Is this forum just a place to vent and laugh?

[Jamie in Chile]

Actual bigotry ruining people's lives is more important in my opinion than people being criticized and wrongly accused of being a bigot because actual bigotry causes overall more suffering, especially in a global (world wide) sense. That is the main reason.

We should definitely strive to avoid the excessively PC comments that cause innocent people to be wrongly accused, and only very slightly guilty people to have their lives spoiled. This is a problem and is related to the liberal echo chamber, anti free speech concern that I am worried about.

But I also feel that in practice we can't remove bigotry without upsets along the way and that defeating bigotry will inevitably require some of these unfortunate wrong accusations. It's probably impractical to expect to be able to tackle bigotry comprehensively in a reasonable time without some such collateral damage, and therefore we likely have to accept it while trying to minimize it. When people strongly oppose "social justice warriors" without showing any support for efforts to combat bigotry, the effect may be to implicitly oppose the removal of bigotry by making it too hard to fight it (whether intended to do so or not).

I wonder if the people that complain about too much political correctness are sometimes just looking at it from their own personal standpoint rather than thinking about the whole of society including the most disadvantaged. If you happen to be, say a white male in a privileged position with a tendency to use social media, the overly zealous PC liberal is more of a concern to you personally but perhaps not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Katrina]

Actual bigotry ruining people's lives is more important in my opinion than people being criticized and wrongly accused of being a bigot because actual bigotry causes overall more suffering, especially in a global (world wide) sense. That is the main reason.

We should definitely strive to avoid the excessively PC comments that cause innocent people to be wrongly accused, and only very slightly guilty people to have their lives spoiled. This is a problem and is related to the liberal echo chamber, anti free speech concern that I am worried about.

I can see where you are coming from when I think of the MeToo movement. Some innocent men will likely get caught in the crossfire, which is really unfortunate, but that doesn't change the need for women to speak out about abuse. It looks like you're saying something similar about bigotry.

I wonder if the people that complain about too much political correctness are sometimes just looking at it from their own personal standpoint rather than thinking about the whole of society including the most disadvantaged. If you happen to be, say a white male in a privileged position with a tendency to use social media, the overly zealous PC liberal is more of a concern to you personally but perhaps not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

I understand what you're trying to say, but this comment comes across as you saying that people should stop complaining because their problems aren't as bad as others. I'm not a huge fan of that attitude. Maybe to you it's "not that big a deal" if a white man loses his job, or get ostracized from his community, due to false accusations. But I guarantee you that to that man (and his family), it IS a big deal. Yes, it could be worse, but I don't think it's fair for innocent people to suffer. One community's problem doesn't negate the individual's problem, IMO. But now we're getting into philosophy.

ETA: I know that you didn't literally say that it's no big deal for someone to lose their job or be ostracized. I just mean that overly zealous PC liberals COULD cause something like that to happen. To some people, they're a real threat. Someone I spoke to IRL said that it's almost like a witch hunt is happening right now.

 

[Andy_T]

I just mean that overly zealous PC liberals COULD cause something like that to happen. To some people, they're a real threat. Someone I spoke to IRL said that it's almost like a witch hunt is happening right now.

To be very honest, I can not really imagine a real life situation where somebody would lose their job or reputation because of “over zealous liberals”.

And, truth be told, when I hear about somebody complaining “It’s a real witch hunt out there”, then I have a certain picture in my mind, where they might be getting their inspiration from...

 

[beancounter]

And, truth be told, when I hear about somebody complaining “It’s a real witch hunt out there”, then I have a certain picture in my mind, where they might be getting their inspiration from...

Seriously? So if someone uses a terminology commonly used by another person who is not popular with a certain group, then that automatically invalidates what that someone said? Even if the terminology used by the two different people are used for completely different subjects...

Clearly context and intent don't matter. And that is a big problem with the PC movement.

Mindless and knee jerk word triggering...

 

[beancounter]

Actual bigotry ruining people's lives is more important in my opinion than people being criticized and wrongly accused of being a bigot because actual bigotry causes overall more suffering, especially in a global (world wide) sense. That is the main reason.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement:

It is better for 10 guilty men to go free than to wrongly convict an innocent man.

How would you feel if you were wrongly accused? Keep in mind that it's more than just being falsely accused. It's losing your livelihood, family, friends, reputation, it's carrying the scalet letter on your forehead wherever you go.

 

[Andy_T]

Seriously? So if someone uses a terminology commonly used by another person who is not popular with a certain group, then that automatically invalidates what that someone said?

I simply stated that I do have a certain association, you might think differently....

 

[Katrina]

To be very honest, I can not really imagine a real life situation where somebody would lose their job or reputation because of “over zealous liberals”.

You may be surprised at how little it takes to ruin someone's reputation.

And, truth be told, when I hear about somebody complaining “It’s a real witch hunt out there”, then I have a certain picture in my mind, where they might be getting their inspiration from...

Where is that?

 

[Jamie in Chile]

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement:

It is better for 10 guilty men to go free than to wrongly convict an innocent man.

Although it is commonly thought that such a statement is true, it's never been clear to me why. I have no opinion about whether it's true.