Category Archives: Political Correctness

Chinese envoy calls out US political correctness of being tough on China  South China Morning Post

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Chinese envoy calls out US political correctness of being tough on China - South China Morning Post

Jerry Seinfeld thinks political correctness is killing comedy : Code Switch Jerry Seinfeld has the become the latest in a string of public figures to blame "political correctness" for the death of comedy (among other societal ills). But what does the term actually refer to?

In an episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee called "Larry Eats A Pancake," Jerry Seinfeld has coffee with Larry David. YouTube hide caption

In an episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee called "Larry Eats A Pancake," Jerry Seinfeld has coffee with Larry David.

In the midst of the much more important stuff happening in the world, you may have missed a recent interview with Jerry Seinfeld. While doing the press rounds to promote his upcoming movie, the billionaire comedian offered a few thoughts about "why TV isn't funny anymore." His explanation? Political correctness and the extreme left. (His new movie, by the way, is about the race to invent the Pop-Tart a topic so edgy and iconoclastic that I'm surprised that the woke-mob that runs Hollywood let it happen at all.)

I won't waste anyone's time arguing about how funny today's TV is compared to the TV of yesteryear. But I think it's worth dwelling for a moment on the nature of Seinfeld's critique (which, by the way, is one that he, and other comedians, have been making for nigh on a decade now).

It falls in line with the rich tradition of blaming political correctness for all the ills of the modern world.

Donald Trump has done it many times over the years, including after calling for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." Author Anne Rice did it, while defending Paula Deen after the chef admitted to using the N-word ("Aren't we becoming something of a lynch mob culture?" Rice added on Facebook.) Jackson Miller, a former Virginia legislator and member of the "Redskins Pride Caucus," said that pushback against the Washington Football Team's name was "political correctness on overdrive."

[Editor's note: This is an excerpt of Code Switch's Up All Night newsletter. You can sign up here.]

What these statements seem to do, remarkably consistently, is avoid engaging with why someone might find a particular type of joke, or comment, or act of mass discrimination perpetrated by the most powerful person in the world, distasteful. Instead, they caricature the *type* of person who takes issue with these things: a snowflake, a buzzkill, a crybaby.

And one of the convenient things about the term "politically correct" like "woke," or "cancel culture" or dare I say "DEI," is that its meaning can change to include just about anything. Does being politically correct mean capitalizing the term Indigenous? Not laughing at a transphobic joke? Trying to push back against racist research policies at an elite university? It's all in the eye of the person trying to dismiss someone else's concerns as whiny.

But as one of my favorite comedians, Gary Gulman, has put it, "I notice that the people who are saying you 'can't say anything,' are saying everything on Netflix for $20 million a whack."

Which has me wondering: If the ones who complain loudest about "PC culture" are wealthy, beloved, highly respected power players who have the resources to again, make a movie about Pop-Tarts who is the real crybaby after all?

This newsletter was written by Leah Donnella and edited by Courtney Stein.

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Jerry Seinfeld thinks political correctness is killing comedy : Code Switch - NPR

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The Other Side: Can we cancel political correctness? - Fairfield Daily Republic

Jerry Seinfeld has blamed political correctness for hurting comedy and even says some of the storylines in his hugely successful Seinfeld sitcom would not be possible in todays environment.

The veteran comedian, who will return to screens next week in the Netflix movie Unfrosted, lamented his perceived absence of comedy on television saying it was the result of PC crap.

[In decades past, people] just expected therell be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight,Seinfeld said in an interview with The New Yorker.

Well, guess what? Where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people.

The 70-year-old said people were seeking out stand-up comedians because their material was not policed by anyone.

The audience polices us. We know when were off track. We know instantly and we adjust to it instantly, he said.

But when you write a script and it goes into four or five different hands, committees, groups Heres our thought about this joke well, thats the end of your comedy.

Seinfelds controversial take was quickly shared on social media, where many were quick to point out holes in his theory.

Bob Cesca, an American director, producer, writer, actor, blogger and left-wing commentator, posted a list of recent and current, acclaimed comedies, albeit all on streaming platforms.

There are so many successful modern comedies. Ted Lasso, Hacks, The Bear, Fleabag, Schitts [Creek], Curb Your Enthusiasm, Only Murders [In The Building], etc, Cesca wrote.

