Genimuse,
Are you telling me I should stop blowing my nose on the grass!?!? All these years and I only find out about it now! I wish someone had told me before.
Dimandja,
Have you seen my signature in the last two months?
![[smile] [smile] [smile]](/data/assets/smilies/smile.gif)
Do you read a lot of sci-fi or fantasy? Shall we start a book discussion in Squaring The Circle?
Mr3Putt,
"Looking to take offense" is all too true. How unfortunate.
Everyone,
What do you think causes words like
black or
handicapped to shift from acceptable and neutral to unacceptable? Is it more because of people who use the word in a derogatory tone, or is it more because of people who choose to take offense at the word, making it available for the use of those who wish to offend?
My problem with political correctness is that it can conceal an agenda, as other people have said. It can be used as a cover to get some work done behind the scene, such as semantic infiltration (winning by getting someone to use your terminology which has favorable connotations for you, e.g.
pro-choice vs.
pro-life, where the argument is partly framed by the labels). Declare a phrase politically incorrect, campaign for a new one to replace it, and people might not notice what you've done to the topic in the meantime.
Consider someone who is blind. We could say:
Handicapped
Disabled
Person with a disability
Differently-abled
Unsighted
But what's wrong with any of those? Isn't there a measurable, concrete way in which the blind person cannot function? Are we supposed to pretend that the lack of sight doesn't exist? By using these words, are we reducing people to a list of abilities and stating that they couldn't possibly have other compensatory abilities such as improved hearing? I say, nothing, yes, no, and no.
To me, the plain fact is that the person
isn't exactly the same as everyone else, and while no one is, it is in a definable, meaningful way that it would sure be nice to have words to describe. I mean, wouldn't it be totally rude and discourteous, even cruel, for me to treat a blind person the same as everyone else? What if I get on his case for never driving us anywhere, to ask him to go see movies, to throw a basketball at him and expect him to catch it before it slams into his head? And gee, if I need to tell another friend about the disability so he knows how to behave politely, I'm going to say "he's blind." The fact is, there IS a difference. And taking notice of it isn't rude.
I want to avoid offensive terms as much as possible, but there sure seem to be a lot of them. Can't we just pick a term and stick with it... please?
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It is better to have honor than a good reputation.
(Reputation is what other people think about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.)