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PC and the Crisis of Liberalism
http://www.cycad.com/cgi-bin/pinc/feb98/kalb-pc.html ^ | Jim Kalb

Posted on 11/23/2006 7:20:44 PM PST by ventanax5

Political correctness spreads, and once it arrives it stays; few like it, but no-one can do anything about it. In America most thought it was a hobbyhorse for a few cranks, while Europeans shrugged it off as an outlandish fad. We have all discovered our mistake. In America PC dominates our intellectual and cultural life, and Europeans find it creeping in everywhere. Worse, it is becoming legally compulsory, in Europe through laws against inciting hatred and in America through interpretations of civil rights law that create a right to freedom from a "hostile environment" and expose employers who do not insist on it to lawsuits.[1]

Such unlooked-for growth and staying power require an explanation. As we shall see, political correctness is no fluke but a very serious matter that follows from basic principles governing modern political life. It is the logical outcome of deeply-rooted egalitarian trends that over time have become ever more self-conscious and all-embracing. Moderating its demands will therefore be very difficult, and resolution of the issues it presents will require radical redirection of our political life.

(Excerpt) Read more at cycad.com ...


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1 posted on 11/23/2006 7:20:45 PM PST by ventanax5
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To: ventanax5

PC must die.


2 posted on 11/23/2006 7:24:49 PM PST by Doctor Raoul (Difference between the CIA and the Free Clinic is that the Free Clinic knows how to stop a leak.)
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To: ventanax5

If I remember correctly, Mao Tse Tung (Zedong) invented the term "Political Correctness" and introduced it in his tome, "The Thoughts of Chairman Mao", affectionately known by Communists worldwide as, "The Little Red Book".

Isn't it wonderful to know that our nation has been led down a trail blazed by the fanatical bloody tyrant Chairman Mao, rather than the path set before us by the likes of George Washington and the great statesmen and founders of our Republic?

.


3 posted on 11/23/2006 7:31:35 PM PST by Westbrook (Having more children does not divide your love, it multiplies it!)
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To: Westbrook

who do you think was smarter,

the 200 or so farmers that started the republic

or laywers we have in now


4 posted on 11/23/2006 7:33:25 PM PST by Flavius (Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: ventanax5

All political labels are now misnomers. Liberalism is just a word. We have outright marxist/socialists pitted against corporate mercantile globalists. So you can either have your kidney seized by the state or sell it to the lowest bidder. Take your pick.


5 posted on 11/23/2006 7:34:12 PM PST by SpaceBar
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To: ventanax5; Just another Joe; CSM; lockjaw02; Publius6961; elkfersupper; nopardons; metesky; ...

Nanny state Ping..........

The question: Did Nanny Statism create the PC juggernaut or did the PC mindset enable the Nanny State?



(Want on or off the Nanny State list - you know the drill)


6 posted on 11/23/2006 7:38:00 PM PST by Gabz (If we weren't crazy, we'd just all go insane.)
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To: ventanax5
There should be no speech for which you can be arrested. That will draw a clear line.

I was appalled last night by the "victims" of the Kramer guy's racist rant demanding his arrest and monetary reperations.
7 posted on 11/23/2006 7:38:23 PM PST by TeenagedConservative
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To: SpaceBar
So you can either have your kidney seized by the state or sell it to the lowest bidder.

You might want to rethink that one...

8 posted on 11/23/2006 7:40:49 PM PST by Doctor Raoul (Difference between the CIA and the Free Clinic is that the Free Clinic knows how to stop a leak.)
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To: Doctor Raoul

I considered it after reading it, but you get the point. Them tryptophans.


9 posted on 11/23/2006 7:42:46 PM PST by SpaceBar
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To: Flavius

Somehow farmers does not fit.


10 posted on 11/23/2006 7:45:19 PM PST by Melas (Offending stupid people since 1963)
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To: ventanax5

PC is a child of self-serving, manipulative mass media because it focuses on noisy individuals and small groups with dramatic issues that can be framed in a TV shot or catchy sound bite - supposedly meant to horrify us at the injustice of it all. The majority common sense view will always lose out to these minority whiners because they're in our faces every day on the tube.