If anything, inexpensive reality TV and internet/streaming is whats killing traditional TV, not woke culture.

In his New Yorker interview, Seinfeld acknowledged that his Seinfeldco-creator Larry David was producing edgy content in Curb Your Enthusiasm, but said that was because it was grandfathered in.

If Larry was 35, he couldnt get away with watermelon stuff andPalestinian chicken, he said.

The Curb Your Enthusiasm Watermelonepisode in season 11 poked fun at racial (and racist) stereotypes, while season eights Palestinian Chicken lampooned Jewish-Palestinian tensions.

[Curb Your Enthusiasm streamer] HBO knows that [kind of comedy is] what people come here for, but theyre not smart enough to figure out how do we do this now? Do we take the heat, or just not be funny? And what theyve decided to be is, well, were not going to do comedies anymore. There were no sitcoms picked up on the fall season of all four networks. Not one. No new sitcoms, Seinfeld said.

Seinfeld said theRickshaw episode of Seinfeld in 1998 would not be possible today.

We did an episode where Kramer decides to start a business of having homeless people pull rickshaws because, as he says, theyre outside anyway, he said.

Do you think I could get that episode on the air today? We would write a different joke with Kramer and the rickshaw today. We wouldnt do that joke. Wed come up with another joke.

Unfrosted, written, directed and starring Jerry Seinfeld alongside a cast of high-profile comedians, is a light-hearted telling of the birth of the pop tart.

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Jerry Seinfeld blames 'PC crap' for the demise of comedy - The New Daily

A hit new Japanese TV program challenges the zeitgeist with humor and generational time travel

A time-travelling TV comedy with a bawdy middle-aged hero has become a big hit in Japan, juxtaposing the countrys brash 1980s boom years with its more politically correct present day.

In the series, titled Extremely Inappropriate, the past isnt rose-tinted: theres smoking on the bus, boobs on television and corporal punishment galore.

But modern Japan doesnt get a free pass either.

When schoolteacher and father Ichiro Ogawa is catapulted from 1986 to this year, he scandalizes millennials and Gen Z-ers with his disregard for their views on gender, family and labor rights.

Implicit in his candid words is a question: is society today, with its good intentions around issues like diversity and work-life balance, really all its cracked up to be?

The shows satire of how Japan has changed over the decades has struck a chord with viewers young and old.

Last month, it became the first program made by major broadcaster TBS to top Netflixs most-watched list in Japan for three weeks running.

Producer Aki Isoyama, who is 56, initially thought it would be very challenging to poke fun at todays progressive values without triggering a backlash from the public.

The show isnt meant as a verdict on the superiority of one era over the other, she said.

But one inspiration for her and screenwriter Kankuro Kudo, 53, was the idea that life has become more difficult in some aspects today.

Our society has certainly gotten better, but in a way more restrictive, too, with everything dictated by compliance and protocols, Isoyama said.

Today, when something is pronounced unacceptable, we often unquestioningly accept that explanation and refrain from saying or doing it, she added.

The show will hopefully make viewers stop and ask themselves: Why was it banned in the first place?

HARASSMENT AND SEXISM

One 25-year-old fan, Mao Yamada, said the show is a reminder that our society has become more accepting of diversity, including LGBTQ rights.

Its good were now more mindful of things like sexual harassment, she said, adding that she understands why some might feel too many things are perhaps restricted and kept unsaid.

Workplace pep talks to Gen-Z hires are denounced as harassment in Extremely Inappropriate, and an exasperated TV producer tries to censor everything said on air.

Meanwhile, freewheeling Ogawa who in his own bygone world yells grow a pair! at male students and teases women about menopause is lambasted by todays generation, including a feminist sociologist.

He is enlightened on the concepts of gender neutrality and sexual consent. Marriage, he learns, is no longer the definition of happiness.

Viewer Kyo Maeda, 68, called the shows 1980s scenes an accurate portrayal of what our everyday life used to be like.

Our life was full of what could easily be seen as harassment and sexism by todays morals, he said.

In 1986, Japan was basking in the glow of its post-war evolution into an economic superpower, with many workers fixated on success, no matter the hours required.

