[vog]

This is so true.

That's why here in Germany we have a separate term for that: "barrierefrei", which means "free of barriers". It is the politically correct variant of the other popular word "behindertengerecht" which merely means "suitable for disabled people".

Many people here think that "barrierefrei" is just about political correctness for its own sake. But the term "barrierefrei" emphases a completely different way of thinking about this issue: It is about removing barriers for everyone, with disabled people being the most important target group, but by far not the only one.

[csours]

Empathy is a much better approach than political correctness, in my opinion.

Political correctness tends to shut down discussions, empathy extends them.

PC is prescriptive, empathy is descriptive.

[vog]

I see PC as a way to spread and to communicate empathy: Using words and phrases that don't paint a false picture of reality (and don't trigger prejudices) is IMHO a good start to get to talk with people more openly.

Of course, PC only works if you are doing it on your own, not if you impose it on the people you are trying to convince.

[ticviking]

The flaw in the politically correct approach is often that it fails to empathize with those who don't yet empathize. And often resorts to shaming when it is unable to create the empathy needed to create action.

[klodolph]

That's not really a criticism of political correctness, that's a criticism of one of the ways political correctness can be enforced.

But it's a bit weird to equate empathy for a condition beyond one's control with empathy for people who don't choose to use empathetic language.

I've been in a few classes or workshops where the instructors have taught people how to correct insensitive speech. It's something that can be done well.

[vog]

I hope I did so in my first comment (criticism are welcome in case I failed): I introduced the term "barrierefrei" and explained why I prefer that term over the other popular alternative.

[nugator]

Can you please give some examples on how to correct insensitive speech well?

[klodolph]

I did some web searches and found a document that has techniques in it that I've seen work well:

http://www.dianegoodman.com/documents/RespondingToBiasedOrOf...

Personal anecdote: I was playing a game in college with some other students. One was periodically bragging about some particular sexual exploit in a roundabout way. I think he was looking for validation, but when he didn't get it, he tried again. I said something along the lines of, "That comment isn't acceptable and if you keep saying things like that I'm not going to play with you." It was definitely confrontational, it drew a line in the sand, and I didn't hear him say inappropriate comments for the months that we played together.

Half the struggle here is just deciding that someone else's behavior isn't acceptable and that you want to do something about it.

[mcguire]

I am unsure if 'political correctness' was ever used non-ironically. It certainly hasn't been so for a very long time. Usually it is used as an attack.

Personally I translate it to 'good manners'.

[maxerickson]

Yes, it seems the most common use of "politically correct" is by people who are mad that others expect them to ponder how others might react to their words. The horror.

I suppose there is some chance that they are being slightly more sophisticated and making the argument that the expectations are strictly performative. But I doubt it.

[namelost]

The classic example of political correctness is the term "happy holidays" instead of "merry christmas".

The use of political correct terms makes people mad because it contains within it an implication that they are being rude, and often the person coming up with these euphemisms has not the faintest idea whether the existing term was offensive or not!

[mcguire]

"The classic example of political correctness is the term "happy holidays" instead of "merry christmas"."

That's probably true, given that "happy holidays" predates "political correctness" by more than a few decades.

[maxerickson]

Are there any real people that care about "Merry Christmas", or is "Happy Holidays" just milquetoast corporate speak chosen out of a preference for blandness?

[romwell]

If you live in a monoculture, I guess it doesn't matter.

But as an atheist of Jewish descent, what do I say to my co-workers, who are from Turkey, India, Korea and China? Of those who I know to follow a religion, none are Christian. It would feel outright silly to say "Merry Christmas".

(For comparison, try saying "Happy Hanukkah" to your non-Jewish friends as a non-Jewish person when the season comes, and see if it makes much sense to you).

[vog]

I guess my usage of PC is then to be interpreted double-ironically:

I know that the term "barrierefrei" is PC, and I know that quite a lot of people will hate it for that reason alone. I use it nevertheless, because I think that PC terminology is actually a good thing (to be used, not to be enforced), and that "barrierefrei" is an especially well-chosen term.

