Political Correctness
My leukemia specialist in England, Dr. Terry Hamblin, wrote an amusing piece on being PC in his blog today. He finds it very offensive for people to say Sweet Jesus, and to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas.
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He noted very correctly that, “In general, it is good manners not to give offence unless you mean to and it is also good manners not to take offence unless a verbal slight was intended.”
LINK: http://mutated-unmuated.blogspot.com/2009/11/offensive-pc.html
I guess that what offends you does indeed say a lot about you.
I get terribly offended by people who worry more about their own greed and their taxes increasing than they do about people dying unnecessarily because they are excluded from the America health care system.
I also appreciate the conversational openness that the Australians show. In most bars in America, whether the patrons are men or women, you will hear the word “fuck” spoken frequently without anyone being the slightest bit offended. But this word and many others like it better not be uttered on broadcast TV. Of course it is perfectly OK to say those words on cable TV.
I find it very rude and offensive for people not to capitalize letters or punctuate correctly, especially if those people are trained school teachers. Others would say that I am merely being a grumpy old geezer.
When someone passes me driving an enormous pig SUV which gets 10 miles to the gallon on a good day, I am terribly offended by how much fossil fuel they are wasting and how they are contributing to global warming. Of course I conveniently manage to forget that for many years I loved high performance cars with big V8 engines and two 4-barrel carburetors.
I find global-warming-deniers to be as offensive as holocaust-deniers, and anyone who is critical of President Obama immediately fits into the same mental space as the Klan.
I also am outraged when people ring my doorbell wanting to talk about religion. What fanatical religious kooks! But I am not at all adverse to expressing my negative opinions about all organized religions.
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