On Extremely Inappropriate young recruits a generation shaped by Japans lost decades of stagnation from the early 1990s matter-of-factly clock off on time.

In the 80s, I loved going to work, you know, Maeda reminisced, chuckling. The economy was still picking up and we were all-out at work.

I feel like there was more hope and excitement about the future in the 80s than there is now, he said.

BOLDER THEMES

Extremely Inappropriate, whose final episode aired yesterday, has received its share of criticism in the real world.

Some say concepts like feminism or discrimination based on appearance are oversimplified, and that political correctness is treated as little more than a shackle on free speech.

Interspersed throughout the show are musical performances and jokey disclaimers excusing Ogawas gaffes and insults.

But beneath the levity is a serious message, said Takahiko Kageyama, a media studies professor at Doshisha Womens College of Liberal Arts.

The creators obviously wanted us to reflect on the status quo of our society, he said.

But if this intent had come off too straightforward or preachy, it wouldve just fallen flat.

The shows themes are bold given the sensitive landscape of Japans entertainment industry today, he said.

Boy-band empire Johnnys and Associates faced an existential crisis last year over a sexual abuse scandal involving its late founder.

Allegations of workplace bullying have also disgraced the prestigious theatre troupe Takarazuka Revue.

Producer Isoyama said that making the show in parallel with these events had sometimes felt uncanny.

With Johnnys and Takarazuka, it was like facts far stranger than fiction were unfolding around us, she said.

But this made us feel that the timing of the release would be fitting, considering how the industry is changing, the way it should.

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Politically incorrect -

Im required to pass on a series of late-breaking political correctnesses. Hey, you come up with a better word to cover more than one example of political correctness.

Of imminent local PC import is a name change aligned with the resurgence of a chewy critter, one we have long known speaking of the no-longer-called gypsy caterpillar and moth.

This invasive European species, famed as a ruiner of oak trees, is well tracked, right down to when, where and why it arrived. As a bonus, the insects importer is also known.

In 1869, tienne Trouvelot imported gypsy moths to his residence in Medford, Mass. His oddish plan was to breed the fecund foreigners with equally foreign but slow-breeding silkworms, all in hopes of growing a New England silk industry. It never flew. However, a few of the moths did. The rest is invasive species history, still playing out to this day, as N.J. prepares for an insurgence of the insatiable tree leaf eaters.

But, if you vaguely recall, this is ostensibly a segment about political correctness. So

Not long ago, the Entomological Society of America evoked a name change after independently sensing the name gypsy moth was seen as a slur toward Romani people, long dubbed gypsies. It judged gypsy as a derogatory, disparaging term directed at the Indo-Aryan ethnic Roma culture. The Romani people originated in India, quickly becoming nomadic, pretty much world travelers.

The origin of the word gypsy is steeped in mistaken identity, adopted long ago after it was erroneously thought this group originated in Egypt. In reality, they hail from northern India, but the term Indian was being held in abeyance.

And what is the new PC term for the you-know-what caterpillar and moth? I was afraid youd ask that since the new term for whats eating your foliage is the spongy moth and caterpillar. Why so? I imagine the Entomological Society knows but isnt quite telling, though it is grateful for all the work that went into changing a word of the world, gypsy now being dropped from many languages.

We are grateful to the diverse community of people and organizations who have been involved in this renaming process and have committed to adopting spongy moth as well, Jessica Ware, the societys president, told CNN.

She also said public preparedness is critical in slowing the spread of the spongy moth in America. This has me a-ponder. If public preparedness is key, couldnt the society have come up with a more foreboding name than spongy moth?

LBI Sidebar: I wax sympathetic toward Romanis, having befriended a slew of them in Beach Haven, many decades back.

Some Islanders might recall when an extended family of these fine folks occupied a corner residential home on Bay Avenue in downtown Queen City. Yes, everyone called them you-know-what. Truth be told, they never showed much aversion to the term, at least not in front of me.

As best I recall, they offered walk-in fortune telling, a cultural aspect of Romani culture, not just a touristy money-making gimmick.When their teen kids and I hit the beach to hang out, they were very freewheeling. Quite cool folks.

