It seems a lot of people object to it, but I see nothing wrong with trying to be politically correct. Communication is about sharing ideas and meaning. Words mean things and carry connotations. If I’m not trying to offend, then I’m not going to say something I know someone finds offensive because that conveys a message I didn’t intend. The meaning of words may change over time, but I can’t just decide a word means something it doesn’t or doesn’t mean something it does. When communicating effectively, how the audience perceives those words matters just as much as what those words mean to the speaker.
Unless you don’t care what others think. But if you don’t care, then why are you trying to communicate?
"Unless you don’t care what others think. But if you don’t care, then why are you trying to communicate?"
ReplyDeleteSuch a great line. Tough to argue with that logic.
I think the issue with political correctness is that sometimes it makes it harder to discuss issues. There are certain things that you can't say or even consider because they might stir up a negative emotional response from someone, even if the line of thinking might be entirely rational and not intended to be hurtful.
What is or isn't currently in vogue or acceptable shouldn't factor into the scientific process or into debate where the objective is getting at the truth. I also think that ideas--even ones that are outright false--shouldn't just be suppressed because "You can't say THAT!" Rather, they should be able to be combatted with rational arguments and stand or fall on their own merits.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, people's feelings are important, but they shouldn't trump everything else. Feelings can and do change, but truth doesn't.
I think I see what you mean, but I'm not sure. When people talk about political correctness, sometime I wonder if we're all talking about slightly different ideas. Here, I was mainly thinking about individual words, symbols, or concepts that people find offensive, but others want to use casually without consequence - when complaints of "political correctness" are used to dismiss the reality that someone is actually and legitimately offended or hurt. Ex: Jokes about rape are not politically incorrect just because someone doesn't have a sense of humor, but because they're hurtful and harmful.
DeleteYou're talking about the potential for discussion of potentially offensive ideas to be limited by political correctness? I can understand how that might potentially happen, but I'm not sure that it actually does. For example, you could say it's politically incorrect to say one race is more or less intelligent as a whole than another, and that could conceivable interfere with studying intelligence in human populations. But it's "politically incorrect" not for frivolous reasons, but because we have a long history of abusing, misrepresenting, and not taking into account all the variables. There's also no real reason, from a biology point of view, to think you would find a meaningful difference. So researchers and others who want to talk about it need to tread carefully and be aware of the harm those types of discussions HAVE caused and how people HAVE misused conclusions and concepts related to race and intelligence. If they can't do that, then you probably *should* stay away from that topic. At the same time, people *do* research and discuss human intelligence and the factors that influence it, so I don't think political correctness is stifling that. Of course, I'm no expert in fields that are controversial because of potential offensiveness, so I fully admit, there may be more to it than I'm aware of.