language'
"We are approaching this initiative with an open mind," said Carol Tooton, executive director of the CMHA's Nova Scotia division. "We are hoping to find that the print media is, indeed, treating mental illness and suicide with appropriate language and is respectful of the people who have these illnesses. If this is not the case, however, we need to act."
An open mind. Right. We'll try to remember that.
"We want to make sure mental health issues are addressed appropriately in the mass media, and we're asking people who deal with these issues to help us make that judgment," said Health Minister Angus MacIsaac. "This initiative will show us if and how media need more guidance and education."
Guidance? Education? Excuse me?
Have they lost their marbles? Or is there something wrong with their heads?
Readers are asked to judge headlines, words used to describe people with mental illness, whether stereotyping is prevalent in the piece, if suicide is "sensationalized" and if medical terms related to mental illness are used appropriately.
In other words, if I suggest the minister of health has taken leave of his senses for lending his department's credibility to this project, I may be in trouble.
If I say he can take his idea and go jump in a lake, I suppose I'll be faulted for suggesting he commit suicide. Fortunately, I'm not in Nova Scotia.
This is not the first time a weird idea has emerged in the East. Trouble is, the earlier ones have morphed into political correctness somewhere along the way.
The Halifax area, for instance, was one of the first where spraying weed killer on your lawn became politically incorrect. Then Halifax went after scented deodorant in public places. It might make someone, somewhere, sneeze, don't you know.
Whatever it is some of these folks have been smoking down east, they seem to have forgotten a few things. Like a little thing called freedom of speech.
Not government's place
Governments do not go around making up lists of banned words. They can try educating people about mental health. They can point out that sometimes using particular words is hard on certain people in our society. That's one thing. But they can't tell you to stop calling a schizophrenic, for instance, a schizophrenic.
Or to stop reporting suicides because they're unpleasant. In fact, the idea of "sensationalizing" suicide would not occur to most news editors.
In Canada, suicides are generally not reported unless there is a good reason, which there seldom is.
It's also unpleasant when the government encourages people to spy on each other and report on them. While this isn't in the same league, it still has nasty overtones that remind one of the old Soviet Union.
No, I'm afraid they've gone too far with this one. They must be crazy to think people will go along with them.
Probably not in Nova Scotia.
If Kerry gets elected, we can expect this kind of Lunacy tenfold, gay clubs in our schools, and mandatory public education, home schooling will be banned......It's their best way to brain wash our children. (Oh-Oh, I made a PC boo boo!)
Insanity isn't so bad, once you got used to it.
:)
I denounce thee for insensitivity to masons!
miserable failure miserable failure miserable failure miserable failure war criminal
I would say more a case of the cheese slid off his cracker.
o.k. you're crazy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.