One thing that jumped out is how the Roma women loved their gold, which is how I met them, having been in the gold jewelry trade at the time. The downside was their insane haggling over prices. I ended up giving them profitless prices just to shut them up!

Returning to the renamed spongy caterpillars, it should be interesting to see where the Entomological Society goes with Japanese beetles, German cockroaches or Mexican mealy bugs.

On the fishing side of PC, there has already been an understandable renaming of jewfish. These huge fish, able to reach over 600 pounds, are now mandatorily called goliath grouper.

Personally, I see PC umbrage potential in hagfish. Of course, its hard to say whos going to speak up as a representative of all the worlds hags. Did I just cross a line?

Another out-there PC name change arrives from the avian realm. Duck hunters and bird watchers are familiar with the oldsquaw, a type of diving duck.

Per empaths, it is feared the name might be offensive to Native Americans. Not that Native Americans think any such thing. Squaw is merely an Algonquin tribal term for woman. Should an Algonquin woman get older?

Regardless, oldsquaws must now go by the name long-tailed ducks even if they walk, swim and quack like an oldsquaw. Holding to that PC theme, what might it mean for the proverbial old wives tales? Might it become long-tailed wives tales? Lets see how that flies.

I must admit to making a glaring PC faux pas last week when, in a public forum, I yelled out to a buddy, You da man! I could hear the neck vertebrae of nearby ladies angrily swinging in my direction. Red-faced, I sheepishly said, Sorry, I meant You da person.

TURBINE TALK: While its decidedly unadvisable to say things cant get worse, Im realizing its equally follyiferous to say things cant get more complicated. Take, for instance, the offshore wind power turmoil.

I have slogged through literally volumes of technical turbine permitting and building data while simultaneously monitoring the complex coastal uprisings against wind farms being placed within seeing distance of LBI.

At some point, I might have inadvertently thought things couldnt get more complicated. I now pay the price, speaking of last weeks NJDEP announcement of the newest wind farm solicitation and biddings, headlined by AP as New Jersey OKs two new offshore wind farms that would be farther from shore and beachgoers view.

The newbie turbine pushers are Leading Light Wind and Attentive Energy.

Just that quickly, things complexify, as newly proposed wind farms take a more offshore tack.

At first blush, it might seem such an eastward movement of turbines is just what the farther-out doctor prescribed, a seeming concession to the many who undertook preventing turbines within LBIs viewshed. But that would be far too simple.

Within the State House statement, there is nary a mention of eliminating or pushing eastward the continuing closer-in efforts. Atlantic Shores remains dedicatedly rooted to its nearshore farm-building.

Note: My preferred term of nearshore wind might soon have its day in the sun, allowing a differentiation between the closer-in builds (nearshore) from those farther out, more accurately named offshore builds.

Any mollifying aspects of placing new arrays out of viewshed view might imply a pivotal protest point has been pacified. Nope. Along with the ongoing nearshore anti-turbine orneriness, it is quickly becoming clear that an updated anti emphasis is being placed on the fishing and marine/wildlife aspects of turbines being placed anywhere a-sea. For many, nearshore/offshore wind builds seemingly have no permissible place off N.J.

As to the federal forces energetically backing the builds, speaking ostensibly of BOEM and NOAA, they are taking something of a blame dilution route for 2024, going bigger than ever on global warming being the overriding concern. That makes strategic sense. Many of the groups supporting ocean wind power are huge on climate change considerations.

Heres a snippet from a just-released report titled BOEM and NOAA Announce Final North Atlantic Right Whale and Offshore Wind Strategy. (See boem.gov/newsroom/press-releases/boem-and-noaa-announce-final-north-atlantic-right-whale-and-offshore-wind.)

Right whales are endangered and climate change is impacting every aspect of their survival from changing ocean habitat, prey availability and affecting migratory patterns making the transition to cleaner, renewable energy critically important, said NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Janet Coit. Working together on this strategy leverages the best available scientific information to inform offshore wind management decisions while conserving and recovering the species.

The North Atlantic Right Whale and Offshore Wind Strategy provides guidance for a coordinated effort across the federal government and with agency partners to protect and promote the recovery of North Atlantic right whales and other marine life while responsibly developing offshore wind energy to address the climate crisis.

