by toprob » Sun Oct 28, 2018 10:12 am
Well, that's funny.
I'm always a bit confused by why people get riled up by 'political correctness', but then again I do get a bit confused by people in general. The guy in the video hit the nail on the head when he said that's it's almost as if cultural norms are not fixed -- is it so difficult to accept that changing cultural norms can mean that some things can exceed their use-by date in some respects? Like the Simpsons...
People are employed in the thousands to promote various ideas, and these days they have a direct route into our daily lives via online media. Oh my god, someone in the world is saying that Little House on the Prairie is racist! Let's just totally ignore the millions who love it, and are not saying that! I'd be very surprised if there isn't someone somewhere in the world who despises something we love and treasure from our childhood, the secret is that we don't need to listen to them.
The media (and here I'm talking about this bloke in particular) have their job to do, sifting through the trash pile that is social media, looking for things which may offend people. That's his job, to get you riled up. Whether you do react is entirely up to you, but it isn't required. Doing so means that you are buying into their agenda, and I also suspect that some people have a hobby finding stuff online which annoys/offends them...
I know that these days for some 'news' organisations social media = news, in the same way that reality TV = news -- both totally irrelevent to me, so I ignore them, although it can annoy me having to wade through this stuff to find the real news.
I do think there's a big need for evolving cultural values, and there's nothing wrong with suddenly realising that some of your attitudes could do with an adjustment. Sometimes when I read something in the 'news', I do a double-take, and take a quick look at my beliefs and values, and update them if necessary. Most of the time, not. It is more likely that I'll get a wake-up call regarding my beliefs talking to someone like my daughter, who makes me question everything:)
Rule of thumb -- if you come across something which warns that PC has gone mad, 99.9% of the time they are referring to one person's/organisation's suggestion or action, so if it doesn't match your belief, ignore it. It something does make you change your attitude somehow, all the better, that's how we become better people. But nobody can force you to change against your will, no matter how much they tweet. The fact that people accept this means that it will only get worse, if you get offended now by people's crazy ideas, you are feeding a beast which will grow until it takes over the media completely.