[Cin]

Originally Posted by Gráinne

I don't go around intentionally offending people, but I don't call myself PC, and here's why: It's offensive to me to be thought of as so thin-skinned that I can't take a non-PC word spoken in the context of a discussion, movie, or a song.

Well I don't think it's about you being offended by a non PC word. I think it's more about offending other people using words that are racist/ misogynist/ whatever ist/

How far do we go? Do we ban Huckleberry Finn ? It certainly has language offensive to African-Americans in it. How about the song "Brown Sugar"? The movie Blazing Saddles?

To me when it comes to art I think people can make up their own minds as to what they want to look at it/watch/read.

Every racial, ethnic, and religious group in the history of forever has had some kind of slur or epithet attached to it. If we're talking about racial tensions, "white" people can be Irish, German, French, Russian-all of whom have had stereotypes, jokes, and slurs attached to them.

I doubt anyone is advocating using any ethnic slurs of any kind. So everyone should be included when talking about not offending others by using thoughtless ethnic slurs or even purposeful offensive language.

Who gets to decide what's PC and therefore, acceptable and non-offending speech/movies/plays/literature? What if I don't fall into that group? That to me is as frightening a thought as the real-life Fahrenheit 451 of Nazi Germany.

As far as movies/plays/literature I don't think there is anyone advocating throwing out art or literature because it contains offensive language. It may earn a warning at the box office or something but I never heard of it not being shown or banned in boston or whatever. I'm not positive about this but to my knowledge no one but the religious right advocates such restrictions on art and literature. They would like to control what we can read/watch/see, but I don't think that has anything to do with being sensitive toward other groups.

When speaking individually about falling into a group that is offended by some language I think it's open to interpretation by the individual concerned or the group concerned. I don't think there is any organized group that does that. I doubt the PC Police actually exists (that's a joke, I know they don't exist).

I imagine anyone who wants to advocate for themselves can do so. For example someone with autism would prefer to be called "a person with autism" rather than "autistic" and someone with schizophrenia would prefer to called "a person with schizophrenia" rather than "a schizophrenic". I doubt someone not having autism or schizophrenia just decided that one day. I am sure people with autism or schizophrenia advocated for how they would like to be referred. So I don't see any worries about falling into a group that gets forgotten and falls through the cracks. Anyone/group can advocate against the language used to describe them.

What is the difference between the censorship of 1930's Germany and the risk that a professor can ruin his or her career by a ill-thought out word and the resultant uproar? I feel that stifles, rather than encourages, open and straight talk (A professor of communications at the University of Kansas has been suspended after a protest by students-not all of whom were in her class-after she used a slur in the context of talking about racial issues).

I read an article about that and I came away from it with a completely different take. I'll just post a link to the article and people who are interested can read it and decide for themselves.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/news...ing_nword.html

I personally think Donald Trump is an idiot, but he can say whatever he wants and I'll consider the source before choosing whether or not to be offended. He doesn't pull punches. Neither, for that matter, did Louis Farrakhan or Malcolm X, and both of them were equally controversial.

It's not the punch pulling I have a problem with, just because I advocate we treat each other with respect doesn't mean I wish to be bullshitted. But rudeness and political incorrectness does not mean truth. Just look at the bullshit Trump says and the lies he tells. Offensive does not equate truth.