Are you scared of political correctness?

I must add, that of all friends who kept me laughing as well it was those who lived up to the appellation 'gay' in every sense. Without them life would still have been fun, but not quite as much.

Think, Tony, that you'll find the words "nigger", "poof" and "queer" have been reclaimed so as to make them useless as derogatory swear words....no use calling somebody, for effect,if they describe themselves by the same word, is it?

(just the viewpoint of an "old Fart"....see, you can't get me there, can you?)

Thank you Celeste :-)

I think some people on this forum forget that we are "technically" in France, so, except for the French people on this site, we are all foreigners, that is, until we become French citizens. We're not their mates in the local pub in the-Hobbit-town-that-time-forgot. Whatever they may think, the rest of us on this forum are not all white, anglo-saxon Brits. Some of the people on this forum discussion have me picturing guys strutting around in their pith helmets with their riding crops, ordering their "wogs" around and bemoaning the sun as it sets for the last time over the old Empire. ... If they want to perpetuate the myth, fine, go right ahead. They should just remember, they have a bigger audience than they think, and they're also funnier than they think they are, but not for reasons having anything to do with wit. They're a walking advertisement for why the concept of PC needed to come along.

Celeste, this is what I wrote in response to a fellow member's "Pahing" of my genuine attempt to help somebody. Permalink Reply by vic evans on December 1, 2012 at 19:47Delete

"Whatever!!!

Have you actualy read the information on positive ventilation or are you baseing your reply on something you say you did 30 years ago?

I have given an honest opinion & sadly have no wish to debate the subject further with somebody as angry & rude as you appear."

Not "raw" just my frustration at being rubbished by a exeedingly rude person when attempting give my professional opinion to a damsel in distress.

Yes you are right, it is a very open forum, hence my surprise at the "leg slap"

I did, of course, apologise to the administrator when my error was pointed out to me.

vic

Souf London council estate, in my childhood it was 150 flats out of which no more than about 30 families would have been English. There were a few other Scots around. By the time it grew to over 600 flats with Balham and Brixton overspilling it was as common to hear Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarat, Jamaican (including Rastafari), Irish Gaelic, Dirty Dublin, Glaswegian or Dundonian as it was to hear Souf London. Two thirds of the inhabitants were not white. Because most people were immigrants irrespective of colour, children went in and out of each other's homes and ate what was on offer - especially given my mother was probably the world's worst cook, so I preferred to eat out...

Did you take a photo of the sign on the window? What town? Just curious. I have a British friend who owns a cottage in Nottinghamshire and I'd love for her to go investigate this sordid affair.

No - they really use that expression in da rap man except "sometime it da nigga"!.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqIsc8ooXug

Drive through Greenford on the M4 and if you mistune the car radio I have heard violent anti English sentiment expressed on local pirate radio. What exactly has your comment got to do with architecture except some (inc the POW, Michael Gove and many others) like to feast on insulting my profession? Maybe you are one of those. Don't have a Thai bird mate, but I wouldn't have minded one 'cept I'm well sorted! Question is- are you?!

No dogs, how shocking! Our neighbourhood was largely Caribbean, Asian and Irish, I am pleased to say, the food was GREAT. When I got to almost entirely white Cambridge (the city meant) I suffered culture shock and I am deadly serious.

Go to the same street now and there is a good possibility that there will be no white anglo saxons there any more either. Whole areas of central London have been taken over by "foreigners" or off shore companies owned by the same and all the windows are dark for much of the year. You don't get the local tradesmen and shops. I have this from good friends who work there, or just a very few who live there. I used to live in Knightsbridge (Basil St) then Chelsea (Elm Park Gardens) and even in the 70's there was a drift out. In the local pubs "of an evening", and it was every evening, you knew everybody and it was a very different world.

Try replying to AI Poiteau-Charente at week-ends. I don't even bother contributing nowadays. They even delete threads that have been on the forum all week.

