Clarification on How PC is Ruining Our Country

Agreed .. for example, when a culture appears to value the "wrong things," we need to point this out -- LOUDLY. Here's the sticking point -- not everyone agrees on what the "wrong things" are, and - to be fair - MOST cultural preferences/differences are neither right not wrong.

Indeed, I suspect that the history of the extreme version of PC began as a reaction to people seeing "different" things in other cultures and proclaiming them to be "wrong" things simply because they are different. THAT is racism (or culturalism or whatever). BUT, (and I think this is your point, Daniel) this doesn't mean that we can't judge ANYTHING about a culture. If a culture has self-destructive characteristics (not placing appropriate value on things like education or hard work, turning a blind eye to crime, etc.), then I see no harm in pointing this out.

Of course, there's a fine line here too, and it's important to understand that these are PIECES of a culture and do not imply that an entire culture should be thrown out .. or that the other pieces of that culture are somehow inferior .. or (importantly) that the people in the culture are inferior.

Have I ever mentioned that I see education as the KEY?

By the way, you probably should have said "eastern Kentucky" rather than "East Kentucky" since you're making it look (to foreigners anyway) that East Kentucky has the same status (state status that is) as West Virginia.

Agreed, class is the problem, not race. My only point to add to that is that culture leads to class. And this is where the extremist version of PC takes hold: we're unable to say anymore that there are culture choices that are damning to children and families. And as a result we end up subsidizing the very behaviors that lead to the class problem.

So yes, of course, it's a problem that crosses all races. Just take a look at East Kentucky or West Virginia if you ever doubt that. My point is simply that the time has come for us to stop being cowards and come out and take action that will help to reduce the amount of pain being created in our society.

JoseMonkey makes precisely the right point. It IS racist to claim that "those people" do these things when the words "those people" stand in for the word "blacks" (or worse). But, the REAL problem is that there are (far too many) people who believe that minorities are the cause of all (or even the majority of) the world's woes. If that is what they think, they're not likely to come up with a solution that addresses the real problems.

I agree with Jose too that it is a class thing and not a racial thing -- look at the Katrina aftermath. That was pretty clearly about class - and an almost complete lack of understanding by government officials of what poverty means.

Thanks for the clarification. I understand your perspective now, but I don't think that's what I'd call political correctness. That sounds more like liberal guilt or, to paint it in racial terms, what many call "white guilt." (To be clear, I don't think we're dealing with a racial issue so much as a class problem, but I think that phrase captures the idea.)

I agree that throwing money at a problem to "fix" it is a flawed approach, and addressing underlying causes makes more sense. There's nothing inherently PC or not-PC about that. However, it depends what you say the underlying causes are. For example, if someone told me that they thought "those people" committed crimes, sold drugs, etc. because "that's what those people do" . . . and then told me that they aren't allowed to say that because "it's not PC" . . . well, they'd be right in saying it's not PC, but they'd also be overtly racist (and wrong, IMHO).

Well, the problem (from my point of view) is that the term PC has come to mean the sort of extremism that you are talking about. I see this as a problem, because typically when a pendulum swings too far in one direction it then swings too far in the opposite direction.

Fair enough, Carl. And I still agree that that kind of political correctness should still be embraced.

Perhaps I should make a distinction when talking about this other kind of PC.

Political Correctness once meant (and still means to many - myself included) that language (and "humor") that is racist (or sexist or ageist or ...) is no longer tolerated in polite company. The phenomenon you are talking about (though it certainly had its roots in Political Correctness) is something else entirely -- and is to Political Correctness what steroids are to Flintstones vitamins.