Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Sick of having to be Politically Correct over nearly everything

585 replies

SickofThisCountry · 04/04/2013 01:47

Dont want to cause some big debate but is anyone else on here getting sick to the back teeth of having to watch their p's and q's through fear of offending every tom, dick and harry.

OP posts:
seeker · 05/04/2013 09:29

As I said earlier -don't worry, I've done this before. You're in safe hands.....Grin

Theshriekingharpy · 05/04/2013 09:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MadBraLady · 05/04/2013 09:35

Yes, Carlin is conflating several different things. He's also, unless Britain is vastly different to America in this respect, lying quite a lot because I have lived in some of the UK's most painfully right-on places and I still say toilet paper, false teeth, medicine, information, dump, car crash, used car, room service and constipation. About the only one of his alleged neologisms I recognize is "mobile home", which I think is what it's always been called in Britain anyway.

It's unfortunate, because he definitely has a good point in respect of management speak - "human resources" sounds a lot easier to cut down (or "simplify/streamline/rationalize" etc) than "personnel", doesn't it. But he covers it in irrelevant shite.

In fact, what has really become clear to me on this thread is that a lot of the "PC gawn mad" crowd don't have a massively sophisticated grasp of language. This is why they conflate totally different phenomena, and also why they apparently can't see the difference between (for example) a "black boy tree" and a "blackbird".

Oddly enough, this lack of nuance is something they share with the occasional oddball who really does think "blackboard" or whatever is problematic.

gordyslovesheep · 05/04/2013 09:36

people with disabilities - people - who happen to have a disability - and many other attributes

disabled people - people who are disabled

one is positive the other labels and lessens the person

it's not hard to understand

Theshriekingharpy · 05/04/2013 09:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

noddyholder · 05/04/2013 09:38

DaFtpunk will be along in a minute judging by how this thread is going

BruthasTortoise · 05/04/2013 09:38

Though I'm not a fan of Carlon I've always understood that monologue to be a diatribe about Orwellian newspeak, not political correctness.

BruthasTortoise · 05/04/2013 09:39

*Carlin!(fat fingers!)

Lottashakingoinon · 05/04/2013 09:42

People with disabilities oh dear god... Could you be any more petty and sanctimonious?

Ok then Harpy, you carry on talking about 'the disabled' or 'disbled folk' and I will carry on being petty and sanctimonious though I agree my example was a clumsy one, I was just trying to point out the difference between recognising people as individuals with whole ranges of qualities/attributes and lumping them under one heading. But as I say, my example was not good. Back to the drawing board.

added 2+2 and decided, conveniently that it equals 6.

You had a go at my English earlier on and now you're taking a pop at my arithmetic. Wrong again. Countdown semi finalist (polishes teapot, shameless boasting)

MadBraLady · 05/04/2013 09:42

Well, that's me convinced of the merits of your argument, harpy.

MadBraLady · 05/04/2013 09:43

Countdown semi finalist (polishes teapot, shameless boasting)

Shock
Lottashakingoinon · 05/04/2013 09:43

*Politically correct = sanctimonious, holier than thou, smug, morally superior (often raging hypocrites not that they'll admit to it though)
*

You're not being very nice are you Harpy

BruthasTortoise · 05/04/2013 09:44

Harpy then in all honesty which group of people with disabilities would you class as "retards" or " handicaps"? Which specific disabilities would those terms apply to?

Theshriekingharpy · 05/04/2013 09:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 05/04/2013 09:45

It's always an erroneous hideous term.

Am I meant to say my DD is a retard but that's not the whole picture as she has autism too.

Err no.

How over sensitive of me.

seeker · 05/04/2013 09:45

Harpy- I notice that you haven't yet specifically said what you want to say that you feel you can't say because of political correctness.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 05/04/2013 09:46

I wouldn't dictate to someone what they should say.

I would just think they were an arsehole if they said certain things.

MadBraLady · 05/04/2013 09:50

Exactly! This is what the PC gawn mad crowd don't get. By and large, unless you're in a workplace with particular sensitivities or something, you will notice that The PC Wizards are not jumping out from behind trees and chloroforming you to prevent you from saying things. That is an extraordinarily paranoid belief for people who will generally claim to be all "common sense and down to earth" types.

It's just that if you say certain things some other people might think you were a bit of a knob - and say so. This is really a social market in action. Your call.

noddyholder · 05/04/2013 09:51

It is about everyone learning the acceptable terminology over the old insulting terms in order that society becomes more respectful ad inclusive. If it means being corrected afew times so what? We all have the capacity to change and learn who would object to that? It is not smug or hypocritical to want to make the world better for all but just common decency!

Theshriekingharpy · 05/04/2013 09:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 05/04/2013 09:52

Yes..feel free to go around using any terms you like Wink

Theshriekingharpy · 05/04/2013 09:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Sunnywithshowers · 05/04/2013 09:53

So Harpy, how would you describe my husband?

He has MS, i.e. a disability. He's also training to be a barrister, likes online role playing games, is obsessed with people parking badly and makes me laugh.

MadBraLady · 05/04/2013 09:53

I really should have said persist in saying certain things after being told it's a bit offensive. Not just make an honest mistake. I also, as someone said above, used to use "cretin" and only found out a few years ago what it meant and was Shock

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 05/04/2013 09:54

Yes..that word is an actual medical term these days and not pejorative.

Seriously.

Hmm