Political correctness run amok

[enigmaT120]

No wonder so many people hate us Christians. People are dying, starving, etc. and we've taken to social media to complain... about cardboard.
I am embarrassed.

It happens to me all the time.

Dragline, that was funny. I wonder if the guys at Napa auto parts will think so.

[jennypenny]

I wonder if the hypersensitivity is due to living in 'Yellowland' for too long ... http://fusion.net/story/200747/living-in-code-yellow/

Not only does trying to live in Yellowland harm you physically, it changes how you interact with your environment and it impairs your judgment. You forget what’s normal and start seeing the enemy everywhere.

[GandK]

@jennypenny

I wonder if moms live in Yellowland anyway. Every stranger potentially wants to run off with my kids. I remember thinking that discomfort would fade once they were teenagers, but then they start driving. Then it's every wackjob on the road potentially will hit and kill my kids. I don't see how that feeling will ever go away.

I feel that gnawing uneasiness when walking around alone, too, especially at night. And I'm not alone in that. It's especially disturbing after growing up in the sticks, in a place where I knew I was safe. I wonder if I'll ever feel that way again. I wonder if the anomaly was that I felt that way in the first place. I wonder how much of my safe feeling back then was ignorance, and how much of my fear now is ignorance.

[Bankai]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKcWu0tsiZM

[jennypenny]

I know some conservative Christian groups denounce yoga, but now the other side of the spectrum thinks it's not PC ... http://www.ottawasun.com/2015/11/20/fre ... ral-issues

Student leaders have pulled the mat out from 60 University of Ottawa students, ending a free on-campus yoga class over fears the teachings could be seen as a form of "cultural appropriation." ...

The centre goes on to say, "Yoga has been under a lot of controversy lately due to how it is being practiced," and which cultures those practices "are being taken from."

The centre official argues since many of those cultures "have experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy ... we need to be mindful of this and how we express ourselves while practising yoga."

[Dragline]

I wonder if the hypersensitivity is due to living in 'Yellowland' for too long ... http://fusion.net/story/200747/living-in-code-yellow/

Not only does trying to live in Yellowland harm you physically, it changes how you interact with your environment and it impairs your judgment. You forget what’s normal and start seeing the enemy everywhere.

I would guess that there is a strong correlation between the occupants of Yellowland and how much TV news they consume.

[Ego]

I wonder if the hypersensitivity is due to living in 'Yellowland' for too long ... http://fusion.net/story/200747/living-in-code-yellow/

Not only does trying to live in Yellowland harm you physically, it changes how you interact with your environment and it impairs your judgment. You forget what’s normal and start seeing the enemy everywhere.

I would guess that there is a strong correlation between the occupants of Yellowland and how much TV news they consume.

Yep. I wonder how much we can counteract the influence of fear-mongering by seeking out stories that show the opposite. I thought of this story when I read GandK's response above. Mom buys her blind child a bicycle for Christmas.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-a ... 544/batman

[jacob]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... story.html

[Dragline]

The long-form interviews you find in many podcasts today and some radio programs like that are actually a pretty good antidote, because they tend to leave you with the more accurate impression that there are lots of people out there doing a lot of interesting things, having individual successes and failures and just getting on in life without extreme drama or a series of horrible events. This is way closer to reality.

The other thing I frequently reference whenever somebody gets excited about something bad happening are the references of how likely it is to happen or whether the difference between two things is actually meaningful. For example, when you hear a report that something is "10 times more likely" than something else -- frequent in headlines about food and diseases -- you need to look at the actually likelihoods. A difference between a 1% and 10% chance is probably meaningful. A difference between 0.00001% and 0.0001% is almost certainly not. But I think this is an INTJ thing.

I saw some interesting contrasting distortions the other day regarding terrorism. A US-based publication showed a graph that indicated that "world-wide terrorism is on the rise" with an ominous upward spiking line. An English one -- I think it was the Economist -- broke it down to show that terrorism has risen steeply in conflict areas like Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria and Syria, but is actually way down in Western societies.

[cmonkey]

I would guess that there is a strong correlation between the occupants of Yellowland and how much TV news they consume.

It affects indirectly by simply being around yellowlanders who consume too much news, even if you don't consume any personally. Its weird but I can always sense when something "big" has happened because I come into work and everyone is jerky and on edge.

[Ego]

I would guess that there is a strong correlation between the occupants of Yellowland and how much TV news they consume.

It affects indirectly by simply being around yellowlanders who consume too much news, even if you don't consume any personally. Its weird but I can always sense when something "big" has happened because I come into work and everyone is jerky and on edge.

