What if instead of saying "political correctness" we started saying "treating people with respect"? After all, that's the purpose behind that phrase. Well, someone thought of that. Meet PC2Respect, a Google Chrome extension that magically replaces "political correctness" with "treating people with respect."
Doesn't quite roll off the tongue, does it? It also makes you sound like less of an iconoclastic rebel and more like a grudging whiner.
The PC2Respect extension, inspired by a Neil Gaiman quote, makes perfect sense to me. After all, so-called "political correctness" just means carefully selecting your language to show respect for other people. OMG, WHAT A CHORE! When you think about it, that's what your parents taught you to do ... that is, if you were brought up right.
Anyway, just to see how this works we decided to give PC2Respect a try on some headlines. I predicted that the swap would improve most of them -- but would any headlines sound totally whackadoodle? Here's what happened when we PC2Repect-ized 10 headlines.
This is an opinion piece complaining about how the media reports on the race of shooters. One day, news outlets pointed out that a mass shooter was white. Another day the media choose not to mention the race of the perpetrators of some random attacks in Chicago -- and the complainer felt like it should have been mentioned because the shooters were still at large. But so what? If you point out that the attackers are black that's not particularly helpful information considering about 32 percent of Chicago's residents are black.
I wonder if the news outlets showed police drawings or gave other, more specific information to alert people about the suspects. Maybe this choice was less about being overly sensitive to the black community and more a practical decision about what information we really need.
Oh man, someone is really bothered by this Black Lives Matter business. Treating people with respect has gone too far -- it's gone amok! If we agree black lives matter maybe we'll forget that white lives matter, too AND THEN WHAT???
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How are trains politically correct in the first place? I think the writer means something like "politically trendy" or popular. But come to think of it, investing in commuter trains is respectful because you're giving people more options for travel and you're reducing carbon emissions, which improves the health of everyone. We all win.
Haha, enough said. Maybe Mr. Unfiltered should try saying what he really means?
Well, that depends on how you feel about pageants. A lot of people think competing in a beauty contest in a bikini for scholarship money is demeaning to women. Of course, we know this is really about Trump's derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants. (Derogatory = treating people with disrespect)
Yeah, really, what's so funny about it? What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding?
Um, yes it is. Duh.
STOPIT, you're killing me! That's hilarious. Yup, every time he opens his mouth on camera Trump shows the world what treating people with respect really looks like. In Bizarro World.
Is there a difference between political correctness and courteous speech? If you want to split hairs I suppose you could say that being PC is too often an insincere effort to avoid conflict and controversy, while courteous speech comes more from genuine intentions. But I've noticed that truly courteous people don't complain about political correctness because they're more focused on creating positive interactions.
Well there's something worth ranting about! Let's hear it, Chely.
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Something I've noticed on social media is that those who continually mock and complain that "treating people with respect is...
Posted by Chely Wright on Tuesday, July 14, 2015
I think Chely Wright put it clearly in this Facebook post, though she sure did ruffle some feathers. Geez, some people are so sensitive. Is it going to become un-PC to point out who complains the most about being PC?
Image via Dean Drobot/shutterstock