Politically Correct in America

[Destroit]

As I get older I notice less and less is able to be spoken about other people. If you use the word "black" or "African American" to describe a person, you are racist or prejudice. Instead of encouraging others to be fit and healthy for the betterment of our society as a whole, very damaging labels such as "BBW" or "Extra Curvy" have been created to help enable obese people and fooling them into thinking that most people think it is healthy and aesthetically pleasing. The law has taken away a parent's rights to punish their child according to their own cultural traditions or beliefs. We no longer consider a white person killing a minority for reasons OTHER than the fact they are a minority as a normal crime, but have the phrase "hate crime" attached now (when ALL crimes are hate crimes!). We are not ALLOWED to be willingly aggressive with each other. Two people in a bar cannot have a verbal dispute and very honorably "take it outside" anymore, they are forced to bottle it up and "talk it out" (which with MANY people does not work or relieve the stress of the issue). I'm not condoning say, five guys beating up on one other guy because he looks scrawny; I'm talking about a good old-fashioned one-on-one fist fight that is MUTUAL between both parties to "get it all out".

We as a country are afraid to actually give anyone else any criticism or to tell others that they are doing something wrong. Everything is now "not our business" or "too mean to say, we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings ever!" What happened to the notion that telling people that their behavior is not the best way to go is the right thing to do? This is not necessarily any mores that are law enforced, either. What I mentioned above, obesity, prejudice, aggression, raising children, it's all the tip of the iceburg. There are many other problems in society that everyone is afraid to address because "we don't want to piss anyone else off" while failing to realize that MANY times what gets people motivated or lets them know what they are doing is not the best path IS other people pissing them off about it.

What do YOU think? Are we too nicey nice in this country now? Is this nicey-nice rhetoric actually solving anything or is it enabling people with problems to think that their problems are functional and normal? Are there any issues that I have not addressed that you believe we are too hush-hush over? (I'm sure there are plenty) What do you believe we should do about it as a whole? (If anything) Can it be reversed before the entire country turns out like Wall-E or Idiocracy? Where do you believe it stemmed from? Any stories of people like this to share?

Just thought of it as an interesting topic to debate. It occured to me last week when I was taking in the bus that I was the thinnest female on the bus by at LEAST fifty pounds...and I am forty pounds over weight.

Please be respectful, yet truthful. Do not break the play nice rules debating!

As I get older I notice less and less is able to be spoken about other people. If you use the word "black" or "African American" to describe a person, you are racist or prejudice. Instead of encouraging others to be fit and healthy for the betterment of our society as a whole, very damaging labels such as "BBW" or "Extra Curvy" have been created to help enable obese people and fooling them into thinking that most people think it is healthy and aesthetically pleasing. The law has taken away a parent's rights to punish their child according to their own cultural traditions or beliefs. We no longer consider a white person killing a minority for reasons OTHER than the fact they are a minority as a normal crime, but have the phrase "hate crime" attached now (when ALL crimes are hate crimes!). We are not ALLOWED to be willingly aggressive with each other. Two people in a bar cannot have a verbal dispute and very honorably "take it outside" anymore, they are forced to bottle it up and "talk it out" (which with MANY people does not work or relieve the stress of the issue). I'm not condoning say, five guys beating up on one other guy because he looks scrawny; I'm talking about a good old-fashioned one-on-one fist fight that is MUTUAL between both parties to "get it all out".

We as a country are afraid to actually give anyone else any criticism or to tell others that they are doing something wrong. Everything is now "not our business" or "too mean to say, we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings ever!" What happened to the notion that telling people that their behavior is not the best way to go is the right thing to do? This is not necessarily any mores that are law enforced, either. What I mentioned above, obesity, prejudice, aggression, raising children, it's all the tip of the iceburg. There are many other problems in society that everyone is afraid to address because "we don't want to piss anyone else off" while failing to realize that MANY times what gets people motivated or lets them know what they are doing is not the best path IS other people pissing them off about it.

What do YOU think? Are we too nicey nice in this country now? Is this nicey-nice rhetoric actually solving anything or is it enabling people with problems to think that their problems are functional and normal? Are there any issues that I have not addressed that you believe we are too hush-hush over? (I'm sure there are plenty) What do you believe we should do about it as a whole? (If anything) Can it be reversed before the entire country turns out like Wall-E or Idiocracy? Where do you believe it stemmed from? Any stories of people like this to share?

Just thought of it as an interesting topic to debate. It occured to me last week when I was taking in the bus that I was the thinnest female on the bus by at LEAST fifty pounds...and I am forty pounds over weight.