11 posted on 11/23/2006 7:45:52 PM PST by generalhammond
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To: Doctor Raoul

Don't worry. Radical Islam will kill it. Along with all other aspects of western civilization.


12 posted on 11/23/2006 7:48:55 PM PST by Hank All-American (Free Men, Free Minds, Free Markets baby!)
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To: Doctor Raoul

Which is why Michael Savage himself is seen both an asset and a liability. He speaks the truth but with almost pornographic accuracy. That's why he's hated on FR. An equal opportunity critic is no one's friend. He's conservative, make no bones about it, but someone's got to say it.


13 posted on 11/23/2006 7:50:59 PM PST by SpaceBar
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To: Doctor Raoul
PC must die.

... or we will.

14 posted on 11/23/2006 7:58:39 PM PST by Gritty (Multiculturalism was conceived by elites not to celebrate all cultures but to deny their own-M Steyn)
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Hmmm, the only way to get the Hollywood/Media leftards to like and support you is to blow up innocent people and talk about going to heaven for it (and NOT be JudeoChristian).

Sounds like a good premise for some Reality TV.

Too bad as soon as it is THEM who are the targets their
call for blood, retribution and obliteration would make the Nazis look like pansies.


How do we get the terrorists to attack those they revile the most here and break those libtards out of their self-endangering delusion???
15 posted on 11/23/2006 8:03:38 PM PST by wodinoneeye
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To: ventanax5
Steyn on multiculturalism (PC by another name):

There's always been a market for self-loathing in free societies: after all, the most effectively anti-western idea of all was itself an invention of the West, cooked up by Karl Marx while sitting in the Reading Room of the British Library. The obvious defect in communism is that it's decrepit and joyless and therefore of limited appeal. Fascism, likewise, had many takers in those parts of the cultural West that were politically deficient--i.e., continental Europe--but it had minimal support in the heart of the political West--i.e., the English-speaking world. So the counter-tribalists came up with something subtler and suppler than communism and fascism--the slipperiest ism of all. The great strength of "multiculturalism" is not that it's an argument against the West but that it short-circuits the possibility of argument. If there's no difference between English Common Law and native healing circles and Tamil Tiger fundraisers and gay marriage and sharia, then what's to discuss? Even to want to debate the merits is to find oneself on the wrong side--for, if the core belief of multiculturalism is that there's nothing to discuss and everything's equally nice and fluffy, then to favour honest argument puts you, by definition, on the extremist side.

16 posted on 11/23/2006 8:05:22 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: ventanax5
The Origins of Political Correctness, By Bill Lind.
17 posted on 11/23/2006 8:08:36 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Hank All-American
Don't worry. Radical Islam will kill it. Along with all other aspects of western civilization.
Yup. Radical Islam --- enabled and empowered by the useful PC idiots in the west --- will kill the west, and kill PC.
18 posted on 11/23/2006 8:29:26 PM PST by samtheman (The Democrats are the DhimmiGods of the New Religion of PC)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Good post!


19 posted on 11/23/2006 9:02:37 PM PST by Frank_2001
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To: ventanax5
Welcome to the club.

This piece is worth a bookmark and indeed using my trusty canon copier. I have seen both in England and Canada the refined cruelty of political correctness. To save hesitant judges inward soul searching, a cunning method is used.

They simply put a person through the court system. It has the power to deprive that person of liberty. Knowing that something may yet touch off the complacent masses, they have the Prosecution then drop the charges. This after lengthly hearings. "Be warned", they say, "this time you were lucky". The person is likely financially hurt and emotionally shaken.

In America it is the First Amendment To The Constitution, that still stands. If it does not, we are all damned. There is one more card to play. That card is the card of absolute humour. Already in England, one can be charged with "ridicule".

I will add my little riposte to the Politically Correct Ninnies. Herewith and quoting roughly, Henry Miller. The Rosy Crucificion. Nexus Two.

Hoseanna. Peace be with you and on you. Peace be upon you. And may ye bugger and slaughter each other to kingdom come. To which I say. Amen.

If ever anyone can start America laughing at the Politically Correct, they are done for.

20 posted on 11/23/2006 9:29:26 PM PST by Peter Libra
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