An Artificial World for Artificial People
STICKS AND STONES MAY BREAK YOUR BONES
What a miserable world we've created for ourselves. Nobody can say anything anymore without worrying that they will be excoriated for uttering something unacceptable to someone and the Skeptic thinks that is incredibly sad...and damn foolish. This is America, remember? First amendment, freedom of speech, that ring a bell with any of you in the political correctness crowd or do you think it only applies to what you might have to say? When the hell did we get so damned sensitive and does anyone honestly think it's helping anything? Is the world a kinder and gentler place today than it was fifty years ago? Hardly.
With everyone afraid to speak their minds how are we to know what people are really thinking, are they saying what they believe or are they saying what they believe we want to hear? It's really sad because the Skeptic would like to know what people are thinking, really thinking, but unfortunately you can never tell anymore because only the most insensitive morons among us are willing to voice any opinions that might not be acceptable to the political correctness crowd. Anyone with even a lick of good sense won't tell you what's on their mind if it's even slightly out of the so-called mainstream for fear they'll be made to pay a price for having the nerve to have an original thought. Even presidential candidates have to run what they are saying through some sort of filter before they dare to say anything, if they don't they're just asking for trouble. A good example is George Allen for daring to say that horrible word 'macaca', thank God we had MSNBC and Chris Matthews to inform us that by saying that horrible word Mr. Allen had clearly disqualified himself for the presidency. Whew, that was a close one because God only knows what kind of mischief a man like that could get into if he's willing to toss around words like macaca without thinking. The Skeptic was particularly grateful because he was totally unaware that the word was a racial slur, in fact, the Skeptic was unaware it was a word at all but once again, thank-you Chris, you saved the country from having to possibly endure a George Allen presidency and you taught the Skeptic something new. The Global Language Monitor, yes folks, it's a real outfit, even named macaca the most politically incorrect word of 2006, it's a good thing we have organizations like that on the case, hard to imagine how we could survive without them.
So what has all this political correctness gotten us? We've been at it for quite some time now, surely our society must have advanced from the days when we told jokes that poked fun at race, gender or national origin. Certainly now that we're no longer free to toss insensitive pejoratives at racial minorities all signs of racial unrest must be gone. During World War II we didn't know it was wrong to call our enemies Japs and Huns but we do now so surely things must be better now that we no longer allow that sort of thing. Right? In a world where a fifth grade boy gets kicked out of school for thinking a black reporter looked like Obama we must be perfectly civil, really, how good we are for not allowing that little brat to possibly think that all blacks look alike, pat yourselves on the back for that. Who the hell does that kid think he is anyway? Yes, maybe he just thought the two men looked alike but there's no sense taking any chances with anything as serious as that, really, who knows the problems a kid like that could cause if he didn't realize all blacks don't look alike.
You know what? The Skeptic isn't all that sure that this political correctness stuff is working out all that well. We celebrate it when the left is politically incorrect but the first amendment doesn't apply to everyone anymore.
Now before you jump to any conclusions about the message here the Skeptic wants everyone to take a breath, he does not want anyone to think he's all for telling jokes about how dumb the Polish people are, or how stupid blacks are, or how tight with a buck the Jews are because that is not the case. The message, just an aside here, normally the Skeptic wouldn't explain the message but with this crowd he doesn't want to take any chances, is very similar to something Ben Franklin said a long time ago, it's a familiar quote, people use it in one form or another all the time, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." And make no mistake, that's what this political correctness crowd is trying to do, they are trying to make the world a safe place for everyone, except for possibly people who speak their own mind, they don't want anyone to hear a discouraging word lest they get their feelings irreparably harmed. The Skeptic finds the very notion ridiculous and insulting to all of us in this world who have had to endure the pain of being called a name, no longer is that little ditty, sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me, applicable because apparently today names can hurt us, somewhere along the way we must have lost our ability to absorb a little pain in our lives. Now getting called a name is no fun, everyone knows that, those who throw insults at others should think about that but in the end, at least in the past, those of us who have had to put up with the occasional name or racial epitaph have managed to live through it just fine. Words can hurt but there is a limit to what society can do about these things and there's a limit to what they should do.
