PC crap

[bascule]

Aargh, this is infuriating!

 

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3823356

 

Tuesday, the Boulder City Council will take up the matter of allocating public funding for a "hate hotline," which would give residents an opportunity to report incidents in which Boulderites use tactless language.

 

Okay, as many of you know, I'm a liberal. But I'm also a libertarian and a skeptic. And well, this place is really starting to freak me out. It's got tons of insane political correctness bullshit going which, as far as I can tell, are all a product of the University of Colorado (famous for its 33 to 1 ratio of Democrats to Republicans)

 

Anyway, this is ridiculous. I don't mind this kind of crap being expected of college students, but you can't just force it onto the public at large. Huge questions remain about who will manage this information or what it will be used for.

 

Anyway, I'm a little POed...

[Sisyphus]

That is pretty ridiculous, but I doubt they would actually institute such a thing. Like you say, how would it even work? If some kind of resolution actually is passed, it will have to be so vague as to quickly demonstrate its stupidity in practice.

 

It makes me cringe when I think of how all the Anne Coulter types must be salivating about this. That is, if she even bothers to use real anecdotes anymore...

 

This is an example of an interesting mentality, however. Liberals basically won the civil rights aspect of the culture war. No mainstream politician would dare suggest racial or gender inequality, and liberals are happy about that. However, they still suspect conservatives of racism and sexism, just in a more subtle form. (This isn't entirely unreasonable - people don't change their opinions when the political winds change, they just change their stated opinions. Plus, the anti-gay thing seems like an example of still politically acceptable bigotry that is going strong.) Thus they are annoyed that conservatives were never really "punished" for being so wrong, and strive for the "gotcha" moment when they can catch their opponents' "real" feelings. This results in a lot of irrational accusations that end up looking silly (Hurricane Katrina = Bush hates blacks?), and a lot of measures that go way beyond reason just to look for a fight, which is what this appears to be. I can definitely sympathize, but they definitely need to get a hold of themselves and get some perspective. I mean, what is more quintessentially un-liberal than a thought crime?

[bascule]

There is, for instance, the policy statement condemning the usual individual or collective acts of racism and bigotry. Great. But it also condemns those who attack "personal beliefs and values."

 

That's where I really draw the line. This seems like a blatant disregard for free speech rights.

[Phi for All]

What if we stand on the Pearl Street mall and hurl "tactless language" at each other. If we're questioned we say it's performance art.

 

It might just give the Boulder City Council a permanent facial tic.

[swansont]

Are Shakespearean insults tactless, or are they cultural?

 

[Thou] appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. (Hamlet)

[Phi for All]

[Thou] appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.[/i'] (Hamlet)

Hello, Hate Hotline? Queen Gertrude here. [swansont] doth protest too much, methinks. (Hamlet) [He is] a most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality. (All's Well That Ends Well)

 

This is fun!

[swansont]

Hello' date=' Hate Hotline? Queen Gertrude here. [swansont'] doth protest too much, methinks. (Hamlet) [He is] a most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality. (All's Well That Ends Well)

 

This is fun!

 

 

You starvelling, you eel-skin, you dried neat's-tongue, you bull's-pizzle, you stock-fish--O for breath to utter what is like thee!-you tailor's-yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck!

 

Taken from: Henry IV, part I

 

Shakespearean Insult Generator ... (hmmm ... pangloss.com)

 

I'll have to point this link out to people I know in the Boulder area, and bone up on my Willy insults next time I visit NIST.

[Sisyphus]

You guys are idols of idiot-worshippers. Clods of wayward marl, even.

[Pangloss]

(grin) You don't know how many times I've tried to acquire that domain! And the guy's never done hardly anything with it. For a while it was a storefront and then eventually he turned it into that quote-a-day nonsense.

 

I've been using this moniker in online discourse since the early 1980s. Back then nobody used it and it was a nice literary reference that only a few people got. But now with the WWW the info's only a click away, and everyone is a literary genius. (chuckle) Ah well.

 

(Geez, I'm getting more curmudgeonly by the year....)

[Phi for All]

You guys are idols of idiot-worshippers. Clods of wayward marl, even.

Methink'st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee. Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch! Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver'd boy. (Macbeth, AWTEW, Henry 4.1)

[Genecks]

Clowns.

[JohnB]

Clowns.

Away, you bottle-ale rascal, you filthy bung, away!

 

Taken from: Henry IV, part 2

[Kylonicus]

I can imagine all the abuses that will take place.

 

Average High School Prick: Yah hotline, Like when I went to apply for the job, the manager, he like, said I wasn't qualified. I think he hates me, I think that's the reason he didn't employ me.

 

Woman who broke up with boyfriend: My boyfriend he said this, and this, and this, and he hates me! You need to have him arrested!

 

 

What might happen, is the general public would live in perpetual fear, and because they couldn't take everyone to jail(as that would overfill the jails), they could turn this into a hefty source of tax money. Every reported case of a "hate speech crime" would cost like 1000-2000 dollars in court, and it would be different for different income levels. The upper class would end up paying like 40,000 dollars. And the only people immune to this would be minorities and women, who, because they are oppressed, could NEVER discriminate . So ultimately this will turn out just to be another legal means of screwing over white guys, like always, even though, white guys are the present minority(which may be why we can be easily discriminated against).