In fairness, the above is a mere morsel of all that is included in this report, including what Ill call worthy efforts to make whale things right in advance of whale-threatening wind farms. Ill even cast some sympathy toward both BOEM and NOAA personnel since their persuasions must align with the mandates of national leaders, i.e., their paycheck signers.

The Biden-Harris administration is committed to ensuring offshore wind energy development is done in a responsible manner, saidBOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. Thats why we have increased our efforts to develop a strategy based on the best available science that will allow us to protect the North Atlantic right whale while meeting our offshore wind goals that are necessary to curb climate change and protect the environment.

RUNDOWN: Regrettably, I must begin with a correction.

I got a not-quite-correct read regarding the very telling March 7 meeting of the N.J. Marine Fisheries Council, being held in the Stafford Township Administration Building, 260 East Bay Ave. in Manahawkin, at 5 p.m. The meeting will allow public involvement prior to the council members making a decision on fluke regs for this year. I had erroneously said it would be held in the old town hall area. Nope. It will be held in the modern town hall.

As to the regulatory routes the council will be considering for 2024, the options are now etched in granite. This comes after an ASMFC meeting last weekend in Virginia.

Garden State options have been passed onto the state council for perusal. Everything is fermenting right now, offered one council member.

The fluke options are a little too involved for me to adequately detail in here. Please check with local tackle shops, The Fisherman Magazineor the JCAA website for a read.

BTW, Ive been alerted to the bag limit option of three fish at 18 inches (or larger) with a four-day loss of season length compared to 2023.

Please keep in mind the NJMFC is also deciding the 2024 regulatory direction for black seabass and scup/porgies.

FLUKE THOUGHTS: Fluke is the most sought-after fish in N.J. with striped bass being the most targeted gamefish. Explanation forthcoming.

Numbers-wise, bass seekers cant match the number of anglers who converge on flatties during just the short summer season. Those anglers are powered by a state with one of the highest per capita boat ownership rates in the nation.

Summer flounder is the ultimate bulls eye species, though it is almost exclusively a meat fish, targeted purely for take-home potential. It is not a gamefish in the strictest sense of the word. If a moratorium were placed on the keeping of fluke, making it catch and release only, virtually nobody would go after them and bait shops would undergo a devastating summer swoon.

Relatedly, the keeper rate for legal-sized fluke is easily over 90%. In fact, the only releasing of legal-length fish comes with culling, exchanging smaller keeper fish in the tank for larger models a practice that might enhance the survivability of caught fluke, providing the live well is adequately aerated. A fluke exhausted from just being reeled in and quickly released is fodder for the likes of sharks below. A flattie rejuvenated in a tank is ready to skedaddle, damn the sharks.

In overall fishing pressure terms, striped bass is a fairly close second to fluke, being heavily sought as a gamefish in spring and more voraciously in fall. Even then, the total number of fluking rods in summer waters outdistances the rod count aimed at stripers during a lengthy spring-to-fall season. As to dedication to the catching cause, striper seekers have a lock on that. No anglers are more dogged than N.J. striperites.

jaymann@thesandpaper.net

Continued here:

Keeping Up With Spongy Political Correctness; Turbines Make a Sudden Move Offshore - The SandPaper

Snow White Remake Stirs Controversy: Diversity or Political Correctness?

Disneys live-action remake of the classic tale Snow White is presently making headlines, not for its star-studded cast or unique interpretation, but for a controversy that has erupted over leaked set photos. These images, revealing a markedly diverse group of actors portraying the traditionally known Dwarfs, have sparked a firestorm of criticism, predominantly from conservative media figures who have taken to social media to voice their displeasure.

New set photos published by The Daily Mail, accompanied by a headline that underscored the controversy, show a varied group of actors, with only one actual dwarf among them. This unconventional depiction has drawn the ire of critics who have accused Disney of bending to political correctness and mocked the companys approach.

In response to the mounting criticism, Disney confirmed the photos originated from the set but added a caveat that they were not official images of the production. This statement was a contradictory follow-up to an initial response by Disneys U.S. spokesperson, who claimed the images were fake. The film stars Rachel Zegler in the title role and Andrew Burnap, though neither was present in the controversial photos, with stand-ins being used during filming.