The theory behind all this nonsense is that if we stop people from using insulting language the world would be a better place and the Skeptic agrees with that, the world would be a better place if no one used language that was meant to hurt someone, unfortunately having a bunch of self appointed dipsticks, whoops, the Skeptic might have insulted someone there, sorry, tell all of us what we should and shouldn't say is not going to change a thing, in fact it might just make it worse, some people take offense at being told what to say. And, it just treats the symptoms, not the root cause of the problem, it angers some of us, some of us don't believe we need to be told what to say, some of us think it's this sort of nonsense that is ruining the country.
Liberals use the argument that by allowing people to use these certain words it tends to coarsen us and makes it more likely that the words will escalate to deeds. Well, if that is indeed the case, why is our society so damn coarse today after years of listening to these people? Why is popular music filled with lyrics that talk about raping women and killing cops? Why are most of the movies made today crap? Yes, the Skeptic said crap, even the good movies are mostly crap. Why is this culture obsessed with celebrity, think Kardashians, instead of working hard, think hard working scientist who might save your life someday? Why are kids taking out college loans to study courses that deal with things that will never help them to make a living? They're all upset about their loans and their lack of ability to get a job but they chose their courses, if they would have studied math and science they would most likely have a job but those courses are difficult. The Skeptic thinks this whole political correctness movement might have sprung from people who majored in crap while they were in school because rest assured it didn't get its start in a physics lab.
Look, as with most things this political correctness business began with the best of intentions, the Skeptic is sure of that, but it's gone horribly awry, there are always those people, who, for whatever reason, go too far. Bureaucracies are like that, people are like that, which is why we need to be ever watchful and try to keep these things in check. We look like fools and we are destroying ourselves, we're giving our children a false sense of what the world is really like, it doesn't do them any favors to go through childhood wearing blinders, blinders are for horses, they make it so the horse can't see things that might scare it. Trouble is, not seeing a problem doesn't make it disappear, it just makes you less likely to be prepared for it. This bunch wants the world to look like Disney World but it isn't remotely like that and it never will be, Disney is an artificial world filled with artificial people. It's a place we go to escape the world but there is no real escape from this world so we might as well deal with it, and the people in it, as they really are and not how we wished they were, it makes far more sense.
With everyone afraid to speak their minds how are we to know what people are really thinking, are they saying what they believe or are they saying what they believe we want to hear? It's really sad because the Skeptic would like to know what people are thinking, really thinking, but unfortunately you can never tell anymore because only the most insensitive morons among us are willing to voice any opinions that might not be acceptable to the political correctness crowd. Anyone with even a lick of good sense won't tell you what's on their mind if it's even slightly out of the so-called mainstream for fear they'll be made to pay a price for having the nerve to have an original thought. Even presidential candidates have to run what they are saying through some sort of filter before they dare to say anything, if they don't they're just asking for trouble. A good example is George Allen for daring to say that horrible word 'macaca', thank God we had MSNBC and Chris Matthews to inform us that by saying that horrible word Mr. Allen had clearly disqualified himself for the presidency. Whew, that was a close one because God only knows what kind of mischief a man like that could get into if he's willing to toss around words like macaca without thinking. The Skeptic was particularly grateful because he was totally unaware that the word was a racial slur, in fact, the Skeptic was unaware it was a word at all but once again, thank-you Chris, you saved the country from having to possibly endure a George Allen presidency and you taught the Skeptic something new. The Global Language Monitor, yes folks, it's a real outfit, even named macaca the most politically incorrect word of 2006, it's a good thing we have organizations like that on the case, hard to imagine how we could survive without them.
