Political Correctness: Euphemisms Excoriated

[Quicksilver]

As the world heads into the toilet of dysfunctional speech It’s little wonder that political correctness has reared it’s ugly head.It works well for those who are best described as spin doctors. But let’s have some fun at the expense of those who value Political Correctness. Can you make a list of politically correct statements?

Here’s a primer that may help us to know how to recognize what this is all about.

As civilizations decline, they become increasingly concerned with form over substance, particularly with respect to language. At the time of the First World War we called it shell shock--a simple term, two one-syllable words, clear and descriptive. A generation later, after the Second World War had come and gone, we called it combat fatigue. It meant the same thing, and there were still just two words--but the two syllables had grown to four. Today the two words have doubled, and the original pair of syllables have mushroomed to eight. It even has an acronym, PTSD--post traumatic stress disorder. It still means the same thing, and it still hurts as much or as little, but it is more in tune with current effete sensibilities.

It is also a perfect example of the pretentious euphemisms that characterize almost everything we do and say. Euphemisms and the politically correct language which they exemplify are sometimes only prissy, sometimes ridiculous, and sometimes tiresome. Often, however, they are more than that. At their worst they obscure clear thinking and damage the very people and causes they claim to benefit.

The blind have had trouble with euphemismms for as long as anybody can remember, and late twentieth-century America is no exception. The form has changed (in fact, everything is very "politically correct"), but the old notions of inferiority and second-class status still remain. The euphemisms and the political correctness don't help. If anything, they make matters worse since they claim modern thought and new enlightenment. Here is a recent example from the federal government:



* "Persons with a disability" or "individuals with disabilities" instead of "disabled person."

* "Persons who are deaf" or "young people with hearing impairments" instead of "deaf people."

* "People who are blind" or "persons with a visual impairment" instead of "blind people."

• "A student with dyslexia" instead of "a dyslexic student."

One of my favotites???? Person hole instead of a man hole....................

Now it's your turn.........

[asawadude]

Plagiarism: Previously Owned Prose (as in "this list was plagiarized from a Washington Post column")
Road Kill: Vehicularly Compressed Maladapted Life Form
Cowardly: Challenge Challenged
Cannibalism: Intra-Species Dining
Vomiting: Unplanned Reexamination of Recent Food Choices
Alcoholic: Anti-Sobriety Activist
Vice President: Post-Coronary Leader of the Free World
Abortion: Near-Life Experience
Rudeness: Tact Avoidance
Assassination: Involuntary Term Limitation
Shoplifter: Cost-of-Living Adjustment Specialist
Dead: Actuarially Mature
Homelessness: Mortgage-Free Living
Corpse: Permanently Static Post-Human Mass
Loser: Second Place

[Quicksilver]

Well done. Those are new ones I have never heard of. Let's hope we get more so we can expand our ever increasing vocabulary. For example............

Dirty Old Man: Sexually focused chronologically gifted individual.

Perverted: Sexually dysfunctional.

Panhandler: Unaffiliated applicant for private-sector funding.

Serial-Killer: Person with difficult-to-meet needs.

Lazy: Motivationally deficient.

Fat: Horizontally challenged.

Fail: Acheive a deficiency.

Dishonest: Ethically disoriented.

Clumsy: Uniquely coordinated.

Body Odor: Nondiscretionary fragrance.

Worst: Least best.

Wrong: Differently logical.

Ugly: Cosmetically different.

Unemployed: Involuntarily leisured.

Short: Vertically challanged.

Dead: Living impaired.

Vagrant: Nonspecifically destinationed individual.

Spendthrift: Negative saver.

Stoned: Chemically inconvenienced.

Pregnant: Parasitically opressed.

[Wagner]

Those are great. Because you know now a day you can't actually offend a person, that would be mean.

[PersonaNonGrata]

Totally un-PC but very enlightening, here is a list of racial slurs. I'm not trying to start anything. I just find it very interesting how some racial slurs supposedly came about.

[Quicksilver]

You know what? I think i'll pass checking that out. I have had my fill of hearing that. Especially since i know it continues even to this day.