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.

[Purple2012]

I dont have to watch what i say on here or anywhere else as i would not use offensive terms/language etc. Its not difficult to be aware of what words/phrases etc are acceptable/unacceptable.

[Iaintdunnuffink]

Never found it a problem, being pleasant and not judging entire groups of people gets me by.

[FreudiansSlipper]

yes I too am fed up of people being over sensitive it's only words if they can't take it well really they should change their personality, not be unwell, hide whatever is wrong with them or wear a scarf/gloves to hide their colour

[Hissy]

YABU 'OP', and a flaming idiot to boot. Pop off to NetHuns or something.

[Lottashakingoinon]

You're being bloody ridiculous and I am going to pay you the huge compliment of assumning this is a wind-up.

Just in case it isn't....what happens when you and yours form part of someone else's 'tom, dick and harry'....because hey, I hate to have to have to break this to you, but you're not at the epicentre of things.


But...you're having a (not very funny) laugh, aren't you

[ImTooHecsyForYourParty]

What subjects do you not want to be 'politically correct' about? Can you give an example?

[EyePad]

OP could you give an example of what sort of things you mean, so that we can clarify what exactly you are trying to say.

Do you mean Police Officer instead of Policeman/woman

I remember suddenly the use of a 'blackboard' was outlawed, and I could never understand why it was so offensive. I had never thought of it as anything else but a board on the school wall which was black. I still don't see why that for instance cannot be used yet a pair of trousers in the same colour is fine to say.

Is that what you mean OP?

You need to actually state what you mean in your OP

[HollyBerryBush]

There are some things that make think 'just do eff off' with all this right on PC crap.

The gender thing for one, example up the thread of Police Officer rather than man or woman. Chair Person being another.

The way I have to reconfigure a whole sentence to say exactly the same thing, but with more words. But on forums, never IRL and only in some circumstances.

Eg I would not say - "The lady who is old and little fell over today"; IRL I would say 'The little old lady fell over' - and no one would correct that to the first version BUT put in other descriptors and everyone goes ape shit crazy eg "The black lady fell over", and everyone wants to know what colour has to do with it. Try it with children and bats are out of the belfry completely. I'm afraid if it's good enough for Ofsted to use phrases such as 'provision is made for disabled pupils' I'm going to take a leaf out of the Campaign for Plain English book and use it.

[EyePad]

oh, surely not a windup is this OP??

[DearPrudence]

No, funnily enough I'm not sick of it. What sort of person would be, I wonder?

[JourneyThroughLife]

Politeness and good manners make life pleasant for everyone and should be practised by all. However, there are instances of political correctness gone made which I assume the OP means? In which case I would agree if is means things like saying "Chairperson" instead of Chairman (even when the Chair is male). Or not being allowed to refer to a London taxi as a black cab??? Or, at work, we have had to change the job role title of Handyman to Handyperson (he's a bloke, he thinks it's daft...) This is PC gone mad, who is offended by these examples?

[JourneyThroughLife]

I mean "gone mad"

[HollyBerryBush]

And another one - 'brain storming' - I refuse to have 'thought showers' I really do.

[Lottashakingoinon]

Using handyperson etc only sounds 'mad' because it is relatively new whilst we get used to the notion that gender/skin colour etc is largely irrelevant.

I may not be here to see it but I'm guessing a few years down the line people will think it was nuts that gender used to be highlighted in this way and that the default was male

As a slightly irrelevant example, think of hopw it jars when you see clips of chat shows from the 60s when people were smoking. Yet it wqas thought of as perfectly normal then. Far far better if these things evolve naturally but sometimes the law has to give a bit of a nudge from behind!

[HollyBerryBush]

We do watch a lot of old comedies - and they are excruciatingly jaw droppingly bad with terminology.

I know the whole blackboard thing and baa baa black sheep were urban myths, but that is an example of how PC pottiness took hold.

[MrsMaryCooper]

It doesn't bother me. I like not offending people. It's nice

[LadyKinbote]

The people who've referred to blackboards and black cabs are joking, right? These are not actual examples of political correctness, just the kind of thing rascists come out with to discredit political correctness (happy to be proved wrong here...)

[LadyKinbote]

x-post with Holly

[Itsjustafleshwound]

There are no examples or any frame of reference other than a pretty open statement by the OP.

[RhinestoneCowgirl]

It's just politeness I think... But then I do come from a family of joyless Guardian-readers.

[Quak]

op - I think it's because of attitudes like yours that political correctness came about. Most people know it's wrong to say offensive things or act rudely. No-one wants to be a twat. For those that don't, political correctness can remind and guide you. I see political correctness as a sign that our civilization is maturing.

Lotta - I agree that because these terms are new they get the 'pc gone made' labels.

[seeker]

"Eg I would not say - "The lady who is old and little fell over today"; IRL I would say 'The little old lady fell over' - and no one would correct that to the first version BUT put in other descriptors and everyone goes ape shit crazy eg "The black lady fell over", and everyone wants to know what colour has to do with it"
Eh?

[MadBraLady]

Feel free to be rude and obnoxious instead, OP, and see how far it gets you.

[EauRouge]

"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."

Are you getting political correctness mixed up with politeness?

I really don't see what the big deal is about saying police officer/firefighter instead of policeman/fireman.

I think the whole blackboard thing came from people not understanding the point of political correctness. Or people deliberately misinterpreting the point of political correctness because they are pissed off that casual racism isn't socially acceptable any more.

[Trills]

YABU because you have not given us any examples so we can't telll what you are talking about

YA also probably BU because I haven't yet found someone complaining about "political correctness" who was not actually complaining about their right to be offensive.