Here's an article from Daily Life in Australia. A liberal/progressive/feminist author attacks comedian Jerry Seinfeld for his lack of understanding of what political correctness really means.
The term 'political correctness' exists in the same camp as 'bleeding heart liberal'. When you burrow down to their individual definitions, you'd be hard pressed to argue against their necessity. To have a bleeding heart means to care deeply about those without any power (political or otherwise), and to advocate on their behalf. To be politically correct means to not discriminate against or further oppress those same people who are already marginalised and trodden on by the whims of capitalism, patriarchy and heteronormativity.
. . .
I do believe good comedy is nuanced and great comedy can go to dark, unsettling places. But it has to say something of value if it's going to use words and ideas that challenge and confront the status quo - it doesn't become great just by saying the words themselves. As playwright and performer Nakkiah Lui told me, "I think lines and boundaries should always be pushed and crossed, however, this does not go hand in hand in silencing and dismissing critical engagement and discourse."
Indeed, it seems obvious the racism parodied by the ABC's Black Comedy (in which Lui starred) is effective precisely because it's presented by the people most likely to experience racism. When comedians supported by the structures of white supremacy make 'daring' jokes about racism, they're almost always reinforcing the invisible hierarchy which keeps them in power. When black people make those same jokes, it's far more likely to be as a commentary on racism while also confronting white people with the realities of structural inequality and white supremacy.
As Lindy West argues, perhaps what really rankles Seinfeld is not accusations of political correctness but the changing landscape of comedy in the 21st century. Although the straight white man still dominates the comedy rooms, there are more and more voices emerging to be modern scribes, jesters and cultural satirists. Perhaps in the end what really scares Seinfeld and his ilk isn't that the right to laugh is being taken away from the men who have always dictated what passes for humour. Perhaps it's that for the first time in history the tables are being turned and the joke, at last, is on them.
There's more at the link.
Well, bless her cotton socks - and her pure, puritanical SJW heart. If you want to know the attitudes at the root of Tor's problems, you need look no further than those expressed in that article.
Here's Seinfeld's own words on the matter.
I couldn't agree more.
Peter
"Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to."
ReplyDelete- Theodore Dalrymple
"Bleeding heart" means useful idiot, nothing more, nothing less. A useful idiot is someone too emotionally/psychologically weak and incompetent to defend themselves against the utter nonsense of destructionist propaganda. Useful idiots are also among the first to be put against the wall in an eliminationist manner after the revolution they helped make. This is due to the fact that the thought bosses know damned well that their propaganda was so insanely stupid that it takes the stupidly insane to believe it. And, since useful idiots are stupidly insane enough to believe the destructionist propaganda, they're stupidly insane enough to believe any idiocy, so will always be a danger.
Pugmak.
Brad Torgersen coined the term CHORF, for the SJWs that have been trying to ruin Science Fiction for the last 20 years: CHORF - Cliquish, Holier-than-thou, Obnoxious, Reactionary, Fanatics. While they are all of those, it is ironic they are reactionaries given the meaning radical leftists have ascribed to that term.
ReplyDeleteI assume that you've seen this National Review parody of the article to which you've linked. If not, then I take pleasure in giving you the chance to read it.
ReplyDelete"To have a bleeding heart means to care deeply about those without any power (political or otherwise), and to advocate on their behalf."
ReplyDeleteWhat I see is that bleeding hearts and SJW want to speak for the voiceless because the voiceless are in no position to contradict whatever fantasy spews out of their mouth. The SJW gets a self-righteous high, gets their world view validated and collects an amorphous, uncountable following.
I was watching Brave Heart with a SJW and the SJW was lamenting the death of horses. He figured the soldiers deserved to die.
He liked the horses because he could freely project his values onto them. They were a blank, mute screen. There was no dialog to contradict his fantasy.
It would be more honest to help the "downtrodden" to find their own voice so they can participate in the hurly-burly of adult interactions. But SJW do not want honesty.
On the other hand, I have always believed that the pun is the highest form of humor. After all, humor requires that some entity be the butt of the joke. Blonde jokes, ethnic jokes and mother-in-law jokes all have this feature in common.
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of the pun is that language itself is the butt of the joke.
Of course, this still presents problems for comedians attempting to work the campus circuit:
* It's not exactly easy to build an hour-long stand-up comedy routine around puns.
* Puns are best suited for a civilized audience. Good luck finding such an audience on present-day college campuses.
* Since puns rely on playing with a language's words, those college students who lack the vocabulary to understand the wordplay (due either to being ESL students or to being graduates of all-too-many public school systems in the US) would undoubtedly scream "microaggression!" at the first pun they didn't understand.
Sadly you don't have to go "down under" to find females that are that stupid. In my state I need look no further than the nearest university or collage. When Berea Collage in Berea Ky. began handing out degrees for "environmentalism and social justice" I KNEW America was screwed. The fact that 80% of people that "graduate" with that degree are white females or blacks is just scary. --Ray P.S. And you marvel at the TOR stupid's? Man that's the ONLY thing taught at university's today.
ReplyDelete