Monday, March 19, 2007

What Happens When Political Correctness Goes too Far?

Filmmaker Evan Coyne Maloney tells us in his new documentary, Indoctrinate U, a film that looks at political correctness on campus and the suppression of free speech. I wonder when the film will be forced/coerced into middle and high schools for viewing by young minds, kind of like An Inconvenient Truth? The kids, it seems, would certainly benefit from getting some exposure to the political correctness they will be expected to uphold at a number of universities in a few years. It just might make them decide to actually think through their college choices a little bit harder, and who would want that? Young people thinking for themselves? Heavens, no! So, I won't be holding my breath waiting for the doc to be shown in any high school classrooms--its seems free speech in many institutions only exists for the exalted members who toe the line of liberal dogma.

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24 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm afraid some people will find this a little *too* inconvenient. Don't look for it at a high school near you...

1:51 PM, March 19, 2007  
Blogger Unknown said...

Speaking of, did you see this article that claims that traditional men heal faster? This is what caught my eye:

"The participants completed questionnaires that measured the degree to which they bought into masculine norms, such as physical strength, sexual performance, independence and successful career achievement."

It's the last one. Successful career achievement is a masculine norm? Does that imply that being a failure is a feminine norm? Why did the researchers include it?

2:24 PM, March 19, 2007  
Blogger Mercurior said...

i wonder if this documentary will be edited for political correctness

4:19 PM, March 19, 2007  
Blogger Sissy Willis said...

I'm disappointed in the quality of Evan's creation, even as I agree with the importance of his message. Maybe it's just my age, and the younger generation will get it just fine, but it lacks the oomph of that Orwellian anti-Hillary video that's making the rounds.

4:48 PM, March 19, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

One of the benefits of being "older" is that I didnt have to put up with that crap when I was in college.

5:10 PM, March 19, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Liberals have been much more successful getting their material into schools because they are better at building it to work with existing curriculum. It is easier for schools to find information on rain forests and global warming that is geared to grade schools than it is to find information on subjects dear to the conservative heart. When teachers are looking for something about ecology, materials about global warming are abundantly, obviously, easily available. Conservatives have been slower to see how to help teachers. Another advantage that liberals have is that they believe they are teaching the truth. Conservatives tend to teach against the lie. The defensive mechanism is identified more quickly as ideological. Nobody said life was fair.

My children come home spouting the liberal line but I don't worry too much about it. If I take the time to discuss the topic with them, they are intelligent enough to realize there are two sides to the story. Over time, my input will outweigh what they get in school.

5:17 PM, March 19, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with anony 5:17...parents can teach their youngsters to think for themselves. The older they get the better they will become in doing so.
The key is that there is parental involvement as the minds of our children develop.

6:48 PM, March 19, 2007  
Blogger Webutante said...

Helen, I truly think political correctness poses a greater threat to our democracy than radical Islam. Or perhaps, maybe the two work in tandem. Whatever, freedom of speech, has never been more threatened. And along with all that goes the great need to be a part of the crowd, be liked and accepted.

But true liberty, faith and freedom only really comes from stepping away from the crowd, no matter what the price.

7:52 PM, March 19, 2007  
Blogger Sirena said...

Okay ya'll,

Language creates our realities (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis -linguistics)

Whichever stakeholders or groups control the power to define our language categories hold power.
(I know you'll despise this but that is from Postmodernism Derrida, Foucault those Frog philosophers)

Political Correctness is the Liberals attempt to gain power through language (thanks to that evil ole PC, we have to include "he or she" instead of referring to females as just "he" in a given context and use stupid words like "Congressperson" --damn them!)

But, believe it or not, the Right uses language to gain power too! Think about the Bush administration referring to outsourcing torture to the much more palatable "Extraordinary Rendition" (sounds like a musical!)

Look, both the Liberals and the Right do the exact same thing (framing concepts)in attempt to gain ideological power.
Political Correctness has been labeled and turned into a "folk devil" pitted against Conservatives.

But, I mean really, I don't understand this demonization of PC especially by educated women. I really don't understand this (and I wrote a long graduate thesis on a related topic and I still don't understand)

Webutante, get real PC poses greater threat to our democracy etc.... That statement is a knee jerk reaction to something, I'm not sure what.

As thinking people do we really see things in such black and white terms?

10:05 PM, March 19, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Political Correctness?

When law professors try to convince the unwashed masses that those who engage in same-sex behavior are able to produce children and grandchildren.

Oh right, I forgot. It's Technology which enables those who engage in seme-sex behavior to breed, do forget the egg and the sperm. Unnecessary.

I guess irrational logic means I must go to rehab for recognizing the obvious.

Forgive my politically incorrect nature.

10:06 PM, March 19, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is probably why I was always
attracted to aspects of education that expllored how to think, and quickly got bored with those that
simply instructed what to think.