Please be respectful, yet truthful. Do not break the play nice rules debating!

[Scar My Machine]

I think we're living in a bumper car society. When did Americans lose their sense of humor?

[phee]

I think we're living in a bumper car society. When did Americans lose their sense of humor?

Don't joke about that.

[KatRN05]

I'm always interested in the obesity topic since I'm overweight and HAVE been morbidly obese.

It's interesting that you bring up the obesity issue because Mitch Albom was discussing this on his radio show last month. He was talking about actresses such as Gabriel Sidbie and Nikki Blonsky who are two very overweight/obese and how Hollywood is glorifying obesity by promoting these two actresses and pushing shows like "Huge"(which has been canceled btw). The discussion continued along the lines of how our society has gotten so politically correct to the point that people cannot even say to someone "Hey, I'm really concerned about your health because you are 50lbs or more overweight"...I agree. You can't say something like that without looking totally insensitive and it's not even an insensitive comment. It's one thing to be 20lbs over weight but these two actresses are 50lbs or more. Sidbie is at least 100lbs overweight. I'm not going to assume she has any health issues but I have been more than 100lbs overweight and while I was not diabetic or hypertensive, I was quite borderline. Oh yeah, and I had breathing problems like becoming short of breath after walking up one flight of stairs and sleep apnea(undiagnosed). I'm sure these actresses are surrounded by people who tell them what they want to hear. I'm sure they don't have anyone saying things to them like "You are beautiful but your morbid obesity is of great concern for me, I'm concerned about your health". I'm sure that person would be gone in a split second.

I certainly do not agree that saying to someone who is obese "Hey fatty, why don't you lose some weight?" is going to make that person make better and ultimately take better care of themselves. To be nasty and say something like that to me is politically incorrect and counterproductive. What is wrong with just talking to that person about improving their health? I guess, an intervention of sorts. My mom and sister had one with me. They were honest with me and I had to start being honest with myself. If I allowed myself to gain anymore weight there were going to be more serious consequences.

Edited October 20, 2010 by KatRN05

[Glory13666]

I agree about the obesity topic. I have always been overweight and at one time morbidly obese as well. It was my doctor who finally said something and it motivated me to lose 75 lbs. She didn't just say, you need to lose weight because of health risks but she gave me some really useful information on how to do it. Now, I'm still overweight but I have made permanent lifestyle changes which significantly reduce my risks and I'm down about 70 lbs.

I think it's ok for people to call themselves BBW or Extra Curvy as long as they realize that's it's a nice way of saying obese (I prefer to call myself a Fatty but I don't call other people that). No one should be put down for being overweight, they don't need that but they do need honesty. My daughter is overweight and I always tell her how beautiful she is and that she's a wonderful person but ....she is overweight and it's NOT OK. I remember my mom putting me down for being fat and now that I look back I think, she was the one feeding me so who's fault is it really??? We never had anything but cookies and cake and candy in the house to eat when I was a kid. My lifestyle changes have of course impacted her and she seems to grow taller but not wider and I think she'll be fine. She has learned good eating habits over the past few years that will be with her for life.

Another one of the topics you mentioned was about raising children and it really is strange that people won't discipline kids other than their own but then when you think about it, everyone wants to defend their own kid and think they never do anything wrong. No wonder people are afraid to tell someone else's kid when they're doing something they shouldn't, they're afraid to piss off the parent. Kids are kids and I don't care who you are they're gonna do things wrong and it's OK but they need to be disciplined so they don't do it again.

[Slogo]

The only one I kinda disagree with is "all crimes are hate crimes"

Insider trading - Greed

Drug use - Boredom/physical pain/curiosity/all the cool kids are doing it

Hit and Run - Fear

Even some forms of murder aren't done with hate...sometimes it's done for money

While the phrase "every crime is a hate crime" is an awesome soundbite, it's not really true.

[candyman]

We are rewarding those that do or did nothing, we are punishing those that didn't know any better or were not told otherwise, we are throwing others under the bus to protect ourselves...and we apologize to other people for things that we were not even a part of yet we don't help them.

Nobody even wants to get their hands dirty anymore. Nobody will admit when they are wrong and point the finger even before people start asking. People don't tell you how you are supposed to act in a certain setting or tell you what to say yet they still call you a "sexist pig" or a "racist" when you merely made an innocent mistake or were taken out of context.

It explains why we get so many soldiers in here that turn into shitbags...yes we DID just tell you to get in the front leaning rest because you fucked up...WE SAW IT! These new kids think that they are entitled to everything no matter what their rank is...

In short...yeah we need to take a few steps backwards...actually we need to turn around and sprint back towards the middle before we disappear completely up our own assholes...

