Is Political Correctness Leading To The Demise of Reason? DawnGurl: Kurt Vonnegut wrote: "Americans would achieve perfect equality by forcing persons of superior intelligence to wear mental handicap radios that emit unsettling noises every twenty seconds to keep them from taking unfair advantage of their brains, persons of superior strength or grace were to be burdened with weights, and those of uncommon beauty must wear masks." Is our obsession with giving everyone an equal chance levelling our ability to be rational? I cite the numerous examples in our Forums as evidence that the most preposterous notions gain credence and are accepted as being on par with grounded scientific data, simply because many people agree with these silly notions. Is this the result of our own misguided misuse of Political Correctness where everyone is held to be equally credible? Your opinions are welcome. (Edited by DawnGurl) (Post deleted by DawnGurl )  Aura:  It would still be noticeable.I bet if that really came to be people would all be on the look out for someone wearing a hat and mask and lead gloves......  Dennae: Political/Social correctness/convention will always fly in that face of Logic. Can anyone give me a logical reason for saying "Bless You' after someone sneezes? - A demon escaping perhaps, or an order dictate by Pope Gregory to stop the communicability of the plague. Totally illogical and yet we will continue to do it. Yeah I know, totally harmless example. But when is far enough too far? Gesundheit peoples.  rubysmom: The sneezing thing, never thought about it so much, but you're probably right Dennae - why? I have to say though I can't do "gesundheit" cuz back a long time ago, whenever I said it, my ex-husband would reply "comes out loose." Like a bad tune, I hear it every time somebody says it...  Moooseee: We the People! More kindness, more compassion, more warm heartedness, more Love. There are two things! Fear and Love and everything in between. Choose Love, they use Fear to keep us from loving one another! Dennae: Rayzya - Started that way when the Pope ordered you to say it. More socially correct now. Was an example how political correctness turns into social correctness/convention where nobody really knows the logic behind it or even IF there is any logic behind it.   ramzya1982: While I agree with the idea behind it, not sure this is a good example. Anyway, I hate political correctness... and usually hypocrites are the big supporters of political and social correctness Slaughterin: "Politically correct: agreeing with the idea that people should be careful to not use language or behave in a way that could offend a particular group of people" I think it restricts us. It prevents straightforward views from being debated or discussed. It suppresses thoughts and masks a person's opinion. I understand that on the opposing side, those who are for full political correctness, argue that it is used as an excuse to be rude. But if a person is allowed to speak straightforwardly/ tactlessly wouldn't it be easier to direct criticism towards their words and reveal their intentions or simply ignore. There are many persons who choose not to go through the formalities of being careful/nice or not to 'mash toes' or cause disruption because it is pointless, state what you are really thinking and get it out there. What should be encourage is how to ease/deal with conflict instead of avoiding it. To me 'taking offense' and 'opinions' don't merit anything further than being accepted as a personal thought/feeling. Another person shouldn't have to alter their acerbic/'to the point way' of speaking to appease anyone else but themselves. ps. I'm not advising anyone to go out and be rude for being rude sake, but to speak ones mind and to take things said with a grain of salt, slow to 'take offense'. (Edited by Slaughterin) Aura: Straight forward and tactless are not the same, nor is tactful the same as sugar coating. I am a strong believer that everything you have to say can be said without being rude. You still run the risk of offending people, you always do, but that's mostly because you are challenging a belief they hold and there is some research that suggest that changing a belief of a person will change a person's concept of self.(I can look for links tomorrow if anyone cares to read about that, but it's not all that relevant to political correctness.) The change of concept of self is often seen as a threat. The only real use for political correctness is when you wish for your ideas to be heard and given fair consideration by people who do not yet agree with your point of view. If you are too aggressive or rude in your speech to the point where you are going to put those people on the defensive, they will not hear your idea. Only your words. You will create an emotional response in them, namely 'I do not like you', which will limit a person ability to think rationally and objectively. The result is for them to double down and give your idea less consideration than they would have if you had spoken less aggressive and politely. If your goal is to rally those who already agree with you, speaking aggressively and rudely will also create a emotional response in those who already agree, namely 'I do like you'. This can then be used to encourage them to become more extreme and fanatic in their believes. As the name suggests political correctness is mostly used to engage in politics. And by observing the levels of political correctness in speeches of career politicians you can very easily see who the intended target audience is. Slaughterin: Tactlessness is to be overly blunt, the matter is addressed directly instead of being subtle. Perhaps that is the issue within politics, where speech is placed in a way to win the targeted audience and the focus is there, lacking everything else. If we aim to focus on words and ideas no matter how they are carried across (articulate, tactful or not) we will get a lot more from others. Controlling ones emotion and turn instead to focus on the message sent. A person can think rationally and objectively in that case. | Philosophy Chat Room 19 People Chatting Similar Conversations |