Ginnifer Goodwin, known for her portrayal of Snow White in the ABC series Once Upon a Time, has shared her thoughts on the upcoming remake. She expressed confidence in Disneys ability to execute the film despite the controversy and highlighted the important role of Prince Charming in the Snow White narrative. Rachel Zegler, who is set to play Snow White in the film, also responded to the backlash surrounding her casting, suggesting the controversy is far from over.

While controversy has surrounded this Disney remake, it underscores a broader discourse on representation and diversity in the entertainment industry. As the film continues in production, audiences worldwide will no doubt watch with bated breath to see how these issues are addressed on the silver screen.

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Disney's Snow White Live-Action Remake Ignites Controversy - BNN Breaking

We are living at a time where political correctness (PC) has turned things upside down so that many people have been forced to accept things in a certain way as the new normal.

Gone are the days when what you saw is what you said because that was the truth. When something was black, we called it black because thats the colour we saw. We did the same for red, blue and white.

But because PC has gone bonkers and just because someone may consider something offensive, we cannot say that anymore. And, being the spineless wimps that we are, we have succumbed to the tyranny of PC.

So while the object is black, we would just say its grey, dark or something. Anything but the truth. So what is this ridiculous concept called PC anyway? It is avoiding language and actions that insult, exclude or harm people who may already be experiencing (perceived or real) disadvantage and discrimination. But it has been taken to a ridiculous extreme.

Maybe some of us are getting old. Maybe we need to change with the times. But then maybe we dont. Maybe there are some values worth holding onto like honesty and telling the truth and standing our ground against stupidity.

The definition of PC I really like it is a term used for whiney overly sensitive pansies (is that too American?) who need everything sugar coated for them.

I spent almost half of my life in the US and PC there has become so absurd it boggles the mind Here are some totally inane examples of PC that will make you shake your head in disbelief and prove the stark and distressing reality of what Einstein said, Only the universe and human stupidity are infinite and I am not sure about the universe.

A college diversity-training course taught that it was culturally insensitive to expect people to be on time.

A Clemson University (in the US, where else?) training course taught its attendees that it is offensive to expect people to be on time, because time may be considered fluid in other cultures.

Maybe they should call it Fiji Time. College students decided against bringing a camel to school for a Hump Day event, due to concerns about racism. Students at the University of St.

Thomas in Minnesota were worried that the presence of a camel might offend Middle Eastern students. Journalism lecturers at Leeds Trinity University were instructed to avoid using all caps when communicating with students, because it might make them too afraid to do the assignment.

Oxford University law students (OMG, England too?) were told that they didnt have to learn about rape or violence law if they found it too triggering. Undergraduate law students were reportedly allowed to leave during any lessons about such material if they felt uncomfortable.

Evergreen State University told professors to take student protesters feelings into account when grading them.

Apparently, their emotional commitment to protesting should be taken into account when evaluating their academic work. (Apparently, grading classwork based on, you know, classwork would be too insensitive).

And the stupidity continues Someone said the two pillars of PC are willful ignorance and a steadfast refusal to face the truth. PC is destroying the very fabric of society.

Never before have people been so afraid to stand up against absurdity for the fear of being a called a homophobe, a racist or a bigot. Even a progressive organisation like Toastmasters has submitted to this idiocy.

I once participated in a speech contest and the Chief Judge told me that even though my speech would have won hands down, I was penalised because I made a derogatory religious reference.

Being taught to avoid talking about religion has led to a lack of understanding of it something most of us are so deeply entrenched in.

What we should be taught is how to have a civil conversation about a difficult topic.

I feel that if we did not have religion, everyone will live together peacefully.

My wife thinks we need religion or else people will not have a moral code of conduct. If you need religion in order to be a good person, youre intrinsically not a good person. You dont need religion to have morals.

But I digress. PC causes people to needlessly worry about offending those around them. Once we are afraid to speak out, we are afraid to think. Consequently, control of the public is achieved.

And like sheep, we submit to this most inane societal norm. My distaste for PC started when I was in high school and came across Uriah Heep, the villain in Charles Dickenss novel David Copperfield.

This slimy creep has since become a byword for a falsely humble hypocrite (like the PC advocates) who make your skin crawl. PC reminds me of this joke John was asked to watch Bobs family home while the family was on vacation, included was the dog, the cat and Bobs Grandma. After the first week, Bob called and asked how things were going.

