Sick of having to be Politically Correct over nearly everything

[SickofThisCountry]

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.

Disabled people v people who are disabled.
Now...has any disabled person ever complained about being categorised under the former? Who decided it was non-pc? Does anybody know?

"Seeker I've answered all your questions.. "

TSH very nearly, but I think you might have missed where seeker asked for an example of something you wanted to say but couldn't because of PC?

Also, you might want to look into the difference between censure and censor. With your love of expressive language and all.

Have to day retreading Carlin that I disagree about "shell shock". To me "shell shock" implies a very short term reaction to living in a battle zone. Something that could be "cured" be removing the sufferer from the battle. Post traumatic stress disorder implies a condition that has lasting ramifications which is in fact the case. Would you agree, Harpy?

Dear Shrieking Harpy
This is DDs daughter. I am sixteen. I have an IQ of 152. My speech is more or less perfect, unless I'm tired. I do have some difficulty walking, in fact I regurlarly use a wheelchair. I also have Asperger Syndrome, which means I'm not always able to interpret the meaning behind something in real time. This does not make me a retard, it doesn't make me 'disabled folk'. To be honest, what it makes me is better than you, because despite my AS I'm willing to process, accept and comprehend that terms like retard are archaic and are no longer used in polite society. However, should you wish to continue to use it, or your older friends, kindly do so. I shall employ a couple of tactics to deal with this however, one, the 'onanist' tactic taught by my mother when I was about three, and two, your toes will really hurt when I 'accidently' run over them, something I'm prone to do when I have to deal with patronising cows like you.

I dunno about complaining simontowers1 but I do know my DSis always talks about her child who has autism, not her autistic child. So she would say "My daughter, X, who has autism" as opposed to "My autistic daughter, X."

"Tethers, I know the word retard is "archaic" and isnt generally used to describe delayed development in modern parlance hence the reason I don't use it. That said I don't necessarily have objections to its use or others using it (esp. in a non-pejorative context).. Particularly the older generation."

No, you're right. It's interesting that, generally speaking, words don't have massive significance unless you're directly impacted by them.

DD1 is 'retarded'. She's 7½ and can only read a handful of words, because she learns by sight recognition, so has to learn each and every word as a whole. She's 7½ and can't pronounce words so that other people can understand easily. She's using cued articulation to try and improve this. I could go on.

Would I take kindly to someone describing her as 'the retard over there' 'that girl who is retarded', regardless of who said it? No, of course not. I would challenge it, regardless of the person's age.

DD1 is so much more than her learning disability. She is able to win hearts like no other child I've met. She's everyone's best friend, she's oblivious to any hostility or awkwardness. She's empathetic and kind. She is a born bridge-builder.

DD1 is massively determined. Nothing stops her doing what she wants to do. She works harder than anyone I know to overcome her difficulties. Her self-esteem is huge.

"She came home a few weeks ago and said 'Mum, Mum, I drawed an 8. 8s are really tricky, and there are two ways. An easy way and a hard way. It's ok to try easy way if hard way is too hard, but I did hard way. Easy way is like a snowman. Two circles on top of other. Hard way is like an S but you close the gate."

I said 'wow DD1, you've been working so hard! I'm very proud of you.'

She replied "I know! I'm amazing, aren't I?'

She's 7½ and she thought she was amazing for being able to draw an 8. I did too.

You see, every time someone sees her as the 'retard', the 'backward girl' the 'one with SN', 'the disabled one', 'the slow one', it's like taking a teeny tiny corner of her. It's robbing her of her personality, the things that make her 'DD1'.

PC to ask that people don't call my DD a retard? I don't think so. I think I'm just asking them to see her not the part of her that doesn't work. It's not really her fault that it happens to be her brain that's damaged, is it?

Dawndonna's DD - I do wish you'd put a health warning up when you used 'onanist' - I happened to have google images up when I searched it. My eyes bled a bit Very useful post, thank you..

Dawndonna and lougle

I want a like button just for Dawndonna's Daughter's post.

Me too Fenton

And me but in the absence of one: I LIKE IT!

That's the point though, TSH- there is no censure. It's imagined.

Some posters are cross because they feel that they have to censure themselves- they don't. As you say, everyone is free to use whichever words they choose, no matter how archaic or offensive. If they are happy with the potential consequences of using those words, who's to stop them?

But they don't seem happy. I see some posters who don't want to be thought of as racist, disablist or sexist, and are angry that the words they want to use make people think that they are. What I don't understand, is why they choose the futility of railing at language instead of changing the words they use. The latter will stop people thinking they are racist etc.- the former will do the opposite. I do not undertand why they choose to do the former when the latteris far easier.

If people are aware of the offensive potential of the words they use, and continue to use them, they must accept that people are likely to think that they hold views which are racist, disablist, homophobic etc.

That is not censure.

It is like not smoking inside public places. It is progress and for the greater good. You may not like it but if you know the legislation is in place and you flout it there will be consequences.

*have to censor themselves

Bloody language

I agree with you Simon.

MadBraLady

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.

A masterly summary!

Re post-traumatic stress vs shell shock.. Can you (in your infinite knowledge) categorically state that pts has never been (erroneously) used to describe shell shock? Particularly by people like yourself with a preference for soft, diluted language..

And yet, in the days it was called shell shock, we shot sufferers. They were executed!

Something both you and George Carlin miss. When it was called "shell shock" the condition was not respected. Now it is called PTSD, it is the most respected it has ever been. Now it is a medical condition, with a medical name, and people take it more seriously than they ever have before. The treatment of traumatised army veterans is not perfect,; I am willing to admit that. But I think it may not be the best it's ever been since the first world war.

But PTSD is an umbrella term for a range of trauma reactions, isn't it? As far as I know, in the UK what George Carlin is talking about is called 'combat stress' now, which is fairly direct and pithy.

A lot of what people complain about under the heading 'PC' is very often ham-fisted corporate or public sector bureaucracy (and only rarely right-on-ness) trying to deal with actual or perceived issues for reasons that may have nothing to do with any desire not to offend or a simple desire to be considerate but stem from misunderstanding/cynicism/risk aversion/fear of litigation/incompetence/sheer lack of linguistic ability/obfuscation/simple balls-aching corporate bullshit or whatever.

People should remember that the group in question almost never get asked whether they actually agree with policies supposedly implemented to benefit or protect them.

Wow you really will stoop low. You are not exactly the brain of britain yourself

lougle: She's 7½ and she thought she was amazing for being able to draw an 8. I did too.

She is. I remember struggling with eights. I also remember valiantly resisting doing the proper way because "you know what it is when you see it, don't you? What's the point of the hard way?" It's one of my clearest memories.

I think she's more willing to attempt challenges than I was as a child!