Real-world sensitivities and game names

[JimMorrison]

Damn, Badger beat me to it.

However Agema, I will ask, are you not familiar with George Carlin's rant about the PC phenomena? To illustrate, he relates how:

The term "Shellshock" had the connotation of "WAR IS FRICKIN HORRIFYING!"

.....which was then made politically correct over time, to the more sterile and inoffensive.....

"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder", which simply means, "in some situations human beings may be placed in very stressful situations which can lead to long term emotional disturbances".


This removes the impact intended, or accrued, by the original term. It also removed the connection that an outsider feels for the sufferer. Now other people can say "oh I know what PTSD is like, I fell off my bike in front of a truck once", not realizing that the original use referred to people who spent 3 days in a ditch, getting shot at, and biting their hand to keep from sleeping, for fear if their eyes closed someone would jump down there and slit their throat.


Human existence is quite gritty, and yet colorful and full of vivid experience. I don't give two shakes what the INTENT of the PC movement was, in your eyes. I only care what it does - it bleaches human experience, it sanitizes concepts, and it erodes free speech.

People have really lost sight of what freedom truly is. Instead of embracing their own ability to shape their immediate surroundings the way that they prefer (such as a public website like this having profanity or harassment rules, for example), people get all wound up and gather their influence and power to "democratically" impose their preferences on others.

You know what? I would rather have some measure of individuality under a benevolent dictator, than to have some sort of PC, democratic, right-wing conservative view of freedom limited "for my own good".

[MaxWilson]

JimMorrison said:
You know what? I would rather have some measure of individuality under a benevolent dictator, than to have some sort of PC, democratic, right-wing conservative view of freedom limited "for my own good".

Wow. "PC" and "right-wing" are not two terms I often see associated, let alone "conservative" and "for my own good." I guess all those conservatives in Congress had better get back to pushing their CAFE standards to force me to buy more efficient cars "for my own good" and mandating that I purchase health insurance "for my own good."

I feel like somebody just criticized Hitler for being a "namby pamby touchy-feelie type."

-Max

Edit: Well, maybe not quite so much. More like someone had criticized liberals for their laissez-faire approach to economics.

[Zeldor]

JimMorrison:

You meant left-wing, right? PC is the flag achievement of social-democrats. I don't think I have ever seen right-wing conservative politicians using it much.

[Tifone]

Yep, many rugged conservatives still are /proud/ to call homosexuals "f*gs"... no PC for them I guess. mmh.

[JimMorrison]

Oh my, people do pay attention to my rants.

Yes yes, I did mean left-wing in fact. I don't believe in any wings really, extremism is ALWAYS BAD. I guess it was a Freudian slip, as I do tend to rant about some people more than others. Mostly just because as mixed up as they may be, leftist extremists tend to believe there is something to fix, while the right claims everything is peaches and cream.


Can't we all just get along?

Oh oh, I've got a joke! Me, Elvis, JFK, and Hitler are in heaven playing poker.....

[Zeldor]

Yeah, Elvis is still alive!

[Agema]

Political correctness is about minimising language, ideas and policies offensive, prejudicial and stigmatising to people by race, gender, sexuality, culture, disability, and so on. And I mean minimise: it's not about bending over backwards to the demands of the unreasonable or censoring free speech.

The examples supplied are not political correctness. They are possibly good examples of what has been popularly and erroneously tied into political correctness.

* * *

Shellshock was coined in WWI by doctors who had no idea what the problem was. As psychology developed, they discovered PTSD, and that shellshock was a type of PTSD. Yes, there are differences in scale from being bombed to being hit by a truck. But a one-inch stab wound is a lot less serious than a 6-inch stab wound, and they're still both stab wounds.

Renaming shellshock is actually all about accurate scientific terminology in the field of psychology. In the same way the evocative term "consumption" has been superseded by the "tuberculosis" in medicine, or "baking soda" by "sodium hydrogen carbonate" in chemistry.

* * *

You've brought up business-speak or other jargon. For instance, a company "downsizes" meaning it's losing money and has to fire staff (bad). Then they make a euphemism to the euphemism and make "right-size".

This is really about obfuscation for propaganda purposes, which is as old as the hills. Such jargon can also be about seeming intelligent by using unusual words or phrases. It's got nothing to do with removing prejudice against people.

[Zeldor]

Agema:

Well, that is what it should be. Unfortunetely it got destroyed and twisted by some politicians and some groups [mostly minority rights fanatics] and became some abomination. Evading all difficult subjects and stagmatizing all people that are not 'politicaly correct' and thus denying them to voice their opinions. And that even goes for many obvious truth about european reality.

[Agema]

I don't understand what you are saying about Europe, can you explain?

PC is thoroughly trashed now, yes. But I think its core, mainstream belief of respect was a beneficial one, and so to attack it generally is to throw out a baby with the fanatic, fringe bathwater, when the two can be separated. After all, we don't call Christianity an abomination just because of Waco and witch-burning.

[Zeldor]

What country are you from?