Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/09/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]What we have just seen here on the LUG is yet another example of the cancer of political correctness. There is a class of intellectual Stalinists who believe that a person should lose their job, their reputation and their place in the community if they *ever* are caught making even *one* remark that could in *any* way be construed to be offensive to anyone whose forbears have ever suffered at the hands of the majority. I have seen such people close up in university and public sector environments. The problem is that they rarely expose any real bigots. They usually just ruin the life of some poor schmuck who happened to make an inappropriate remark due to fatigue, anger, use of a linguistic construct that they grew up with but has fallen out of vogue, or the fact that we all say stupid things sometimes. Even worse are the people who use P.C. not to right past wrongs, but simply as a tool to gain power, cow their opponents, and denigrate others. Or simply to cause trouble. There is plenty of real bigotry to fight in the world. Being part of the Linguistic Thought Police does not aid in that fight. It trivializes it. It creates a distracting side show of tarring and feathering and making an example of someone. Meanwhile, real bigotry, much more skillful at concealing itself, continues unabated. And many ordinary people become so disgusted with the side shows that when real bigotry is exposed, they think someone is just crying wolf. So, to the one who started this, and to his amen corner, congratulations. Because of his one mildly inappropriate remark, you've managed to purge the LUG of one of its finest members. Don't you feel proud of yourselves? - --Peter At 03:32 PM 9/2/02 -0700, Mark Rabiner wrote (and I heartily agree): >And Ted has been the voice of calm humane reason on the LUG for years >and years and years. He's a great professional photographer (we've got >lots of those here don't we?) and a great man. I saw he got angry about >something in the last week or so and that's completely unusual for him. >I'd assume perhaps he had a reason? What if he made a mistake!?! Wow! >I'd assume the people who attack him are people who are new to the list >and don't know who he is and what he means to the list. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html