spurgistan wrote:The article never characterizes what "political correctness" is. It's a loaded term. If the article had said "should white people saying the N-word be protected speech" the numbers would be lower. If it had said "should transgendered people be allowed to go to the bathroom of their non-assigned gender, or better yet have non-gendered bathrooms available," the numbers would be better. What do you think PC is, besides a boogeyman of the right? (that was a real question, btw)
The article addresses the fact that the survey didn't provide a definition of the term. Different people define it differently, and rather than get wrapped up in hair-splitting exercises about what it is, the researchers want to have a general sense of how people feel about it.
A bogeyman of the Right? Not at all, at least, not if we understand "bogeyman" to mean something imaginary. The Right may smell an opportunity and exploit it to the fullest, but PC is a real phenomenon. People throwing tantrums because they feel you're using the wrong term to describe some group or other is a very real phenomenon. I saw it at least once a week in high school, and that was forty years ago. Things have gotten far, far worse since then.
Wild, out-of-proportion consequences for what are essentially social faux pas are a real phenomena. Should using the n-word be protected speech? No, of course not. But should someone lose their job and their livelihood because they did so? Most people would say no, that's a consequence wildly out-of-proportion to the crime. The fact that it happens with increasing regularity is seen by many as a gross over-reaction.
Predictably enough you bring up the issue of trannies and their bathroom breaks. This is a classic illustration of how liberals in America have lost ground. In my entire life, I've never met a person who lost a minute of sleep worrying about whether some tranny was unlawfully using his bathroom. And yet, watching Internet debates between left-trolls and right-trolls, you'd think it's an issue of life or death. The simple fact is, if they didn't feel a need to publicly parade and flaunt their sexuality, nobody would know or care.
For a brief time, your country achieved the perfect balance. "Don't Ask - Don't Tell." That is about as good as it gets. It's nobody's business where you stick your dick. In fact, it's nobody's business to ask if you even have a dick. It was the perfect compromise policy -- a philosophically-consistent liberal position that most conservatives could live with. But your extremist wing just couldn't leave it at that. They just had to demand not that other people would mind their own business, but that their sexuality should become everybody's business. Predictably, the overreach by your extremist wing has led to pushback by the opposite extremist wing, and everyone is worse off.
I hear it over and over and over again, from moderate liberals and moderate conservatives alike -- "Why do gays have to constantly have press conferences to announce their sexual behaviour? Do we take out newspaper ads to announce that we're hetero?" You can't just live and let live. You know people are uncomfortable with your lifestyle, but they wouldn't bother you if you didn't bother them. Yet you have to go out of your way to teabag them with announcements about your preferences. It's like the guys who drive 500 miles out of their way to find a Christian baker so they can sue him for not baking gay cakes. Why? You can't leave some poor homophobe stew in his own juices while minding his own business. You have to seek him out and create a confrontation.
I believe the survey results because they match up with my experience. I hear completely unsolicited comments about how things have gone haywire. The people I know are pretty evenly split. I know a great many conservatives and a great many liberals, and the comments I hear from both are very much the same.
spurgistan wrote:Also, pretty sure the left is pretty strong. If the system weren't irresponsibly weighted in favor of Republicans, and getting worse the more the Supreme Court is controlled by partisan Republicans, we would have a more progressive country.
Don't kid yourself. Yeah, the Republicans are really good at dirty tricks, and they do a lot of gerrymandering, yadda yadda yadda. If your support was solid none of that would matter. Your support is fragile.
I'm not saying this because I'm an enemy. I'm saying this because I'm a friend. There are millions of people in your country getting fucked over in ways that actually matter. You owe it to them to create a leftist party that is focused on issues that matter, and not on hysterical tantrums about things that most reasonable people think are a distraction at best, serious overreach at worst.
