Posted on 06/16/2006 4:48:58 AM PDT by FerdieMurphy
Most Americans have been politically corrected and don't even know it, because it is beginning to feel so natural.
If you find yourself compromising your principles in order to get along with those with whom you don't agree, you, my friend have been infected with political correctness.
Political correctness is a politically correct word for cultural Marxism. Just how do you know if you have been affected? The simple test is that if you have been afraid of using the wrong word because someone might find it offensive or insensitive you have been infected.
If you want to say something that has roots in common sense and you find yourself playing a mind game like watching the slow volley of a badminton game and thinking should you say what you are thinking or not, you have been infected. If you hold your tongue for fear of being labeled a racist or a sexist, or homophobic you have been infected.
If you have pondered the fact that common sense is no longer common you know that the disease is out there, waiting to snatch another victim there may still be hope for you. Unlike most diseases, however, it is the elderly that are more able to withstand the effects of the disease. They have the antidote, but they must speak up and let the younger crowd know what freedom of speech and thought really means. Unfortunately, as America loses its aging population, the voice of common sense and freedom will vanish and immunity to political correctness will disappear also.
If your circle of friends has become smaller because you are offended at what some of them say, or afraid that one of them might say something offensive, you have probably been infected.
If you wonder why airport security does not 'profile' possible terrorist, but instead treats every American like a terrorists you are witnessing the effects of political correctness on a grand scale. If you choose to stand in line and be subjected to searches, you are infected. In fact, your willingness to stand inline only validates the disease.
If you wonder why government cannot enact simple common sense legislation like shutting down our borders and enforcing our immigration laws you are witnessing the disease on a national scale.
If you subscribe to the philosophy of hate crimes, you have been infected. You believe that your thoughts are no longer yours, but rather belong in the realm of group think.
If you believe corporations and capitalism are the scourges of society, congratulations because you truly believe in the end results of political correctness. You are now a supreme carrier of the disease designed to take down productive nations and deliver them to Third World status.
If you are wondering why the number of outspoken people has diminished over the past few decades it is because we have allowed the epidemic of political correctness to permeate our society. Also, take notice of how many rally around anyone that appears to have some degree of common sense and is not afraid to speak up and take action. Society is looking for leaders that with the courage to stand up and be counted.
We have allowed our children be exposed to the deadly disease in our schools without proper vaccination. Yes, it is a deadly disease. One good example is the new African country now called Zimbabwe. Not too long ago it was a thriving country called Rhodesia, until political correctness took over and not long after the killings began. But, I speak of history and political correctness cannot have any of that. It has been said that 'Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.' Political Correctness must abolish history in order to survive because it has been used to overthrow governments in the past.
Political correctness used to be cute and in some cases we treat it like a little puppy even today. How many times do we chuckle at a new way to describe people like vertically challenged? And let's not overlook the crippled, I mean handicapped, no wait physically challenged. Gosh, how do we know what word will offend someone. We need an official guide!
The best way to know if you are infected or exposed to Political Correctness is to filter what you here or read and ask yourself if it makes common sense. Believe me; you know what common sense is! If you struggle to justify how reset your common sense BS meter it may not be too late for you to overcome the disease. The only know cure for political correctness is fortitude and the ability to speak out. When you speak out you help other people realize that they are not alone. In fact, there may be hundreds of people in your neighborhood waiting for someone to speak up.
If you find yourself wanting to scream 'Start Making Sense' at the top of your lungs, there may be hope for you. However, if you do scream you may find yourself on an all expenses paid trip to the reeducation camp along with your very own set of prescriptions for some mind altering chemicals designed to provide you with the 'Everything is Fine' attitude.
Top ten responses to "You have a good one"
10. You're welcome to use it whenever you'd like
9. Wanna touch it?
8. It comes in assorted sizes
7. You should see it in the dark
6. Yours ain't bad either
5. Thanks for noticing.
4. It's a gift really....
3. I've won awards for it.
2. It's available for rent
and the number one reply to "You have a good one"
1. ...and it tastes like Chicken!
I got yer PC right here on my laptop!
Put simply... PC wordspeak provides a special vocabulary to describe 'victims'.
Self ping for later read.
Richard Wright began to feel a sense of pride in his ancestry, when he learned that the ancient Egyptians were African-American.
My Dad is in his eighties, he turned on the Democrats when they turned Progressive. He still likes Roosevelt, though.
