Howzit Goin', "Kids"? A PC Primer

Here I sit, too clever for my own good.

Last night's anger management meeting (countdown: 45 down, 7 to go) was centered around ME. Well it wasn't, but for a good 30 minutes it was me against the group. Now I'll weigh in here and you can tell me EXACTLY how wrong I am... but I won't listen to you, either.

This post is all about the grand bogeyman of the last 3 decades- PC. You know what I'm talkin' about...

Prime Chuck? Sorry, this ain't a blog about ANGUS management...

Penny Candy? Man, where have YOU been? Even BAZOOKA JOE costs a DIME these days!

Post Coital? Well, that's a topic for another blog... at $3.95 a minute.

 Okay, stop guessing.  I'm talking about POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. Like so many of our ill-conceived ideas, it was meant to be a positive step towards the end of the bad 'isms'-- you know, rac-ISM, sex-ISM, age-ISM-- but has taken on a life of its own with a growth that knows no upper limits. I fear it, I tell ya!

The story: After last week's meeting, I was collecting the largely uneaten plate of cookies I had brought to class (because I like to nibble in such situations, and because my grade school teachers imprinted me with the need to bring enough snack food for everybody, mocking me as they confiscated my tidbit). The room was empty except for me and the facilitators, and I saw them watching me casually as I cleaned up, so I threw a little small talk out. I said, "You girls (there are 1 male and 2 female facilitators in my group) must be watching your weight-- I notice you never help yourself to the snacks."

Oh, golly. Big mistake. 

There's one habit I have noticed among mental health professionals, and that is their tendency to analyze everything that is said and done. Perhaps it is their training, or their experience, but the end result is often the same... I begin to question my motives for everything I do or say. Another word for that, I think, is paranoia.

So you can imagine what happened next. Here are some comments, in random order:

I'm not a girl. (from the male)

'Girl' can be a belittling term... did you mean it that way?

Because I choose not to eat a cookie, does that automatically mean I'm on a diet?

Has it occurred to you that I may not like cookies... or have allergies?

Do you view us as children?

And the most pertinent comment to this blog: Let's make this incident a part of your time next week ('Time' being the occurrence when I speak to the group about what irks me).

Jeeeeeeeez! Small talk is some dangerous stuff!

The following week (that would be yesterday, for the timeline-challenged) each member performed the check-in routine, and when it came to me (OF COURSE) they couldn't wait to volunteer me for time. One facilitator asked, "Do you want to discuss the 'girl' incident of last week?" while the other corrected her and said, "more like the 'comment' incident!"

Political correctness pisses me off. Rather, the abuse of it pisses me off, so I thought I'd speak, if for no other reason than to air my grievances.

At this point you may think I am in the wrong. That's fine. Voicing my thoughts on paper always carries the risk of miscommunication-- you can't hear my tone of voice, nor see the expression on my face, or even see the 'tells' coming from my body language-- so I'll have to write that extra 999 words (since you can't see the 'picture'). Here's my take:

Political correctness is important to bring home the point about non-equal treatment of others.

So, no calling people religious or ethnic or racial slurs. If I were a Polish Jew, I would not appreciate being called a 'popkike'.

The line blurs when it comes to actions of a more general nature. Wanting to rename a decades-old sports team because the word has fallen into inappropriate status is, IMHO, a waste of resources and borders on hypersensitivity. Leave the Poughkeepsie Sambos alone.

I used to be young. I'm not old yet, but there are a lot of people younger than me. Plus, I happen to be a rather colloquial fellow. Also, I'm a dad of a teenager. Put those together and Viola! you end up with a guy who calls everybody 'kids', or 'boys and girls' or even, if the mood strikes me, 'whippersnapper'. However, I'm NOT the "You kids get the hell offa my lawn" kind of guy; more like the "You kids have a good time at prom tonight!" kind of guy.

Am I being politically incorrect if somebody finds offense in my comment? As I've mentioned before, I am not in control of how other people think, or define, or identify. The best I can hope to do is explain myself.

Even better: I can rebel against the unchecked use of political correctness. Hence, this post.

I'm calling for legal limits! I want the term Politically Correct to have a legal definition, and not just one of those namby-pamby definitions that only look at one side of a situation. No, I don't want to see it defined as 'the act of preventing insult' or something else so vague. It is a powerful weapon, no matter which side of the comment I'm on, and needs to be controlled.

I'm about to make a leap-- stay with me. 

Today's financial woes are a symptom of the same problem Political Correctness comes from. About 40 years ago, psychology (or psychiatry-- I forget which, forgive me. My knowledge of the details is sketchy) was on the rise and passed on the insight that children can be damaged for life by early emotional trauma. The result? 'Good' parents began spoiling their children to prevent any potential trauma, and were reinforced by psych talk even as their kids, convinced of their perfection, became megabrats who had to have what they wanted when they wanted it, at the expense of any morality, any ethics or anybody in their way. 

Flash forward to adulthood, and these now-leaders in society are making decisions based on their early impressions. Suddenly, 'the good of the nation' takes a back seat to 'the good of ME', and we all suffer as a result.

We all suffer as a result. Telling words. This PC revolution is causing everybody to suffer, in a subtle, seditious way. 

Over-editing is stifling creativity, stifling humor and stifling our future as a civilization.

HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD PC:

Telling a fat joke to a crowd- GOOD PC

Deriding a fat person in a crowd- BAD PC

Being comically racist to a longtime friend- GOOD PC

Being angrily racist to a stranger- BAD PC

Old person calling young person young and pretty- GOOD PC

Young person calling old person old and ugly- BAD PC

Play this game enough and a pattern emerges: Am I a mean asshole or am I simply being misunderstood?

Political Correctness shouldn't be about being sensitive to accepted minorities... it should be about being sensitive to INDIVIDUALS.

On a one-on-one basis!

Seems like another way of saying USE MY COMMON SENSE- when speaking AND when listening. 

Jeez... why didn't you SAY so? Using my common sense?

That's something this popkike knows how to do...