Perhaps this is the exact opposite of what Dr. Cole mentioned when jp contacted him (from the epigenetics thread).

viewtopic.php?t=4323

Absolutely - no physical interaction is necessary, as long as these relationships help you feel safe, secure, and cared for. Or to put it another way, the contact you have with people "in your head" seems to be a major driver of the gene expression effects we see. If that contact is good and supportive, more favorable gene expression dynamics are seen.

Encourage connections with those who reinforce attributes I desire and discourage connections with those who do the opposite. But there is also a connection with the entire hive which I cannot really control. Coming back to the US, where fear is a commodity, I definitely find myself more anxious than I do in places where dangers are more real.

[GandK]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... story.html

The more I read about this kind of thing happening, the more I feel that freedom of speech itself is under attack. I'd probably be amused and would dismiss it all as "sound and fury, signifying nothing" except that these young people will soon be entering the workplace and voting in elections. How long until it's actually a crime for a white person to do yoga? Expecting to be informed any time now that it's "cultural appropriation" for me to take my kid to Tae Kwon Do because we are not Korean.

Waiting impatiently for the Thermidorian reaction to this...

[jennypenny]

Eric Schmidt on How to Build a Better Web

I can't believe we're openly talking about censorship of the internet. I don't care if Schmidt describes it like some polite robo-conscience that will simply suggest the use of less offensive language. It's censorship.

[OldPro]

Late to this thread.

My own favourite experience of pc run amok is one I have run across several times on various internet forums I participate in. I often express strong opinions about some things and will sometimes use the phrase, 'I call a spade a spade.' As you might imagine, that can get some of the pc crowd quite upset.

The amusing thing is that what it actually demonstrates is their own ignorance and their own xenophobic thinking. In their minds, they immediately connect it to racism. But what the phrase actually refers to is a spade vs. a shovel. So what it means is you don't call a spade a shovel when it is a spade, not a shovel. Simple really.

For them to connect it to racism however, THEY must connect it in their minds. The connection is not in what I wrote, it is in how they perceived it. Their perception, not mine. So if you think about it, they are demonstrating that they think in terms of race, not me.

The first time someone called me out on it, I can honestly say the thought of it being confused with race had never even entered my mind. To me it meant spade vs. shovel and always had. http://www.sowanddipity.com/wp-content/ ... de_new.jpg

[cmonkey]

You are witnessing is a small part of the Age of Decadence as defined by Sir John Bagot Glubb. PC definitely falls under the mark of increased defensiveness and can even be seen in the light of (negative) frivolity as its almost turned into a silly game of tattletale/he said-she said for adults where everyone is just looking for something to jump on. Entertaining when you see someone get in trouble for something you are against.

These topics always irk me until I come back to the realization that everything makes sense given our current position on the arc of empire.

XXXIX
Summary
As numerous points of interest have arisen
in the course of this essay, I close with a brief
summary, to refresh the reader’s mind.
(a) We do not learn from history because
our studies are brief and prejudiced.
(b) In a surprising manner, 250 years
emerges as the average length of national greatness.
(c) This average has not varied for 3,000
years. Does it represent ten generations?
(d) The stages of the rise and fall of great
nations seem to be:
The Age of Pioneers (outburst)
The Age of Conquests
The Age of Commerce
The Age of Affluence
The Age of Intellect
The Age of Decadence.
(e) Decadence is marked by:
Defensiveness
Pessimism
Materialism
Frivolity
An influx of foreigners
The Welfare State
A weakening of religion.
(f) Decadence is due to:
Too long a period of wealth and power
Selfishness
Love of money
The loss of a sense of duty.

[Ego]

I've got to admit, sometimes I find myself rolling my eyes when I hear people complaining about inequality. But today I saw this and found it quite shocking. I had no idea the gap was so incredibly wide.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/20 ... n-america/

[Toska2]

I wish that graph broke it down by age.

[BRUTE]

hint: large percentage of all black males are in jail at any given time, and all of those who make it out, have a permanent record making it hard to find a job. not sure how anyone could surprised at the outcome.

[Ego]

not sure how anyone could surprised at the outcome.

Ignorance. That's how.

[jennypenny]

I wonder what that chart would look like if they removed the 1% from the averages. I'm sure the median net worth for whites would still be higher, but it would be interesting to see how much closer they would be if it was only comparing regular folks. Oprah notwithstanding, most of the 1% are white in the US.

When comparing net worth instead of other measures like income though, home ownership is probably the biggest factor.

Where you live, and particularly where you are born, is the biggest factor in everything.