Just today, the WP had a spread about Gov. Erlich (R) of MD having fired his representative to the Metro Transit Board over a statement he made.
It seems on a local TV political discussion roundtable he stated that homosexual behavior was sexual deviancy. One of DC representatives to the board who is openly gay resented the remark even though it was not even made in a board meeting or to the DC rep. He took umbrage. Gov. Erlich (R) fired his rep.
It is no longer a choice, you MUST conform.
OB
It creates entire classes of 'victims' and makes them verbally sacrosanct to stifle attempts to communicate or even discuss reality.
Please do not confuse it with being well-mannered or diplomatic which are verbal tools to permit discussion without being offensive.
If there is one thing that Conservative people are going to have to become aware of, it is that PC has been used to remove any debate from substantiative topics to focus on the delivery of the message when the substance is such that it is inconvenient to those framing the debate.
Ann Coulter has done a fine job of pointing this out just recently.
Political correctness is ultimately a tyranny of ideas which has nothing to do with being polite.
Ethnic slurs are a horse-of-a-different-color. ;)
It's impossible living in this toxic environment without being affected.
In discourse and debate, defining the terms dictates the outcome.
Personally I think political correctness is going to become an endangered species.
IMO, Cultural Marxism is the application of Gramsci's ideas to overthrow the bourgeoisie cultural 'hegemony'. From Wikipedia..
Hegemony
Hegemony was a concept previously used by Marxists such as Lenin to indicate the political leadership of the working-class in a democratic revolution, but developed by Gramsci into an acute analysis to explain why the 'inevitable' socialist revolution predicted by orthodox Marxism had not occurred by the early 20th century. Capitalism, it seemed, was even more entrenched than ever. Capitalism, Gramsci suggested, maintained control not just through violence and political and economic coercion, but also ideologically, through a hegemonic culture in which the values of the bourgeoisie became the 'common sense' values of all. Thus a consensus culture developed in which people in the working-class identified their own good with the good of the bourgeoisie, and helped to maintain the status quo rather than revolting.
The working-class needed to develop a culture of its own, which would overthrow the notion that bourgeois values represented 'natural' or 'normal' values for society, and would attract the oppressed and intellectual classes to the cause of the proletariat. Lenin held that culture was 'ancillary' to political objectives but for Gramsci it was fundamental to the attainment of power that cultural hegemony was first achieved. In Gramscis view, any class that wishes to dominate in modern conditions has to move beyond its own narrow economic-corporate interests, to exert intellectual and moral leadership, and to make alliances and compromises with a variety of forces. Gramsci calls this union of social forces an historic bloc, taking a term from Georges Sorel. This bloc forms the basis of consent to a certain social order, which produces and re-produces the hegemony of the dominant class through a nexus of institutions, social relations and ideas.
Gramsci stated that, in the West, bourgeois cultural values were tied to Christianity, and therefore much of his polemic against hegemonic culture is aimed at religious norms and values. He was impressed by the power Roman Catholicism had over men's minds and the care the Church had taken to prevent an excessive gap developing between the religion of the learned and that of the less educated. Gramsci believed that it was Marxism's task to marry the purely intellectual critique of religion found in Renaissance humanism to the elements of the Reformation that had appealed to the masses. For Gramsci, Marxism could supersede religion only if it met people's spiritual needs, and to do so people would have to recognise it as an expression of their own experience.
"You are going to love the HR guys."
OR as I like to call them -- INhuman Resources. The company my husband works for handed down two dictums:
1. Employees can no longer say "God Bless You" when someone sneezes. Might offend someone, doncha know.
2. When an employee returns from sick leave, other employees can no longer ask how they are feeling. This might make the returning employee feel that you are accusing them of not being up to the job!
Un-freakin'-believable! You can't make this stuff up, folks!
Yes, just so.
I remember when the Black Panthers were trying to bring black pride to inner city children in the late sixties. I worked in the inner city of Baltimore, and one day, stopped at a red light on my way home from work, a local boy about 12 years old, came over to my [rolled down, in those simpler days] car window and called me "honky." I laughed at his audacity, and he was stunned that my reaction would be laughter.
That word did not take hold as an "offensive" word, because we did not "feel" offended when someone used it. We recognized that the user was attempting to be hurtful, but that's all it was = an attempt.
I think so, too.
Broads?! Sheesh, do you *beg* the lightning to strike? :-)
Seriously, that a Hall of Fame post. *applause*
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