Originally posted by Arachnoidfreak
I'll use mentally disabled or challenged...just to be polite, telling a retard that he's a retard is just insulting.
This comment is a microcosm of the problems with this issue. The area of 'difference' can only ever be treated primarily as just that, as long as it is regarded as either end of a scale. It doesn't matter what you say as long as you still have the underlying bias- 'telling a retard that he's a retard'.
Originally posted by Darth Jello
Verbal defication is still defecation kidrock.
You learn fast. Only two intermediary words passed before you learned how to spell the word; sadly, you still left the original error.
Originally posted by Victor Von Doom
This comment is a microcosm of the problems with this issue. The area of 'difference' can only ever be treated primarily as just that, as long as it is regarded as either end of a scale. It doesn't matter what you say as long as you still have the underlying bias- 'telling a retard that he's a retard'.
HA! I was hoping someone would catch that! And I thought it would be you or AC. Very good.
You're right, that is the exact problem and as long that underlying sometimes-hard-to-spot bias attitude remains, being politically correct means nothing.
I'm glad you caught that. It's the thought pattern (sadly) of many..if not most Americans.
Anyway, I'm off to film class now.
Originally posted by KidRock
You have the wonderful Democrats and Liberals to thank for that. PC = downfall of america. Like I said Democrats hate freedom of speech.
Which is, of course, why it's Bush and his administration that's trying to take away our rights.
🙄
Anyway, people like the one in the first post are just taking PC waaaaaaay too far. And it's kind of ridiculous, I think.
Just to throw some more oil into the fire:
Her logic: By conditioning people to change their words, it forces them to think about the terms they use, and by extension, the way they view others. And only by becoming conscious of that will people really start to modify their underlying bias that causes them to use "inappropriate" terms in the first place.
Essentially - when you go home tonight, and you see a physically alternately enabled person, you're going to actually think about who they are simply by virtue of participating in this thread. The classic pink elephant syndrome.
Would she be correct?
It's better to treat them with the respect they deserve regarding their disability than to tip toe around it like they're some little kid.
They've accepted being crippled, why should we now use kid gloves? If they can get over it then I sure as hell am not going to let it bother me. Why should I pretend to not notice that they're crippled? It won't give them their legs back.
-AC
Originally posted by Alpha Centauri
It's better to treat them with the respect they deserve regarding their disability than to tip toe around it like they're some little kid.They've accepted being crippled, why should we now use kid gloves? If they can get over it then I sure as hell am not going to let it bother me. Why should I pretend to not notice that they're crippled? It won't give them their legs back.
-AC
She's not saying to pretend they're not handi-capable. She's saying to not treat them like they're some kind of pity case. That's fine, but I take issue with the notion that somehow changing a term accomplishes such a feat.
You can either say, "Get on the bus yourself, you cripple. I did." or you can say, "Aww, you poor little physically alternately enabled person. Let me help you".
Which is worse?
Originally posted by demigawd
She's not saying to pretend they're not handi-capable. She's saying to not treat them like they're some kind of pity case. That's fine, but I take issue with the notion that somehow changing a term accomplishes such a feat.You can either say, "Get on the bus yourself, you cripple. I did." or you can say, "Aww, you poor little physically alternately enabled person. Let me help you".
Which is worse?
Neither, both are as bad.
Making them feel singled out for your own "good" is still making them feel singled out. To imply that they warrant a change in OUR acts is to imply that they are these vastly different creatures, which is as bad.
-AC
Originally posted by Alpha Centauri
Neither, both are as bad.Making them feel singled out for your own "good" is still making them feel singled out. To imply that they warrant a change in OUR acts is to imply that they are these vastly different creatures, which is as bad.
-AC
And yet, by human nature, you ARE going to notice that they're different from most of the rest of us. Are you so enlightened that you genuinely wouldn't notice a disabled person trying to hobble their way up a flight of stairs? And if you do notice...what goes through your head?
I think it's clear that PC is counter-productive. The main annoying aspect is that the most vociferous are usually disinterested parties, who patronise certain groups by speaking for them, and compounding that by saying something idiotic.
The only outcomes are that the perpetrators look idiotic, and that there will be a reaction at the other end of the scale about 'PC gone mad', which usually descends into bigotry.
There should be no need to skirt around the issue clumsily, because it shouldn't really be an issue in the first place. Obviously in the case of the disabled, there is often the need for extra facilities such as ramps or other equipment. There's no need to treat that as anything other than a simple fact, and a requirement.
It brings to mind for me the Ricky Gervais joke about 'spastics', where he suggests that the word no longer has any effect because The Spastics Society changed its name to Scope, and the idea that people might just say 'Oi, Scopey' instead.
Originally posted by demigawd
And yet, by human nature, you ARE going to notice that they're different from most of the rest of us. Are you so enlightened that you genuinely wouldn't notice a disabled person trying to hobble their way up a flight of stairs? And if you do notice...what goes through your head?
That they are a disabled human. Big deal, it happens. I'd offer help of course if they looked like they were struggling, but if they insist they're ok then that's up to them. I'm not gonna stand and stare because it's nothing out of the ordinary to me.
Like someone with a hairstyle you don't see everyday. Just look, instinctively think "Oh, look" for about a millisecond and then continue about my day.
-AC