Pol-correct language

[Reactor]

Well guys, I don't know about you or your country, but here, the usage of politically correct speech is getting utilized at more and more territories of life (not just on the Internet), I decided I ask your opinions about it. Was it actually a clever thing to "invent" polcorrect speech, what was the idea behind it, and why is it so necessary to utilize it almost everywhere? I simply can't really grasp the main idea behind speaking and writing like this...

"You have obtained, and therefore entrusted with the delightful task of owning and utilizing a multi-barreled rapid fire man-portable weapon constructed to unleash large amounts of standard caliber bullets at great distances for massive damage!"

(You got the chaingun!)

Seriously, it just sounds ridiculous and overcomplicated, like a crude joke on a language. Not to mention that sometimes it's so needlessly overcomplicated that one may can't even decode or decipher what's the sense behind that mess.
So...what are your thoughts on this?

[Jimmy]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ufy5bqsrjqlyu ... m.wad?dl=1

[Caligari87]

There's a difference between "politically correct" language and "legalese". Your chaingun example is the latter. Legalese is concerned with being descriptive and closing loopholes in language, so I can't (for example) say "But this isn't a chaingun, it uses magazines, it's not belt-fed!" or something.

Political correctness, on the other hand, usually focuses on the use of certina words/terms to avoid promoting racism/sexism/etc. For example, most of us realize that "faggot" is a gendered slur just like "nigger" is a racial slur, but I learned recently that a lot of gay people don't like being called "homosexual" because it's a clinical definition implying the times when being gay was though of as a disease. Nowadays, apparently "gay" or "queer" or "LGBTQ" is preferred. Similarly, the term "postman" is falling out of favor because it's a gendered term, when women are just as capable of doing the job. "Mailperson" or "postal worker" or "mail carrier" are alternative terms that avoid making postal work a "mans job" linguistically.

Personally, I used to have a problem with this (and I still think going as far as differentiating "history/herstory" or weird ungendered pronouns like "ze" s is kinda silly) but I've come to appreciate the reasons for political correctness. A lot of language is tied up in problematic terms that serve to subconsciously condition us. For example, the Latin term for "left" is "sinister", which has come to be synonymous with "bad" or "wrong". Can you imagine if people saw me signing my name and said things like "Oh, you're wrong-handed"? It would certainly piss me off to imply linguistically that being left-handed is somehow bad or inferior.

Of course, we still have the term "right-handed", but there's been a lot of progress since the mid 1900s. They used to psychologically abuse us and force us to write with our off-hands, which led to a lot of natural lefties ending up as righties with awful handwriting.

[Reactor]

I get your idea, the basic idea was to use words which will not offend anyone, but the outcome was...well, here, pol-correct speech and legalese is exactly the same thing, thus, this is why I wrote it's ridiculous, especially on everyday speech. It seems like calling things by their name is some kind of sin. I wonder how everyday people cope with this in your country.

[Caligari87]

Politically-correct language in the U.S. is kinda weird. Some people embrace it, some people mock it, most are somewhere in-between and really don't care. What often happens is that we have an unwritten "list" of bad words that certain people (especially white male people) are "not allowed" to say, and alternate words get used.

A particularly egregious cycle began with the word "retard". The word itself literally means "slow" (n) or "to slow down" (v), and it began being clinically applied to people with mental deficiencies ("retards", "[censored word]", literally "mentally slow). Of course, people are mean and started using it as a slur ("dude, are you [censored word]?"), so it became offensive, and then its replacement became offensive, and then was replaced again... and then we moved on to "special needs", which of course also became a slur ("dude, are you special needs?") so now we're moving away from that to "differently abled" or something. I suspect eventually we'll loop back around to where "mentally [censored word]" is the accepted term again.

[TheMightyHeracross]

I get your idea, the basic idea was to use words which will not offend anyone

Man-portable

Oh, I'm triggered now, you horrible sexist fiend!

[Reactor]

Oops I can explain....it was meant to be "evolved human being-portable"!

I also recall a pol-correct mockery from Quake III Arena by Orbb: "Your female parental unit!"
This was priceless!

[Trance]

I feel compelled to point to George Carlin's piece on this subject.

[Caligari87]

Oops I can explain....it was meant to be "evolved human being-portable"!

Still offensive, should say huperson- or huwoman-portable.

Also, this scene is highly offensive but illustrates some funny aspects of racial language and political correctness.

---

[Arctangent]

I feel compelled to point to George Carlin's piece on this subject.

I have no idea what he's getting at.

"Shellshocked" tells me nothing. Battle fatigue and so on give a better idea on it, but the condition can pop up from other types of trauma, and it still doesn't really give an idea on what the condition it. Post-traumatic stress disorder? Well, the basics of the condition is that the person experiences an extreme amount of stress from actions that remind them of traumatic experiences, so ... yeah, that term's pretty on the money. Sure, it's long, but you can pretty easily recognize PTSD.

So, uh, he finds it funny how words actually sound like what they're describing?

[Trance]

"Post-traumatic stress disorder" is a sterile term which completely obscures the reality of the condition it's describing. That was his entire point doing that segment. "Shell shock" very strongly hints at the type and magnitude of the symptoms affected people would experience. PTSD is an accurate name for the condition, clinically so, but prior to seeing for yourself what PTSD really means, the term doesn't give you any idea what to expect from the condition. It sounds less awful, more tolerable than "shell shock".

[DoomRater]

Be succinct. Be terse. Better yet, explain yourself using common words as often as possible. And as far as possible, do not offend. Obviously when addressing certain topics you WILL offend people and if your stances don't offend someone, you probably don't stand for anything at all, but your explanations and choice of words should aim to offend as few people as possible.

Failing that, fuck the haters, their rage is as tiny as their peepees as far as the net is concerned.

Also, on PTSD... I'd hate to see flashbacks of my life like I'm right back there. I've felt the old emotions tied to a bad event when thinking about it, and there's something... unsettling about it. How I wanted to do something completely different. To have to SEE it not just feel like I'm right back there, I'd be telling a doc about that stat. You want movie examples? Take a look at what Captain America is going through as he punches the heavy bag in Avengers. That's kinda what someone traumatized in that sort of fashion experiences. At least as accurate as anything I've experienced or imagined.

[Blox]

"Shellshocked" tells me nothing.

Shell refers to a mortar shell.

Shellshocked refers to the condition of being completely flabbergasted after nearly dying to a mortar shell exploding near you.
A traumatic combat experience, hmm..

but i mean sure, "it tells me nothing!"

[Matt]

itt: bullshit strawmen circlejerk, no citations

[Trance]

Except for the "no citations" part (which I wouldn't assume was a requirement), I fail to see where any of the words you just used apply to this thread.

Please elaborate. I'm curious.