John replied Everything is okay, except the cat died.

Bob says Couldnt you be more diplomatic? John asks What do you mean? Bob replies Well, if I ask how the cat is, say the cats on the roof then the next time, you could tell me it died

The next week, Bob calls, John answers and after a short discussion, Bob asks how his Grandma is doing. John replies Shes on the roof. George Carlin was a favorite comedian of mine.

He had no tolerance for hypocrisy. He said, Political correctness is Americas newest form of intolerance, and it is especially pernicious because it comes disguised as tolerance.

It presents itself as fairness, yet attempts to restrict and control peoples language with strict codes and rigid rules. Im not sure thats the way to fight discrimination.

Im not sure silencing people or forcing them to alter their speech is the best method for solving problems that go much deeper than speech. Is there a cure? Yes, it is to speak your mind!

Or we are doomed to the political correctness police somewhat akin to thought police George Orwells nightmarish classic, Nineteen Eighty-four. Maybe not so ominous but quite ridiculous.

Link:

The absurdity of political correctness - Fiji Times

(Image: Brett Jordan/Unsplash.com)

To my mind, the most cringe-inducing moment in the drama of Claudine Gay and her resignation as president of Harvard University was not when she whiffed at unambiguously condemning genocidal threats against Jews as violations of Harvards norms for student behavior. That was horrible, to be sure. Even more telling, though, was Gays subsequent apology, in which she expressed regret for having failed to convey what is my truth.

Hard as it may be for normal people to grasp, the notion that there is only my truth and your truth, but nothing properly describable as the truth, is virtually axiomatic in the humanities departments of American elite universities, and has been for some time. Now, following the Orwellian script in Animal Farm, the woke plague has created a situation in which some of those personal truths are deemed more equal than others truths the superior truths being the truths of political correctness.

As dean of the Harvard faculty, Claudine Gay was a vigorous proponent of the new axiom that some truths are truer than others. But in her apology, she reverted to the basic, postmodernist absurdity that truth is a matter of personal conviction rather than conviction anchored in reality. Her downfall thus illustrates another axiom, one that antedates post-modernism by almost two centuries: the Revolution devours its children (Jacques Mallet du Pan, writing from Paris 1793 as the tumbrils rolled).

When post-modernism first reared its head decades ago, some Christian thinkers suggested that its mantra of your-truth/my-truth might provide an opening to serious intellectual exchange with non-believers, which was impossible with those academic nihilists and relativists who denied that there was any truth at all. This always struck me as a forlorn hope. For what happens when there is only your truth and my truth and our truths collide? Absent any agreed horizon of judgment (call it the truth) against which we can settle our difference, either you will impose your power on me or I will impose my power on you.

Which means the death of serious conversation, of scholarship and, ultimately, of democracy.

7,494 miles away, I doubt the thought occurred to my friend Jimmy Lai; but the fact that the Claudine Gay affair coincided with the beginning of Jimmys trial on charges of having violated Chinese national security by defending the basic human rights of his fellow Hong Kongers nicely illustrated Oscar Wildes point about life imitating art including the arts of irony.

For there was President Gay, trying to save herself by an appeal to my truth, while Jimmy was risking life imprisonment at a Stalinesque show trial because he had courageously borne witness to the truth: the truth that todays Hong Kong regime is a thugocracy terrified by free speech and a free press; the truth that the Beijing regime that controls Hong Kong is comprehensively violating the commitments to honor basic human rights it had made when Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997; and, perhaps above all, the truth that Catholic faith demands solidarity with those defending their God-given rights rights that express built-in truths about the inalienable dignity and infinite value of every human life.

Jimmy Lai has become a Christian artist during his three years in solitary confinement; few, if any, gifts that I have received in my life have touched me as deeply as the two sketches he has sent me from Stanley Prison. Both embody his commitment to truth not just his truth, but truth, period and his understanding that truth-telling is risky business in this world. The price of truth-telling is expressed in a crucifixion scene, rendered in colored pencil on the kind of lined paper we once used in elementary school. The commitment to live in the truth is captured in a beautiful Madonna with the simple inscription Yes! (cf. Luke 1:38).

