Latest comic on the ever-expanding meaning of the insult "PC"

#language #war #cartoon #comic #humanrights

@jensorensen To be honest, I’ve never got what’s so wrong with ‘political correctness’.

@bluebabbler @jensorensen I'm a bit young to have seen the full (d)evolution of the term "PC", but I just consider it another word for "polite".

Being considerate and understanding that careless statements may (adversely) impact ppl outside a present context is exactly what my parents taught me as being polite.

OTOH, the use of "woke" is plain racist. They turned the term into exactly what it's warned about: racism can come from unexpected angles that hits hard if one's not vigilant.

@P__X @bluebabbler @jensorensen

I thought "woke" was yet another version of "PC" — politeness. How does it become racist?

@PatternChaser @bluebabbler @jensorensen wikipedia:

"Woke is an adjective derived from African-American English used since the 1930s or earlier to refer to awareness of racial prejudice and discrimination, often in the construction stay woke."

Do I need to explain further?

@P__X @PatternChaser @bluebabbler @jensorensen

It's weird to see people like Hegseth expand woke to mean anything legal or moral.

Goodness itself is the sin, now.

@Phosphenes @PatternChaser @bluebabbler @jensorensen

ironically, woke is literally the opposite of stupid.

@P__X @bluebabbler @jensorensen

No, you don't. Thank you. 👍 😀

@P__X @bluebabbler @jensorensen A lot of what was branded as "PC" in the 90s amounted to using glorified terms for common things.

I knew someone who worked as a janitor, but he (in all seriousness) told me he was a "sanitation engineer." I'm reasonably certain he had no engineering degree.

So what was mild mockery of silly excesses has taken a dark and hateful turn over the past decade or so. Any remotely humanitarian belief or activity is now attacked as PC or woke.

@analogfusion @bluebabbler @jensorensen along those lines, politeness overdone yields a comical effect, but it doesn't make politeness a bad thing itself.

Humanitarianism is labeled "woke" because "it supports out-groups who deserve the adversities they are experiencing because they are inferior stock." At least that's the belief system around it per my observation.

@P__X @bluebabbler @jensorensen Everything I've read about the history and stated goals of the far right strongly suggests you're right.

They delight in hurting the out-groups in any way they can.

@analogfusion @bluebabbler @jensorensen yes and their fixation of isolationism is pretty quixotic in a hyperconnected world.
@bluebabbler @jensorensen and the funny thing is that today the "politically correct" thing in too many countries (with far right governments) is being a bigoted asshole.

@bluebabbler @jensorensen steelman: the idea is that people aren't being sincere, they're just saying whatever will get them acceptance in a society focused more on fake politeness than actually doing anything good for anyone. See also, "nice" vs kind vs actually advocating justice (a critique of the mainstream from the left instead of the right.)

strawman: politics is full of liars and frauds therefore it's better to be politically incorrect and offensive, since that's "real" 😎🤑

@bluebabbler @jensorensen what anti-PC anti-woke conservatives don't get is that a bunch of people saying things like "respect their pronouns" or "war is bad" aren't just saying things for status, they deeply believe it and have the receipts and theory to back up that belief (which is why their favorite thing is to find a blue-haired protestor who doesn't know why they're protesting; it gives them permission to keep dismissing it all as an act)

@bluebabbler @jensorensen Right wingers are stupid apes that lack the mental faculties to learn and process new words. What they really want is for all the mean old woke people to respect their deficiencies and treat them as fully functional adults regardless of how completely pathetic and childish they are.

To Republicans, their hatespeech and ignorance are far more important than even pretending to treat others with respect.

They're burned out bulbs that should be replaced.

@jensorensen even from the beginning, using “politically correct” as a negative just meant “I’m upset I can’t openly be racist.”

@jensorensen So basically, anyone who can't make an argument or a counter argument about the basic needs and rights of mankind has to resort to mockery of vague verbal name calling to make themselves feel good aka dismissing it all out of hand without any argument to stand on?  

Weird times! 

@jensorensen Having been left-adjacent before the 90s, back then we used it to describe someone who thought eating a pulled pork sandwich was the same as giving aid to Newt Gingrich. Then Poppy Bush used it in a 1991 speech and Bill Maher got his talk show, and it metastasized into a right wing cudgel.

@linuxandyarn @jensorensen

Came here to say exactly this. As early as the late 70s (in my personal experience--maybe earlier) PC was an exclusively lefty term for bossy and extreme wannabe political commissar types and then all of a sudden the YAF types took it up and the story told in the comic strip began.

@jensorensen

I was there & saw it first hand. The right didn't like women saying they didn't like guys they didn't even know calling them 'girl, honey, babe'. They didn't like Black men saying 'don't call me boy'. They didn't like gays saying 'don't call me fag'

So they consulted their marketing people & had George Bush the First call all the people who listened a nasty name

@jensorensen
I think PC has gone so far it'stime for it to do a 180. Bigotry and hate are now politically "correct"
@jensorensen Funny thing is, dog whistles by their very nature is "politically correct speech"; they won't say what they really mean because they know it's unpalatable, so they have to dress it up in a way that's recognizable to those who are in the know, but innocuous to someone coming in fresh.