[s73ver_]

PC is empathy. It's having empathy for those in other situations.

[majormajor]

PC-ness tells you nothing about the idea itself, but solely things about how the person responding to it sees it.

The most "anti-PC" people in the US have their own jargon and codewords and "safe spaces" with all the same restrictions, just turned on their heads. For instance, there are very few places you could go where people would tell you to your face that black lives don't matter, but a much larger set of places where it wouldn't be "PC" to wear a Black Lives Matter shirt.

[okreallywtf]

Except when people lack empathy, they call it political correctness. My problem is I have not found a good way to teach empathy to someone who is lacking it, repeating someone elses story doesn't work and its hard to get other people sometimes to actively experience the same things that I have (even if its just listening to a story on the radio).

[Chris_Jay]

In children, reading fiction is supposed to be one thing that helps empathy.

There's also something called 'decompression therapy' that supposedly helped youths with psychopathy become less psychopathic.

The theory as I understand it goes like this: Everyone has a 'sphere of empathy', they empathize with those inside it but not outside. To a psychopath that boundary is their own skin, to a vegetarian it includes all animals, to a pescatarian all land animals... you get the idea. What makes people's sphere of empathy expand is feeling safe and empathized with, it allows them to risk the vulnerability of empathizing with someone who might betray them. But it's like voluntarily relaxing a muscle - the process is slow, and while the right pressure can help the problem point relax, too much pressure will make it tense up more.

[Nomentatus]

When I was young, a long time ago, the term "politically correct" wasn't in use, except as the recorded reason Stalin gave when he sent people to be executed or imprisoned, namely that they were "politically incorrect." So I'm dubious about equating PC and empathy.

[ticviking]

PC was created as a label to accuse the opposition of the same kind of intent.

[sverige]

My recollection is that the first instances where I saw the term "politically correct" widely used, it was unironic and self-applied, in singles ads. This was in Seattle in the late 80s.

[ticviking]

That is genuinely interesting, do you happen to have any links or archives to the phenomenon?

[vacri]

Seriously? The concept of treating people fairly is Stalinist?

[PeterisP]

The issue with PC-culture is that it goes way, way beyond treating people fairly - I've never seen the ironic usage of political correctness applied to situation where it just required people to simply be treated fairly, the term is used when there's something ridiculous done to protect the appearance of treating people fairly or to prevent the risk that someone might get offended because of some interpretation (which has nothing to do with treating them fairly).

e.g. ESPN pulling veteran announcer Robert Lee off a University of Virginia football game because his name is too close to Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general is an example of political correctness in action, and that has nothing to do with treating people fairly (certainly the announcer wasn't treated fairly in this through no fault of his own), but to prevent the risk that someone might get offended;

Censoring Huckleberry Finn (for having the n-word in it, despite being a great anti-racist novel of the time) done at some institutions was another example of political correctness - again, there's nothing in the act about treating people fairly, it's simply a fight against "taboo" words or thought, and that is pretty Stalinist in some aspects.

[TheCoelacanth]

> ESPN pulling veteran announcer Robert Lee off a University of Virginia football game because his name is too close to Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general is an example of political correctness in action, and that has nothing to do with treating people fairly (certainly the announcer wasn't treated fairly in this through no fault of his own), but to prevent the risk that someone might get offended;

Pretty sure that the announcer himself asked to be moved to another game.

[s73ver_]

Given the things that people complain about under the guise of complaining about "PC Culture", yes, to them it probably is.

[Chris_Jay]

There seem to be two different phenomena that are both called PC - they might be glibly described as preoccupied with victims and preoccupied with persecutors. If you're not a member of a group associated with victimhood, it's a good bet you've only ever interacted with the latter, but the former are actually motivated primarily by empathy.

[s73ver_]

I'm quite dubious about equating the modern sense of "politically correct" with that.

[Nomentatus]

The next time I heard it was in the early eighties in a Marxist commune, so I'm not.