Bill Maher ran a show called “Politically Incorrect” on ABC from 1993 to 2002.
In that show he often used language which was deemed politically incorrect at the time, and did so in a direct effort to prove that speaking in politically correct terms could leave a person on the losing end of the stick in politics.
We find ourselves here in the early years of the 21st century, awash in shifting norms when it comes to language and the meaning of various words and phrases.
How one views the use of a particular word often depends upon your gender, your sociological views, your family background, your socio-economical place in the world, what you watch for entertainment and a whole host of other factors.
What outrages one person may be seen by the next as completely acceptable.
This is a direct effect of our pluralistic society and the growing levels of diversity in our population, both in terms of nationality of origin, religion or lack thereof and amount of melanin in one’s skin, to name but a few of the factors which drive our personal stance on what constitutes “politically correct”.
Here at Daily Kos the internecine warfare which commences upon the publication of a story rife with ‘trigger words’ always now devolves instantly from a discussion about the merits of the IDEAS in the published story into a pie fight about what words the author used to make their point(s).
Which brings me to the lede of this story.
Why are you a member of this Community and what is it that you want to accomplish with your time spent here?
Are you consigned to being just another arbitor of what words are acceptable to use to convey an idea or do you desire discussion to consider what actions may help our side of the politial spectrum succeed, in a world which has of late turned a corner into what can be seriously considered as “the twilight zone”?
Because I do think it’s time we have a real discussion about THIS issue, now, before the year ends and the inauguration of one Donald Trump is upon us, the nation and the world.
The Republicans have been frothing at the mouth to gain the upper hand on the political battleground in These United States for most of my adult lifetime. They had been banished to wander in the wilderness of the (what must have seemed to them as the permanent) minority for about 40 years from the time of the Great Depression and the unarguably historic four terms of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the Oval Office.
For nearly two generations, the Democratic Party and it’s members really did run the country, from the White House, Congress and most of the Statehouses and Governor’s mansions, too.
So when the apparent shift in the mood of the nation to the bleak years of the Carter presidency brought about the two terms of Ronald Reagan, there was rejoicing on the part of the GOP.
But the Republican Party which came into power in that era was not the same Party which went out in the midst of the 20th century. This reconsitituted Party was chock full of people like Tom Delay, Newt Gingrich, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and a whole host of people who no longer were merely much more fond of business and capitalism and less concerned with Civil Rights — they were adament that the dates on the calendars might have changed, but that the times most certainly should not.
They were, for the most part, white and either overtly or covertly racist. They were mostly men (and remain mostly men today). They also remain almost entirely white to this day. See @SpeakerRyan’s now famous selfie of the the incoming Republican Congressional Staff:
All of which recent history is the background for our current State of the Union.
This is the Republican Party of 1970 clear to 2016, almost a half century. The times have changed, but they have not.
The racial makeup of the United States is changing, and the further into the 21st century we go, the less white and the more brown and black it will become.
Projections of the Size and Composition of the U.S. Population: 2014 to 2060
A report based on U.S. Census data up to 2010.
Between 2014 and 2060, the U.S. population is projected to increase from 319 million to 417 million, reaching 400 million in 2051. The U.S. population is projected to grow more slowly in future decades than in the recent past, as these projections assume that fertility rates will continue to decline and that there will be a modest decline in the overall rate of net international migration. By 2030, one in five Americans is projected to be 65 and over; by 2044, more than half of all Americans are projected to belong to a minority group (any group other than non-Hispanic White alone); and by 2060, nearly one in five of the nation’s total population is projected to be foreign born.
[emphasis added for clarity]
Those numbers have apparently been enough to unhinge the leadership of the Republican Party. This is shown by their abject acquiescence to the rise of Donald Trump and his accension to the Presidency while he spent the year plus of his campaign for the office absolutely giving the Grand Old Party and it’s heretofore leadership the one finger salute.
They could clearly see that the world their (still white) grandchildren would inhabit would no longer be the demesnes of their kind of people. Which is to say, not merely just white of skin, but also conservative and christian and pro-business, to boot.
So what’s a Party to do when they can see the end of their way of life coming at them like a freight train on steroids? It seems their decision was: let fly the slings and arrows of discord and let them fall where they may. After all, if they couldn’t keep their ball any longer, by god, no one should be able to have it.
Which brings me back to my earlier question:
Why are you a member of this Community and what is it that you want to accomplish with your time spent here?
Do you want to spend your time here reading the riot act to someone who may inelegantly or even atrociously express themselves and their ideas, or do you want to find concensus on those ideas of merit WHICH OFTEN DO appear in these stories rife with threads of discord upon the merits of which words the author used to express or explain their ideas?
Am I saying it’s perfectly fine to drop vulgar and politically incorrect words into a story which makes it very hard for some to even read through the piece, much less make the effort to ignore those words and ferret out the meaning which lies beneath them?
Or am I saying that it might actually be irrelevant what language they use to get their meaning across — so long as the ideas which they present are relevant to our cause?
Because years ago I went on a rampage here and was called a “spelling nazi” for good cause. I would correct people in word choice and how to spell something correctly. I did it a lot. It was pedantic and made people loath my presence at times, they told me so. Then they quit listening when I wrote something of value. I so offended their sensibilities that they couldn’t or wouldn’t hear me. I became, through my efforts to increase good communications here, politically incorrect by Daily Kos standards of the day.
What shall the Daily Kos standards of the day be seen as now, in light of the coming shitstorm that the new year and the installation of the new American Government, run by a man who has been called so very many politically incorrect things by so very many of our fellow Americans since November 8, 2016, will bring us?
Are we to be the Guardians of Politically Correct Speech or the foot soldiers of the Army of the Fucking Sick of this Shit and Refuse to Take it Anymore?
One of my political heroes, for his writing and his tone, remains Steve Gilliard. My go to piece, to remind me of whom and what we face in the coming four years is his piece titled: I’m a Fighting Liberal
In which he says:
It is time to stop looking for an accomodation with the right. They want none for us. They want to win, at any price. So, you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?
Now Steve was an elegant writer, and you should all go look through the archives at the NewsBlog and read some of his words. I guarantee you, it will be time well spent.
But somehow I doubt that he would elect to become a Guardian of Poltically Correct Speech, in these dire and dangerous waters our ship of state is currently navigating. He sought to inform and inflame the sensiblities of those who ignore the past and travel the paths of least resistance in the present. Because ignoring the fight in front of you? That is just not an option. Not even if the person trying to get your attention is speaking in scandalous prose.
This story is not on the Rec List History page. But the Tag History link doesn’t show anyone adding it. I think the system may be having a glitch.
I’ve updated the title to better reflect my purpose in writing this. You can see the old title in the URL itself.