Political Irrectness In Lawrence DownesA Word Gone Wrong

In this article the research I collected explains the use of political correctness at a University. The purpose of political correctness is to avoid or take extreme measures to desist any action or expression that may exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against. It is clear that majority of the people in this article are not satisfied by the way issues were handled at the University. The author presented relevant information to answer the question; “Is political correctness an enemy of free speech?”. Some government officials that were brought into this situation, agreed with political correctness and what it means. While doing this research I learned that political correctness in not only this, but also is a tool used to control people's speech so that no one feels offended. I believe political correctness is barricade for anyone who wants a power of choice. Moreover, this article is useful for an analysis on limitations for societies in

Politically correct language has become huge movement in modern society. There are words that have gone through numerous changes such as “shellshock” going through many changes finally being to what it is known as today as “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” as best described the late George Carlin. Today there are large groups that urge political correctness to the masses in an attempt to end discrimination against gender, race, and sexuality. In “The Word Police” by Michiko Kakutani, the author writes about how political correct language is more focused on the words itself rather than the content behind. As progressive as it may seem, political correctness threatens a free society.

However, many groups claim that political correctness in society is justified in its efforts to sanitize offensive material created though years of oppressing minorities. What was originally a noble idea, to remove blatant words of offensive meaning, has turned into an “over the top” effort to rid any words of possible controversy. We are regulating our ways of plain speaking, freedom of choice, and freedom of speech. Laws of restrictions on slander and public decency should be decided on the common law methodology and not by the interests of the liberal “mob”. If plain speaking is not allowed, clear thinking is

In “On Being a Cripple,”  Nancy Mairs describes her life as a “cripple,” being treated different for her multiple sclerosis. She describes how society views her as handicapped or disabled both which are terms that the author dislikes.  Her viewpoint makes readers question their own beliefs on how the terms handicapped, disabled, or cripple influences a person to think differently about each term and its meaning. One of the reasons I chose this essay was because the author shows how different terms could affect the way society thinks about a person. Mairs believes that society often judge others based on their physical appearance and use the terms handicapped, disabled, or cripple to label. She argues that the outcome of this is creates an idea where being a cripple, or being disabled is considered a taboo where you're expected to be treated differently. Mairs claims that society i

The essay, “A Movie, a Word, and My Family’s Battle”, by Patricia E. Bauer former reporter for the Washington post, effectively argues that the use of the term retard has become desensitized within American society. Bauer maintains an overall strong individual bias, a unique voice, and a powerful family story that intends to fully capture the attention of the reader and invites them to view her perspective. By utilizing both a personal narrative and movie example Bauer primarily targets a supportive audience, by appealing to emotion.

Political correctness has become increasingly obvious in our daily lives. For example, the other day I attended the first meeting of the Frisbee Club here on the State University campus. During the meeting, we were discussing the fact we wanted shirts for this year, but we did not know what slogan to use.

Politically correct language follows a certain agenda, and Mairs discussed the impact of this. To begin with, the author discusses her use of non-PC language and the effect of PC language on society.  “people wince at the word ‘cripple,’ as they do not at ‘handicapped’ or ‘disabled.’ Perhaps I want them to wince.

Mairs usage of euphemisms is to help portray how today’s society uses sugar-coating words to make themselves feel comfortable. Society sugarcoats the truth of words to make it easier for themselves. As Mairs describes those words as “word vomit” because it describes all and yet describes none. The world has taken these words and morphed them to make the topics easier to speak about. Making these topics a meaningless conversation for all. “Handicapped” (Mairs) has been the term used for many ailments but does not describe one. No one recognizes the words as a fight, that many could be suffering through. Society doesn’t have to fight for these many people, and yet they still put it down under a category. People, along with countries, are being described by labels in the hope it would be less offensive. Through “I AM a Cripple” Nancy Mairs herself as a cripple, only to be called ‘verbal garbage’. She finds this offensive as people in today’s society have turned

While saying someone is handicapped might be the socially acceptable thing to do, Mairs argues that it makes no sense, saying that the definition of handicapped is someone deliberately put at a disadvantage, which she sees as absurd because no one has put her in her condition. Maris shows her tone of annoyance by calling words like “handicapped” and “differently abled” as “pure verbal garbage”. Maris hints to the reason of this improper usage of words to the want of making things seem less detrimental as they are. She lists examples of how people refer to countries as “under developing” but not “undeveloped” as a way for society to place hope into something that just isn’t there. Mairs relates this to her cause since her condition will never get better and therefore people should stop avoiding her issue and see her for who she really is. She openly challenges people to call her what she wants to be called, a “cripple”. Maris tells how she sees words such as handicapped as a “hint at the truth”. Mairs tells that society won’t be able to change easily, and she says crippledness will stay in the realm of socially uneasy words just like

Elaborating on Charles’ comment, political correctness is a troubling aspect of American society as is the tone of the current presidential race. Yet civil war, foreign attacks, economic turmoil, two presidential impeachments, a presidential resignation, military campaigns and political correctness has battered but not destroyed the nation. The key is the inward base found in the simplicity of a government created by the people and for the people, an outside

As the world around us has become increasingly politicized, between the rise, and election of Donald Trump and the shock of Brexit and many other events, it has become increasingly obvious that politics have become a much larger part of not only our daily lives, but the minds of the public. These various political issues have become extremely divisive, leading to separate echo-chambers existing and stifling debate and partisan politics. In the New York Magazine article by Andrew Sullivan entitled Is Intersectionality a Religion? he argues that one of these specific ideologies, Intersectionality, better known as Political Correctness, serves as almost a religion based on how they reacted to the controversy surrounding Dr. Charles Murray at Middlebury

Over the last decade, the U.S has seen a big shift in the use of bigotry and racism in everyday language. A keyword that has been focused on is the word retard and whether or not it should be banned because of malicious intent behind it. Articles have been discussing if certain words should be banned or not have been rampant. For example, Fairman's "The Case Against Banning the Word 'Retard'” argues while the word itself is not malicious, the people who use it are. The article covers several different points as to why the word retard is not malicious such as a new term will take its place, the right to free speech and problems can be caused by an over-eagerness to find fault in those who use the word.

After all, we hear about it on the news almost every night. We have to be

“Terms such as politically correct thus have a hidden history, uncovering which is dependent both on the accurate recollection of those who were there,” (Cameron, 1995,78).

This week’s discussion dealt with Individuals and Disabilities. Over the years, people who have a “disability" have been subjected to prejudice and more. And the first way to diminish someone is through language, by using words or labels to identify a person as "less-than," as "the others—not like us," and so forth. Once a person has been identified this way, it makes