usualhopefulRegistered UserPosts: 1,627Senior Member
Except it seems that PC is usually used as a defense for saying things that are really obviously offensive and discriminatory. No, that's not always how it's used, but it's pretty common.
Much2learnRegistered UserPosts: 4,690Senior Member
I am for inclusion, but I do not see the connection between mistletoe and the christian religion. Mistletoe has no significance at all in christianity, as far as I know. It is also not used exclusively by Christians. Banning mistletoe seems extreme to me.
@slicedgabe Maybe save your PC ammunition for something real? I my post (btw, thanks for the huge upshot in my points with so many people's votes! haha), and if you'd bothered to read the real issue vs. just buy the either the salacious title of this thread or the ridiculously slanted and overblown article, you might even come to the conclusion that this ENTIRE issue is a straw man.
Or maybe you'd like to ignore that challenge and continue to use this as fodder for the "anti PC" watch? I dunno. Maybe that doesn't even matter to you?
@slicedgabe: you miss my point. This entire thing started b/c buried DEEPLY INSIDE some fire safety guidebook issued and unread by some office within a large college, were found suggestions about decorations and (to your point) an unwise/unnecessary judgment about mistletoe. Then some anti-PC guardian took that one line and ran with it -- and it got picked up by the daily caller -- and now it means what?
Another sign of the apocalypse of Western civilization?
Really? That's why I made my point in the first post to begin with.
May I instead, turn you to this Washington Post article about the end of a column called "The Intersect"? It was started to debunk weekly internet hoaxes. But the author is closing shop because 1) there's a huge market of purposeful hoax writers or story exaggerators extant and 2) those who believe them and pass them along as FB memes are so entrenched in their confirmation bias worlds that they are the exact people to whom debunking evidence means nothing to them.
Ok. I'm sure some stories are made up to create drama and increase profits - it's a very common tactic. But at the same time, some of these stories about PC culture are true, and we should still be wary of the mindset that everything is offensive and should be banned.
Like good satire, life sometimes provides metaphors that are both funny and illuminating. Mistletoe at Cornell is one such metaphor. It represents and importantly reveals how PC culture has become a comedy of the absurd. It also signifies and convincingly discloses the hysterical efforts colleges take to infantilize their students by protecting them from imaginary harm.
usualhopefulRegistered UserPosts: 1,627Senior Member
So inside some memo that no one will actually pay attention to, someone said that mistletoe could be culturally insensitive. It was thrown in there and it's unlikely that the people writing it even thought much about what they were saying (seriously, they misspelled "plant," I don't think the author(s) cared much).
All of the last three featured discussions have essentially been complaints about "PC culture," and I feel like only the first one was actually worth talking about.
@espenser This seems like an absolutely genius way to force the school to replace gross steamed chicken with yummy fried chicken. The school can't say no when its cultural minority students' rights to oppression-free environment are at stake!
... warns that any decorations that remotely evoke religion, which includes stars and mistletoe, are incompatible with the school’s commitment to diversity
No. This has nothing to do with diversity, it has to do with denying diversity.
If they actually had a commitment to diversity, they would support a DIVERSE set viewpoints and beliefs and would have openly welcomed Christmas Trees, Menorahs, Kwanza Mkekes, Festivus Trees, Pastafarian colanders, etc.
Can't wait to see if they deny any Muslim symbols during Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha.
Replies to: Cornell University Warns Mistletoe Isn’t ‘Inclusive’ Enough And Students Shouldn’t Use It
Or maybe you'd like to ignore that challenge and continue to use this as fodder for the "anti PC" watch? I dunno. Maybe that doesn't even matter to you?
Another sign of the apocalypse of Western civilization?
Really? That's why I made my point in the first post to begin with.
May I instead, turn you to this Washington Post article about the end of a column called "The Intersect"? It was started to debunk weekly internet hoaxes. But the author is closing shop because 1) there's a huge market of purposeful hoax writers or story exaggerators extant and 2) those who believe them and pass them along as FB memes are so entrenched in their confirmation bias worlds that they are the exact people to whom debunking evidence means nothing to them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/12/18/what-was-fake-on-the-internet-this-week-why-this-is-the-final-column/?tid=pm_lifestyle_pop_b
I'm clearly fighting a Quixotic battle. But in my efforts to promote rational discussion, I put my paddle in the water and still push upstream...
All of the last three featured discussions have essentially been complaints about "PC culture," and I feel like only the first one was actually worth talking about.
No. This has nothing to do with diversity, it has to do with denying diversity.
If they actually had a commitment to diversity, they would support a DIVERSE set viewpoints and beliefs and would have openly welcomed Christmas Trees, Menorahs, Kwanza Mkekes, Festivus Trees, Pastafarian colanders, etc.
Can't wait to see if they deny any Muslim symbols during Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha.