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PC is About Respect
There’s an excellent article that’s spreading across the internet like wildfire. While the article primarily criticizes a recent South Park episode, it is also a call to “retire the PC police — not by legal edict but by ignoring people who whine about it.” It has perfectly articulated what so many of us have been trying to say for a while: the only thing that anti-PC people are concerned about is their ability to be insensitive without facing scrutiny. Despite contrary claims, anti-PC has little to do with free speech and more to do with being sheltered from it. They want to be inconsiderate without getting called out for it and asked to, y'know, be respectful.
It's not that the world is full of "social justice warriors." Anti-PC people are just thinking and behaving in a disrespectful and ignorant manner. Classic to the victim-blaming rhetoric often preached by far too many conservatives, anti-PC people flip the script and act as though they are the ones being persecuted. They’ll call it a “witch hunt” while blatantly ignoring the fact that witches are people too and still very hated by most of society. They act as though their "right" to enforce gender binaries trumps another person’s right to call you out for misgendering them and request that you call them by their preferred pronouns. Refusing to refer to someone by their pronouns of choice is on par with refusing to call someone by the name they wish to be called. It’s impolite and there’s no problem with letting somebody know so. There is a right way to respond to getting called out and there is an incorrect way. When I call people out for using the word “witch” as an insult, they usually don’t protest when I say something along the lines of, "Watch it! I’m an actual witch." These individuals might feel self-conscious for a second, but from thereon, 2 things can happen: they can either do their best to refrain from using "witch" as an insult or continue to use it out of habit and not care about the people they're insulting. They’re afraid of causing very real offense toward my very real spiritual practice. If they have any "anti-PC" ramblings on the matter, then they take them to a place where I'm not present. But that’s not always how it works out. What I've learned is that everyone (myself included) gets "policed" about being respectful with our words. It's all in how you handle it. When I started publishing material from Golden Zephyr (a Romani social justice blog), I learned about how the term “gypsy” is a derogatory term for Romanian people and the word “gyp” (to rip someone off) derives from it. So now, whenever I see someone appropriating Romani culture or using the G-word, I let them know that there are a lot of Romani people who do not appreciate such things. Sure, there are many who do feel comfortable with it, it’s not a non-Romani person’s place to make that decision. Romani people have faced a history of persecution (including genocide) for "being gypsies." When I educate people on the matter, I’ve experienced varying responses that make or break someone's respectfulness. Last night, one of my guyfriends let the G-word slip. Once I mentioned it, he sipped his beer nonchalantly and said without a hint of sarcasm, “Oh yeah, I know about this. It’s not ours to use. Sorry.” Someone had already told him about the G-word’s reality. Because he’s a decent person, he understands why it’s not a good word to use. Other times, people ignore me or act as though I was imposing upon their right to be ignorant. After I traveled a long way to visit one of my friends who lived with another friend of mine. I had known my friend’s roommate for a long time, so when she busted through the door without so much as a simple "hello," I was just as surprised as I was unsettled. She went on to describe one of her role-playing characters as a “gypsy” because of her stereotypic style of dress and how said character manipulated, lied, and ripped off people in the game. After I told her why it’s not cool to use that word, she didn’t care. No, I didn’t feel bad at all when I told her not to be surprised when someone thinks she’s an asshole for it. Boo-hoo. I hurt her feelings. Good luck trying to make me feel sorry about it. These people are concerned that freedom of speech is jeapordized by people being offended by racist/sexist jokes. Not to rely on a logical fallacy, but these people often show virtually no care toward actual infringements upon our first amendment rights. Not by journalists getting jailed and harassed by governments, not police brutality inflicted over “logical” reasons, but by people simply telling them to be more conscious with their wording and perception of our different realities. To “members” of the anti-PC police: try being more considerate and become more conscientious about the fact that other people exist besides you. You are far more guilty of punishing freedom of speech than "social justice warriors" are. And quite frankly, you don’t get to decide if someone thinks you’re an asshole or not. When you rally against political correctness, all you’re doing is defending your right to act like an asshole without getting called out or having to invest conscious effort into changing your ways. Political correctness is about respect. The only thing being “policed” is your crappy behavior. If you don’t like people responding unfavorably to the racist memes you post on Facebook, then don’t post them; the 1st amendment also applies to everyone else besides you. Don’t like how people react to your jokes told at an entire race's expense or your eugenic views on people with disabilities and transgender people? Then perhaps you should open up not only your mind, but your heart, and learn how to be more compassionate as you go about your everyday endeavors. tl;dr Political correctness is about being respectful. If you are too "anti-PC" for everyone, then you've got far worse things to worry about than "offending" someone. "Anti-PC is as offensive as the smell that arises from all mountains of bullshit. It's not that we're "too sensitive"; you're just not sensitive enough and don't want to catch flack for it. Anti-PC people, PLEASE stop reeking up the world for the rest of us by acting like assholes! #Real #GhiaVitale #AntiPCPolice #Racism #Sexism #Respect #PoliticalCorrectnessIsAboutRespect #SorryNotSorry #LolWut Visit our shop and subscribe. Sponsor us. Submit and become a contributor. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. CommentsComments are closed.
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