So what has all this political correctness gotten us? We've been at it for quite some time now, surely our society must have advanced from the days when we told jokes that poked fun at race, gender or national origin. Certainly now that we're no longer free to toss insensitive pejoratives at racial minorities all signs of racial unrest must be gone. During World War II we didn't know it was wrong to call our enemies Japs and Huns but we do now so surely things must be better now that we no longer allow that sort of thing. Right? In a world where a fifth grade boy gets kicked out of school for thinking a black reporter looked like Obama we must be perfectly civil, really, how good we are for not allowing that little brat to possibly think that all blacks look alike, pat yourselves on the back for that. Who the hell does that kid think he is anyway? Yes, maybe he just thought the two men looked alike but there's no sense taking any chances with anything as serious as that, really, who knows the problems a kid like that could cause if he didn't realize all blacks don't look alike.
You know what? The Skeptic isn't all that sure that this political correctness stuff is working out all that well. We celebrate it when the left is politically incorrect but the first amendment doesn't apply to everyone anymore.
Now before you jump to any conclusions about the message here the Skeptic wants everyone to take a breath, he does not want anyone to think he's all for telling jokes about how dumb the Polish people are, or how stupid blacks are, or how tight with a buck the Jews are because that is not the case. The message, just an aside here, normally the Skeptic wouldn't explain the message but with this crowd he doesn't want to take any chances, is very similar to something Ben Franklin said a long time ago, it's a familiar quote, people use it in one form or another all the time, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." And make no mistake, that's what this political correctness crowd is trying to do, they are trying to make the world a safe place for everyone, except for possibly people who speak their own mind, they don't want anyone to hear a discouraging word lest they get their feelings irreparably harmed. The Skeptic finds the very notion ridiculous and insulting to all of us in this world who have had to endure the pain of being called a name, no longer is that little ditty, sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me, applicable because apparently today names can hurt us, somewhere along the way we must have lost our ability to absorb a little pain in our lives. Now getting called a name is no fun, everyone knows that, those who throw insults at others should think about that but in the end, at least in the past, those of us who have had to put up with the occasional name or racial epitaph have managed to live through it just fine. Words can hurt but there is a limit to what society can do about these things and there's a limit to what they should do.
The theory behind all this nonsense is that if we stop people from using insulting language the world would be a better place and the Skeptic agrees with that, the world would be a better place if no one used language that was meant to hurt someone, unfortunately having a bunch of self appointed dipsticks, whoops, the Skeptic might have insulted someone there, sorry, tell all of us what we should and shouldn't say is not going to change a thing, in fact it might just make it worse, some people take offense at being told what to say. And, it just treats the symptoms, not the root cause of the problem, it angers some of us, some of us don't believe we need to be told what to say, some of us think it's this sort of nonsense that is ruining the country.
Liberals use the argument that by allowing people to use these certain words it tends to coarsen us and makes it more likely that the words will escalate to deeds. Well, if that is indeed the case, why is our society so damn coarse today after years of listening to these people? Why is popular music filled with lyrics that talk about raping women and killing cops? Why are most of the movies made today crap? Yes, the Skeptic said crap, even the good movies are mostly crap. Why is this culture obsessed with celebrity, think Kardashians, instead of working hard, think hard working scientist who might save your life someday? Why are kids taking out college loans to study courses that deal with things that will never help them to make a living? They're all upset about their loans and their lack of ability to get a job but they chose their courses, if they would have studied math and science they would most likely have a job but those courses are difficult. The Skeptic thinks this whole political correctness movement might have sprung from people who majored in crap while they were in school because rest assured it didn't get its start in a physics lab.
Look, as with most things this political correctness business began with the best of intentions, the Skeptic is sure of that, but it's gone horribly awry, there are always those people, who, for whatever reason, go too far. Bureaucracies are like that, people are like that, which is why we need to be ever watchful and try to keep these things in check. We look like fools and we are destroying ourselves, we're giving our children a false sense of what the world is really like, it doesn't do them any favors to go through childhood wearing blinders, blinders are for horses, they make it so the horse can't see things that might scare it. Trouble is, not seeing a problem doesn't make it disappear, it just makes you less likely to be prepared for it. This bunch wants the world to look like Disney World but it isn't remotely like that and it never will be, Disney is an artificial world filled with artificial people. It's a place we go to escape the world but there is no real escape from this world so we might as well deal with it, and the people in it, as they really are and not how we wished they were, it makes far more sense.