I sighed when I read the QOTW subject
Because I thought it would be filled with Littlejohn-esque inaccurate ranting propaganda and people generally getting outraged because OMG TEH MUZLIMS R TRYIN TO STEAL CHRISTMASS. I'm pleasantly surprised that there aren't as many as I was expecting. There are loads of good examples of cuntery, and some fucking good jokes :)

Yep, there are plenty of stupid, stupid, stupid decisions based on not wanting to offend people, but, there's a few points I would like to make to people that do actually shit on and on and on about how "PC" ruins their lives:

1. Don't get confused between Political Correctness, Stupidity and Bureaucracy. Sometimes a lot of decisions that people bang on about being "PC" are just stupid decisions made by a stupid clueless fucking cunt with no grasp on the real world. "Political Correctness Gone Mad" can too often be used as a lazy phrase to explain why someone's come up with a half-arsed idea or a piece of insane bureaucracy, without going into a proper reason why. Sometimes organisations just use the "PC" excuse because they're too fucking stingy to pay out for Christmas decorations.

2. THERE IS NO "PC BRIGADE". There is not an international organisation dedicated to eradicating anything ambiguous that may be construed as offensive by anyone.

3. Positive Discrimination based on gender, race or sexuality is illegal. See www.diversitytoolkit.org.uk/glossary/_P/ . If any organisation you know is employing people because they want to bump up their numbers of certain minorities, it's just as illegal as only employing straight white middle-aged males. If you know of anyone that does this - point them towards that web page and watch them shit themselves ;-). For some reason though - positive discrimination for Disabled people isn't actually illegal. Don't understand why this should be the case, but it is. You can have that one :-/

4. A significant amount of media coverage of "PC Gone Mad" is exaggerated and/or complete bollocks. A few years ago, someone was in the Manchester Evening News complaining how Manchester Council weren't allowing anyone to celebrate Christmas because It Might Offend Other Religions™. I go into Manchester City Centre, and what do I see, but massive official adverts for the "Manchester Christmas Markets" and a giant fucking banner on the front of the Town Hall reading "Manchester City Council wishes you a Merry Christmas". As for the aforementioned Mr Littlejohn - most of his ranting is based on complete exaggeration, hypothetical situations created in his hateful brain or just complete fabrication.

Like I said at the start of this stupidly long post - I'm not denying that "PC" behaviour exists, but it's a real bugbear of mine when cunts, bastards and fuckwits use a universal dislike of Political Correctness to justify their bigotry.

/off to laugh at Sickipedia now
( Mike Fishcake teamfishcake.co.uk - better than your mum's face, Fri 23 Nov 2007, 11:21, 12 replies)

Damn.
I was preparing to write a lengthy post on, largely, the same sort of theme. I might still do so - even though you've beaten me to a lot of the points I was going to make. Meh!
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 23 Nov 2007, 11:24, closed)

Do it anyway!
Go on!
( Mike Fishcake teamfishcake.co.uk - better than your mum's face, Fri 23 Nov 2007, 11:26, closed)

and
make it funnier.
(frankspencer, Fri 23 Nov 2007, 11:26, closed)

@ frankspencer
Sadly, I don't think it will be funny in the least. I'll try...

This could take a while.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 23 Nov 2007, 11:38, closed)

You sir
Are right on the money. Couldn't agree more. Just don't get me started on the Bloody Immigrants (tm).

Have a *click* for your troubles.
(MrC. Having the most boring username on b3ta since 2004, Fri 23 Nov 2007, 12:07, closed)

Beat me to it...
almost all the stories about 'PC' and rebranding are crap.

Apparentl;y Birmingham rebranded Christmas as 'Winterval'... not according to their website which is filled with christmas cheer

www.birmingham.gov.uk/GenerateContent?CONTENT_ITEM_ID=78983&CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE=0&MENU_ID=126
( Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Fri 23 Nov 2007, 12:17, closed)

Finally, some sense!
I was going to write something similar, but every time I started I just got too fricking angry at some of the small minded idiots that I couldn't do it. Thanks for spelling it out calmly and intelligently :)
(iivix, Fri 23 Nov 2007, 12:47, closed)

I agree wholeheartedly.

( KernKraft Gosh, there isn't much noise outside today, Fri 23 Nov 2007, 12:52, closed)

I'm OK with number 3, being a disabled straight white male.

( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Fri 23 Nov 2007, 13:14, closed)

I find some of the decisions that fall under the banner of 'political correctness' rather silly and unneccesary -
and am quite happy to moan about them. Clearly, then, I am a cunt, a bastard, a fuckwit, or a bigot - or a mixture of all four.

As I suspected the main thrust of your point was complete bollocks, I had a quick look around google - turns out there are several organisations devoted to fighting PCness. After having had a quick look through their case files, I concluded the following:

1) stupid decisions are made quite frequently - often to avoid offending people who generally would not have been offended anyhow.

2) the veracity of many of these claims is beyond reproch. The facts are there for anyone to dig into, and are not invalidated by the likes of Littlejohn banging on about whatever tired bollocks is currently driving the bandwagon.

2) Only a very small percentage of PC moans are directed at ethnic minorities - for the most part, they're directed towards idiotic middle-managers.


So, in conclusion -

fuck off. Having a low bullshit threshold does not automatically make one a bigot.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Fri 23 Nov 2007, 18:13, closed)

*cough*
This is a fucking good discussion, this :)

Hi Happy Phantom, cheers for your reply...

Your message confused the fuck out of me at first, because I actually agree with a lot of what you're saying! If you're a cunt/bastard/fuckwit/bigot for getting annoyed with some of those types of decisions, then... so am I :-P

What I was trying to do was complain about the completely mental paranoid hysteria that surrounds this subject that everyone gets so het up about.

OK, fair enough, there are organisations that exist to try and come up with PC ideas. However, the point I was making is that some people seem to think there's this one great big international illuminati-style organisation who have to be consulted by everyone everywhere every time that a decision is made OTHERWISE THEY WILL DIE. "PC Brigade"? Come on - how lazy is that? It's just a simple cover-all excuse/scapegoat for people that can't be arsed thinking.

Your point 1. Completely agree with you. Like I said in my original message: "there are plenty of stupid, stupid, stupid decisions based on not wanting to offend people". I didn't feel that I needed to go more into that because a shitload of people on the board had already made good points about clueless bastards making presumptions about various minorities being offended by daft things etc etc.

Your point 2. Yep, the facts are there for people to dig into, and I agree, plenty of them can't be denied because they're completely true, but there are stories out there that rate 11 on the bullshitometer, and unfortunately there are a shitload of people out there who are too stupid to think for themselves and are easily affected by Littlecock's kneejerk bandwagon extravaganza, whipping up a frenzy of indignation based on quite often debatable 'information'. I know him digging his grubby little talons into an argument doesn't automatically make it bollocks, but his doomsaying hyperbole does generate this almost obsessive panic amongst his easily-led readers.

Your point, erm, 3? Yep, I know. And again, I agree - most of the stupid decisions DO come from idiotic clueless managers. I never claimed otherwise. Like I said originally: "Sometimes a lot of decisions that people bang on about being "PC" are just stupid decisions made by a stupid clueless fucking cunt with no grasp on the real world."

My point 3, about positive discrimination; it's not my opinion, it's fact. It is illegal. It unfortunately does happen, but so do a lot of other illegal activities. I'm just correcting those people that think that "positive" discrimination is legal.

You: "Having a low bullshit threshold does not automatically make one a bigot.". Guess what? I agree - it's pretty much the opposite!

Do you honestly, hand on heart, believe that there are no people out there which take the whole "PC gone mad" obsession way too far?

I get the feeling we're just arguing over semantics here. I'm not one of those insufferable tools that insists everything is ok, and that all decisions made in every day life are black and white*. I know there are clueless decisions being made every day in the name of "Political Correctness", but they all detract from what I think "PC" should mean, which is basically "don't be a cunt to other people".

* racist
( Mike Fishcake teamfishcake.co.uk - better than your mum's face, Fri 23 Nov 2007, 21:14, closed)

Fairy nuff
I retract my 'fuck off'.

I merely wish to point out that my dislike of binmen being rebranded as 'consumer waste technicians'* does not automatically make me want to scream at those 'orrible Muslims for taking over my country**.

I dislike the pettiness of the whole thing - I firmly beleive in calling a spade*** a spade. But, for all that, I have yet to pen an indignant letter to the Daily hateMail.



*May not have occurred
**Definitely did not occur
***An actual spade. No racist connotations.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Sun 25 Nov 2007, 1:55, closed)