Once asked what sentence he would wish saved if the rest of the Bible were somehow destroyed, John Paul II responded without hesitation, You will know the truth and the truth will make you free (John 8:32). Jimmy Lais life and art luminously express that conviction about the liberating power of truth. We must hope and pray that Claudine Gay and the rest of the post-modern academic establishment which has turned elite American higher education into a playpen for rabid antisemites, pampered snowflakes, and madcap ideologues eventually come to understand what Jimmy understands.

Because that would set them free, spiritually as well as intellectually. Thus liberated, they could be true educators rather than enforcers of woke ideological conformity.

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Claudine Gay, Jimmy Lai, and the truth of things - Catholic World Report

Symbols are important, especially in our digital, inter-connected, high-tech civilization.

Although knowledge is supposedly at our fingertips, a motley convergence of negativism based on ignorance, intolerance, and reactionary politics, and positivism motivated by neo-puritanism, identity politics and political correctness wants to erase, destroy, and censor everything deemed controversial. To make things worse, the algorithmic, consumer-based logic governing the a-/social media helps polarize people by spreading the malevolent prejudices of partisan politics or the absolutist judgements of nave progressivism. Both force their black-and-white conclusions on an already confused public.

But sometimes, reason prevails, as the recent UMs swastika issue illustrates (Left-facing swastika symbols to remain on UM building for education, Missoulian Nov. 7). The decision to de-construct (Derridas meaning) the swastika by adding an interpretative sign next to it for those who ignore religious symbolism makes sense.

The swastika goes back to time immemorial, long before recorded Western history. Tibetan, Hinduist (God Ganesh), Persian, Basque, North American (Hopi, Navajo), and Meso-American cultures, to name only a few, used the swastika. They are literally everywhere in different forms: pictographs, pottery design, friezes, weaving patterns. Most are square and geometric; others are rounded and wave-like. Some archeologists even claim that they were Atlantis sign. Galactical symbolization, cosmic allegory, labyrinthine metaphor, life/death cycle representationWho knows?

Two kinds exist. One clockwise (swastika) symbolizing death; the other counterclockwise (sauwastika) symbolized life good fortune in Sanskrit and Japanese. Both signs had nothing to do with Nazism. Then why did Hitler choose it in 1920 as a Nazi symbol ruining its mystery for everybody? Some historians established that a strange relationship existed between Nazi ideology and European occultism. Nazis fantasized that the swastika was an Aryan symbol, sign of racial supremacy.

The right thing to do is to reclaim the sign from Nazi abuse and defacement. People who want to erase the swastikas on UM buildings mean well, but they are motivated by misguided and simplistic emotions.

During World War II, the French flag, an emblem of national unity and rallying symbol, was used both by French fascists/Nazi-collaborators and by anti-Nazi rsistants. Should the French flag then, be jettisoned? Both Neo-Nazis and Socialist Democrats fly the American flag. Should a new flag be designed? The Torah, the Bible, and the Koran are both used/abused by fundamentalist Jews, Christians and Muslims to fuel hatred. Should one ban these books?

By the same token, some Nazis loved classical music. Should it be banned? Or preceded by interpretative messages? Many great writers had fascist tendencies. Should they be banned? Remember the Heidegger controversy.

Decades ago, Rabelais, a giant of European literature, was banned from the UM Freshmen Humanities Program because Gargantuas Panurge wanted to fortify Paris medieval walls with callibistrys (vulvas). We could go on and on Everybody has reasons to be unreasonable, intolerant, irrational, and to censor (of course) the other.

Man is neither angel nor beast, and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast. Pascal.

One really disturbing thing though, in this entire well-meaning brouhaha. Not one religious leader, faculty member, or student, ever protested, or even mentioned the demise of the Humanities (philosophy/history/foreign languages /English/religions/sociology/mathematics) at UM.

What about a plaque cemented on the brand-new Art Museum explaining what UM used to be 12 years ago, and what it has now become, after the great re-alignment/re-prioritizing complete and replete with the number of Humanities professors gone?

Lux et Veritas has become Obscuritas et Machinatio.

Michel Valentin is a retired UM professors/EPIS researcher/writer.

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Michel Valentin: Political correctness and swastikas - Missoulian