10:40 PM, March 19, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Helen,
If you were to hold your breath you can exhale. I'm a high school history/civics teacher and this is something that is directly related to what I teach my senior civics class about. In fact my current unit discusses value judgements vs factual judgements, propaganda techniques, etc. I long for materials like what Evan is putting together. During our current event discussions I regularly bring up incidents that FIRE is investigating because my seniors are going to be dealing with that in the next year. I can only hope it becomes available on DVD soon!

11:16 PM, March 19, 2007  
Blogger Mercurior said...

if children today arent taught to think, then when they are parents, they wont be able to teach their kids how to think.

i am lucky i had 2 parents who taught me to us that grey stuff between my ears.

true story, in school in the UK, we had black (the colour) boards to write on, so we all called them blackboards, as that was the descriptive element, its a board and its black.. then the pc crowd jump in, and said its not a black board thats racist, its a chalk board.

you cant say so many words now, disabled becomes differently abled of difabled. jack straw in the UK, has banned the word man

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=440992&in_page_id=1770

Jack Straw was ridiculed last night after he banned the word "chairman" from Parliament. The decision by the Leader of the House, announced to coincide with International Women's Day, was condemned as an extraordinary case of political correctness.


In future all government Bills will have to abide by new rules banning "gender stereotyping".

"Chairman" will be replaced by "chair" while "he" and "him" will no longer refer to both men and women. "She" and "her" will be added by clerks drawing up legislation. Mr Straw claimed the 1978 Interpretation Act, which adopted the use of the male pronoun to include both sexes, was outdated and confusing

***

critical thought, has nearly faded, due to sound bytes,emotionally filled statements, all this panic about bird flu, 10 years and it still hasnt appeared, the sars epidemic, its all, highly emotional content, that denies thought.

the climate/war (put your own word in) debate, for one, high emotions, no real solution, if people would just think perhaps there would be solutions. but thought crimes will be the next thing, its starting that way, no discussion allowed about certain topics.

4:49 AM, March 20, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is there a difference between political correctness and liberal indoctrination? I tend to think of PC as falling over backwards to avoid offending anyone by using euphemistic language. This sounds more like socialistic indoctrination. Perhaps I am being naive, is there a difference?

Trey

9:56 AM, March 20, 2007  
Blogger Unknown said...

"Having a trait in the definition of one gender does not mean the antonym must be present in the definition of the other gender."

It implies that the trait is NOT a definition of the other gender, and in the case of this particular trait, that implies that its antithesis is a feminine trait.

As for Sapir-Whorf, no, that isn't linguistics, it's pop linguistics. Sapir-Whorf can neither be tested nor disproven. It's hogwash.

10:29 AM, March 20, 2007  
Blogger Helen said...

Trey,

"I tend to think of PC as falling over backwards to avoid offending anyone by using euphemistic language."

Really? It seems that some universities don't mind offending whites, men, Jews, capitalists and anyone else they disagree with. If you are part of the right liberal group (i.e. groups identified as important voter blocks by the Democratic party), you are entitled to free speech supported by the university.

10:48 AM, March 20, 2007  
Blogger TMink said...

Touche! I am laughing, thank God I put that "maybe I am just being naive" disclaimer in! I more accurate statement would have been something like "I tend to think of PC as falling over backwards to avoid offending whites, men, Jews, capitalists, conservatives etc. by using euphemistic language."

But you are right, thanks for the correction, I will laugh at that for a couple of hours!

Trey

12:10 PM, March 20, 2007  
Blogger TMink said...

Did it again. avoiding offending everyone EXCEPT whites, men, Jews, conservatives, soldiers etc.

Sheesh. Tough day!

Trey

12:11 PM, March 20, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As thinking people do we really see things in such black and white terms?

Well, I think my shades of gray are a lot more limited than yours.

Amy K.

5:07 AM, March 21, 2007  
Blogger Unknown said...

"Nope. It only implies the trait is in the definition of the gender mentioned."

You're mistaken. Both are Boolean. Masculine or feminine, nothing in between. Success or failure, nothing in between. Therefore, yes, the authors of the study are implying that success is not a "feminine" trait (whatever that means).

11:08 AM, March 21, 2007  
Blogger Bruce Hayden said...

Liberals have been much more successful getting their material into schools because they are better at building it to work with existing curriculum. It is easier for schools to find information on rain forests and global warming that is geared to grade schools than it is to find information on subjects dear to the conservative heart. When teachers are looking for something about ecology, materials about global warming are abundantly, obviously, easily available. Conservatives have been slower to see how to help teachers. Another advantage that liberals have is that they believe they are teaching the truth. Conservatives tend to teach against the lie. The defensive mechanism is identified more quickly as ideological. Nobody said life was fair.

Or, maybe, just maybe, most teachers, esp. in public schools, but also surprisingly in private ones, are liberal.

8:25 PM, March 21, 2007  
Blogger Sirena said...

Bruce,
Not where I come from in TN I know because I was a substitute teacher for a while in grad school. The teachers are VERY nice, good people but they are also like Sunday school teachers and EXTREMELY Conservative.

Tn is I believe just right above MS in the lowest standardized test scores in the nation!

7:32 AM, March 22, 2007  
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