🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4LJZoB4w164w@buscard.fidonet.org> murph@buscard.fidonet.org (Brian Murphy) writes:

> There was nothing wrong with what you said!  Do not allow others to
> define you.  You are what you are and there's nothing you can do
> about it.  That's a favorite line of the civil rights crowd and you
> have every right to it yourself.  The PC crowd is hypocritical,
> disingenuous, and not to be taken seriously except for the fear of
> your life they put you in.  The lot of them are no more than
> cultural terrorists.

I'm getting tired of this sort of remark about "the PC crowd". It's
true that there are quite a few people out there who are kind of smug
about being politically correct and seem to get some sort of pleasure
out of correcting others.

On the other hand, I've also met many people who are genuinely
bothered by the many kinds of oppression built into our society
(sexism, racism, etc.). When a perfectly well-intentioned person does
something oppressive (because of habit, upbringing, or whatever), and
I notice it, I'm often put in an uncomfortable position. I can point
it out and run the risk of being called a cultural terrorist, or I can
pretend I didn't notice it and feel like an accomplice. Lose/lose.

Maybe Ron Newman didn't mean anything by mentioning the "attractive
woman", but I support Jonathan Kamens in questioning whether there was
some implicit sexism in the remark. Sexism isn't an "activity that
evil people engage in". It's a pervasive, subtle element in our
society, and the only hope we have to improve things is to be
extremely vigilant.

Brian Murphy's argument above does a great disservice to those of us
who are trying to reduce oppression in society and in ourselves. Sure
there are some obnoxious civil rights people. Certainly there are some
PC jerks who haven't got a life so they go around ruining everyone
else's :-) But there are also some people who try to live without
oppressing others, and who feel compelled to speak out when they think
they see oppression. Why not give those people a break? We're all
oppressive in subtle ways. The least we could do is think about it a
while.

        Joe Morrison
(Sexist, racist, environmentally comatose but working on it...)

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