[Destroit]

The only one I kinda disagree with is "all crimes are hate crimes"

Insider trading - Greed

Drug use - Boredom/physical pain/curiosity/all the cool kids are doing it

Hit and Run - Fear

Even some forms of murder aren't done with hate...sometimes it's done for money

While the phrase "every crime is a hate crime" is an awesome soundbite, it's not really true.

Fair enough, I should have maybe specified violent crime. And even then, I'm sure there may be some exceptions to that. What I've learned in life is there's almost always an exception to everything.

Fair enough, I should have maybe specified violent crime. And even then, I'm sure there may be some exceptions to that. What I've learned in life is there's almost always an exception to everything.

[Destroit]

I think it's ok for people to call themselves BBW or Extra Curvy as long as they realize that's it's a nice way of saying obese (I prefer to call myself a Fatty but I don't call other people that). No one should be put down for being overweight, they don't need that but they do need honesty. My daughter is overweight and I always tell her how beautiful she is and that she's a wonderful person but ....she is overweight and it's NOT OK.

I like that, very good parenting. A tactful and yet honest way of addressing the issue .

I'm tossed about the BBW thing. I guess it's not that I don't want bigger people to feel good about themselves, to me it seems as though many would rather use it as an excuse to not use self control, to be okay instead of maybe striving to get healthy. It's hard to argue that trying to encourage people to have better inner-mechanisms of self-control and discipline is a bad thing, yet so many get so touchy about it. It's to the point where nobody even tries to encourage others anymore, because we're all so scared of hurting anyone's feelings, and is afraid to talk about it openly, if you even bring up anything about weight around some you're automatically labeled as judgmental in a negative way. I am somewhat judgmental, it's called having personal standards, to which other people's will vary here and there. Even with variations, nearly every society has some basic standards that are unified. So in a sense, to an extent, is being judgmental in a constructive way so much of a bad thing? Everyone is so afraid to give advice now, tips, etc, to other people, but some of it is necessary stuff imo and needs to be dealt with.

I like that, very good parenting. A tactful and yet honest way of addressing the issue .

I'm tossed about the BBW thing. I guess it's not that I don't want bigger people to feel good about themselves, to me it seems as though many would rather use it as an excuse to not use self control, to be okay instead of maybe striving to get healthy. It's hard to argue that trying to encourage people to have better inner-mechanisms of self-control and discipline is a bad thing, yet so many get so touchy about it. It's to the point where nobody even tries to encourage others anymore, because we're all so scared of hurting anyone's feelings, and is afraid to talk about it openly, if you even bring up anything about weight around some you're automatically labeled as judgmental in a negative way. I am somewhat judgmental, it's called having personal standards, to which other people's will vary here and there. Even with variations, nearly every society has some basic standards that are unified. So in a sense, to an extent, is being judgmental in a constructive way so much of a bad thing? Everyone is so afraid to give advice now, tips, etc, to other people, but some of it is necessary stuff imo and needs to be dealt with.

[KatRN05]

I like that, very good parenting. A tactful and yet honest way of addressing the issue .

I'm tossed about the BBW thing. I guess it's not that I don't want bigger people to feel good about themselves, to me it seems as though many would rather use it as an excuse to not use self control, to be okay instead of maybe striving to get healthy. It's hard to argue that trying to encourage people to have better inner-mechanisms of self-control and discipline is a bad thing, yet so many get so touchy about it. It's to the point where nobody even tries to encourage others anymore, because we're all so scared of hurting anyone's feelings, and is afraid to talk about it openly, if you even bring up anything about weight around some you're automatically labeled as judgmental in a negative way. I am somewhat judgmental, it's called having personal standards, to which other people's will vary here and there. Even with variations, nearly every society has some basic standards that are unified. So in a sense, to an extent, is being judgmental in a constructive way so much of a bad thing? Everyone is so afraid to give advice now, tips, etc, to other people, but some of it is necessary stuff imo and needs to be dealt with.

Personally, I hate the label BBW.

[phee]

Okay... I am ignorant... what is BBW again?

[KatRN05]

Okay... I am ignorant... what is BBW again?

Big beautiful woman.

[phee]

Big beautiful woman.

Oh... I think beautiful women are beautiful... thats kind of my only thing... Sometimes women can be Big and Beautiful... sometimes their size detracts.... just like being too skinny can.

[KatRN05]

Oh... I think beautiful women are beautiful... thats kind of my only thing... Sometimes women can be Big and Beautiful... sometimes their size detracts.... just like being too skinny can.

I would be insulted if someone called me a BBW. I'm beautiful. My curves do not define my beauty.

