George Carlin - Political Correctness is fascism

[wingsofwax]

I found this to be both true and entertaining.

George Carlin - Political Correctness is fascism pretending to be Manners.................. - YouTube

Fascism vs. fascism, LOL...

This is Liberty! [Shameless | Hitlers Mein Kampf] - YouTube

[qcrisp]

"allegedly well-intentioned people"

I'm a big fan of Carlin, but I don't think his examples really provide any cogent argument as to why political correctness is fascism. It's more an example of how society can be nonsensical and arbitrary in its use of language and moral standards. As society has always included imposed conformism and the bossing around of others, I don't see how it's anything worth singling PC in particular out for. It's not as if the religious right didn't try (and still try) to silence everybody who disagreed also. 1950s America wasn't a great time for free speech. Hell knows how I'd have survived with my 'far leftist' (by other people's designation) views without being shunned for being a commie.

I agree with some of his points, but political correctness is still superior to what came before it, and most anti-PC rhetoric still strikes me as hot air from those uncomfortable with change. For every one anti-PC person making a valid complaint about the silencing of debate by Tumblr lip service identifarians (who are very annoying), I see a hundred more white straight men annoyed they can't yell at gay people for being faggots without being called out on it by a more sensitive culture. I think the anti-PC movement will lose a lot of credibility if Trump is elected on such a platform and people see that despite the clumsiness of political correctness, it really is better than the previous status quo.

This is a rare example in which I somewhat disagree with Carlin. I also disagreed with his climate change denial views, which I think were wildly incorrect.

[miguel1984]

George Carlin: How language is used to mask truth and Israeli terrorism - YouTube

[njhorror]

lol

YouTube

YouTube

Required reading on the subject:

One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society, 2nd Edition: Herbert Marcuse, Douglas Kellner: 9780807014172: Amazon.com: Books

 

One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society, 2nd Edition: Herbert Marcuse, Douglas Kellner: 9780807014172: Amazon.com: Books

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

It's difficult to say how pervasive any of these trends really are. You have to take into account so many physical and online environments and our perceptions are easily distorted by loud minorities. I'm not on facebook so I don't see a lot of the biggest ####storms.

Some people can't get enough stories about dumb students and don't seem to suspect that they might be not so different from old-fashioned tabloid sensationalism about how awful young people are.

But there's so many crazy and increasingly extreme stories that it seems impossible to deny the "Regressive Left" are getting legitimately scary now.
They are also empowering the far right too, supplying them with conveniently loony boogeymen.

Sorry, but I think South Park has gotten really poor, I find it very predictable, repetitive and weak satire. I don't think they're playing to their strengths.

[gveranon]

It's striking how many of the hottest political disputes are focused more on symbolism than on substance. But recognizing this shouldn't cause those who care about literature or about any kind of discourse (including political discourse) to take the line that symbolism is "mere" and that therefore it's a minor matter when the aesthetics and logic of language are attacked and degraded for political purposes.

I distrust any writer who either supports political correctness or shrugs at it. If you opine that corrupting language with cant is somehow worth it for some political end, why would anyone expect your writing to be worth reading? Or if you just settle for having a fashionably lackadaisical attitude toward use of words, whenever that is expedient, why would anyone expect your writing to be worth reading?

[qcrisp]

I find the arguments for political correctness similar to the arguments for keeping narcotics illegal, especially in the following sense:

The way that advocates of political correctness assume that people who disagree with political correctness are racist, prejudiced, etc., is like assuming that anyone who thinks heroine should be legalised wants everyone to be addicted to heroine (whereas they might see the illegal status as exacerbating drug problems and causing other problems).

Here's another case where being against something doesn't mean what some might lazily assume it does:

https://medium.com/@MissLoreleiLee/d...e19#.l25l72wkk

Anyway, this issue is especially interminable, and I've already talked a lot about it on other threads, so... will leave it at that.