Celeste, some 18 months ago we had a shop open in a local town, on the window was clearly posted "No English" this is in the middle of Nottinghamshire - the shop sold Polish food. That sign I believe remained there for quite some time. Now if that had said No Polish, No Asians, No Blacks what do we think would have happened, the PC brigade would have had a field day.

Just thought I would pass comment

I think you are correct. I had my legs slapped for the content of my first post here & still don't really understand why having read numerous other posts since my debut. The allowable content is of course at the discretion of the administrator & moderators who have obviously been chosen for their sagacity & I have no problem with that. (It's a cr*p job but somebody has to do it!) Am I allowed to say that?

The upshot is that I am now probably overcarefull when I post here & it does somewhat inhibit my normal flow.

Never mind! I will still try to help if it,s within my sphere of knowledge, it'l just take me a bit longer.

Bruce you have referred to some easily identifiable groups that people of our generation recognise as the obvious examples probably most of us were brought up in a society where we had little known contact with such people. I think that definitions and prejudices have changed over the years and I have found that my sons' age group really hold far fewer prejudices than I did at their age. The world has become a much larger place and hopefully some of the gaps in our education have been exposed. At the same time over sensitiveness, or the over accommodation of the needs of minority groups often leads to other tensions. I have always tried to see the other person's point of view, but there many of us guilty of self interest. But please, please, can we agree that it's essential that a sense of humour is kept? Some of the best humour is self deprecating, whether it be Jewish, Irish, Welsh and now Indian and Black. I have yet to sample Malian humour. We can now say black when we always used to say coloured or, more controversially negro and I blieve it's common for blacks to call themselves niggers. As a public school educated, part Welsh, part Prussian Jewish peudo intellectual socially once nouveau riche now nouveau pauvre pro country sports architect married to a much younger Asian lady with a mixed race daughter I invite sundry insults to heap on those already made on me during my lifetime! I also love winding up others!

For a point of clarification I am happy to own up that as a pensioner with a wife 39 years younger than me and with out three and a half year daughter we seem to be precious close (at best/worst) to having performed one of your definitions of unbiological acts except clearly it was biological and indeed could contiue to be so. Some careful redefinition seems to be appropriate or are we siiners in your opinion? As a point of record our Church and community seems to have accepted our arrangement.

None? Quite a gamble, but you forgot gender, which is a huge aspect of political correctness.

Anyway this is irrelevant as we have never been talking about insulting or discriminating against minority groups, but rather the ridiculous lengths we now have to take to tailor our speech, writings, reporting etc, to avoid innocently "upsetting" a handful of zealots who are obsessed with looking for offence. Is there really a problem having a blackboard, or a manhole cover? As I said at the onset, the ethos of PC is fine, but I believe we have gone too far such that we now live in fear of reprisals for saying a non-PC word.

Geoff, the diametric opposite of PC is being full of irrational prejudices. Your 'unbiological sexual act' is whatever else, still a biological function therefore whether you like it or not, the words you are using are doggerel. Whilst different they have the same affect as avoidant PC doggerel. As for the AIDS issue, popular mythologies are as bad as PC, neither go straight to the point and very clumsily avoid facts.

Bruce, bad gamble really since you don't know any more than I do. Is it not as PC to throw those words into the arena to show that you are still aware of them being around? Kind of a 'my PC is better than your PC because I'll tell you the words I don't use'. It is, as John says, the sentiment rather than words that count.

If any other person like me, is annoyed by the direction that political correctness is taking may I respectfully suggest you join the campaign against political correctness.

Simply Google Capc.co.uk and then you can make your own decision.

Sorry, but I went on to clarify soon after my original post that I was basing my assertion on statistical available info for The UK. The point was how this matter is regularly reported, focussing disproportionately on the lesser prevalent causes.

Yes indeed I will Donna, an unbiological sexual act is performing a sexual act with either children, animals, persons of the same sex, deceased persons or those with a great disparity in age, ie people of pensionable age with minors.

Everyone has, and are perfectly entitled to, a different opinion and the world would be a sad place if we didn't and I respect that completely, however if someone is speaking untruthfully or derogratory behind someones back I will politely tell them so in no uncertain terms.