Sunday, July 3, 2016

Being Contrary to PC Culture

Someone on social networking site number 22 posted this image made out of text:
Under no circumstances is an absolute statement; my
pet-peeve and the last about this image to upset me.
What's socially acceptable or allowed is irrelevant to what actually takes in place the human mind. I do my best but it's our nature as humans, and for others in their conditioning, to objectify other people. Please try to be patient and understanding with those of us with diverse and contrary perspectives. I ask that you please consider not to judge and shame us as well. I would also like to let you know for the sake of getting along, I don't often hold the popular opinion, so please bare with me because it's my objective to be kind and helpful. I want to let you know that this statement sounds like it's trying to police or enforce an idea or standard and I don't appreciate that, even when I agree with the idea. People are allowed and able to disagree. In case it's not clear, let me explicitly state that I agree with the ideal presented here, that people should be allowed to wear what makes them happy etc., etc., but I find the method of sharing this idea to be somewhat reprehensible.
     First, I think it's a contradiction to tell me this is a friendly reminder when it feels like a pre-emptive, passive-aggressive way of controlling my behavior. Instead of teaching the value and relevance of an idea and then respecting others' intelligence and allowing them to arrive at their own conclusion themselves like mentally competent adults, we instead state  the idea bluntly and subtly communicate that others' compliance is expected and imply consequences if otherwise; This statement does so heavily. It's a friendly reminder to be obedient of a taboo that was recently invented and has not been universally accepted or understood.
     Second, I think it's more detrimental to teach people that it's OK to impose their beliefs on others and to make veiled threats on their social acceptance than for them to make the mistakes you set out to warn them against. This is also about respecting people's autonomy. People do not need to be reminded what is accepted, allowed, and appropriate all the time. That is insulting. Please understand that I value intellectual and psychological diversity and freedom. I need to feel safe to disagree in order to have a genuine relationship. I believe it my one of my ancillary responsibilities to consider others well-being, but I do not think it is the same as preserving your well-being at all costs. You have the right to ask others for their due consideration with regards for your needs, but please keep your expectations minimal because you will encounter resistance and conflict. Let people be themselves and let them have the right to be wrong. Have some faith in your ideas; if they are good ideas they will successfully permeate the deepest parts of the culture and they will do so without coercion. You don't have the legal right to tell others who to be, what to think, or what to do, that's fascism. If you disagree with someone or don't like someone, you may, and you may choose not to associate with them. If you do a *fair job to communicate your point of view and if the other person doesn't accept it, oh well. That's life.
     Third, there's something arrogant about this statement. Other people can wear whatever they want regardless of who they are, but under no circumstances am I allowed to say, think, or feel X. That is not how I talk to people I am on friendly terms with. These are not the words chosen be someone having friendly and respectful discourse with an equal. This choice of words shows indignation and is lacking civility. Why do you think you have the right or authority to say what group X is allowed to do and what group Y better not do? You're assigning your own values to these ideas, which is what we all do, but then you impose your perspective onto others.
     In conclusion I dislike both versions of our culture in which people are made to feel shame or be sexualized by others, and the version where we respond to mistreatment of ourselves and others with resentment, condescension, and force. Our ideas are valid, yours are not; accept our point of view or else. I also dislike our collective mentality to immediately discourage even polite descent and be closed off to intellectual discourse. For this reason alone, political correctness is an ugly ignorance but it also ignores logic and reasoning if it's contradictory to it's narrative. It tries to make everything black and white when it's not. It demands conformity. It has a decisive us or them mentality. It's self-righteous and self-aggrandizing. I hate it.

*I thought this needed some elaboration. What do I mean by fairly communicate? I think I should make the effort to directly communicate with people and be genuine. This gives me the opportunity to be heard and the other person gets the opportunity to learn what it's going to take to get along with me when they make a choice to have or continue a relationship with me. An alternative might be to keep your values secret and not give the other person the resources to respect what's important to you.

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