Edited October 20, 2010 by KatRN05

[phee]

Well that I get.... I mean that would be like someone telling me... "You know Phee, even though you are white, I think you are an okay guy." As opposed to just simply saying... "Phee you are an okay guy."

[KatRN05]

Oh ok, wasn't sure if you got what I was saying.

[phee]

Calling someone BBW is what I would call a "Back Handed Compliment"

[DJ Nocker]

I am perfectly fine with people thinking I am a racist bigot.

[TitsMcGee]

I like that, very good parenting. A tactful and yet honest way of addressing the issue .

I'm tossed about the BBW thing. I guess it's not that I don't want bigger people to feel good about themselves, to me it seems as though many would rather use it as an excuse to not use self control, to be okay instead of maybe striving to get healthy. It's hard to argue that trying to encourage people to have better inner-mechanisms of self-control and discipline is a bad thing, yet so many get so touchy about it. It's to the point where nobody even tries to encourage others anymore, because we're all so scared of hurting anyone's feelings, and is afraid to talk about it openly, if you even bring up anything about weight around some you're automatically labeled as judgmental in a negative way. I am somewhat judgmental, it's called having personal standards, to which other people's will vary here and there. Even with variations, nearly every society has some basic standards that are unified. So in a sense, to an extent, is being judgmental in a constructive way so much of a bad thing? Everyone is so afraid to give advice now, tips, etc, to other people, but some of it is necessary stuff imo and needs to be dealt with.

I just want to point out my personal experience on this subject. When I was a teenager I was a bulimic, so my shrink put me on anti-psychotics that made me gain a HUGE amount of weight as in 80 pounds in 6 months. I'm still on anti-psychotics, which not only make you gain weight, but make it seriously hard to lose it also, as in nearly impossible. It's really frustrating when you eat healthy and you try to work out, and still you're looked at as a fat slob because the weight just doesn't come off because of your medication.

[Hellion]

I have very little patience with most of society in this country

most people suck,give it time probably won't be able to say that anymore

because of these stupid bs laws forcing us to like assholes that make society suck in the first place.

I have notice how we have become a hate loving apathetic society as well

and I refuse to be any part of that crap.

I'd rather be a realist than a sheeple,and I don't do the pc bs either.

PS that is not directed at anyone on the board.

[DJ Nocker]

I have notice how we have become a hate loving apathetic society.

Thats just Michigan.

[Destroit]

I just want to point out my personal experience on this subject. When I was a teenager I was a bulimic, so my shrink put me on anti-psychotics that made me gain a HUGE amount of weight as in 80 pounds in 6 months. I'm still on anti-psychotics, which not only make you gain weight, but make it seriously hard to lose it also, as in nearly impossible. It's really frustrating when you eat healthy and you try to work out, and still you're looked at as a fat slob because the weight just doesn't come off because of your medication.

If it is caused by a side effect of medicine or a legitimate medical condition, that is also one of those exceptions imo.

If it is caused by a side effect of medicine or a legitimate medical condition, that is also one of those exceptions imo.

[kat (1)]

Personally, I hate the label BBW.

+1.

I hate all label's. BBW, MILF, cougar, "spinner". Oh, but one thing I really hate, the phrase "baby mama" or "baby daddy".

WTF, you don't know the person's name who you procreated with? I bet your ass knew that person's name when you both were in the middle of creating that baby.

[TheGimp]

i actually just had this conversation with one of the girls in the store that i'm doing a remodel for she said a "new list" came out and for those who have disabilities or imparements and there are the 2010 politically correct terms i shit you not

deaf---NOPE its offensive you are now audio-impaired

mute-nope you are verbally challenged

blind- wrong agian you are optically-impaired

they even have one for what soe people view as unattractive or I.E. ugly

you are now aesthetically challenged

o.0 wow....

[kat (1)]

I just want to point out my personal experience on this subject. When I was a teenager I was a bulimic, so my shrink put me on anti-psychotics that made me gain a HUGE amount of weight as in 80 pounds in 6 months. I'm still on anti-psychotics, which not only make you gain weight, but make it seriously hard to lose it also, as in nearly impossible. It's really frustrating when you eat healthy and you try to work out, and still you're looked at as a fat slob because the weight just doesn't come off because of your medication.

You are beautiful and do not look like a "fat slob". I know how it feels from my past experience on a combination of depakote and the birth control shot, I also ballooned up very quickly. Pyschotrops are the worst. Don't get me wrong if we need them we need them, I found one that works for me, after like 10 plus years, so far no weight gain but it's only been a month and I am on something else that is probably countering that effect.