Attn: Frankling Graham: “Political correctness gone amok” is not a new phrase.

[sonneillon_v]

I hear this approximately once a week. "It's political correctness gone/run amok!" I'm fortunate that I usually hear it on TV, or on the radio, or I see it written somewhere on the internet. The people who are saying it are usually not connected to me in any way, which is good; if they were, we'd have an argument. In fact, I have had that

Comments

[kittenmommy]

I’m talking about political correctness-the maddening and prevailing public sentiment of offending no one (except Christians).

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not what "being PC" is about. At all.

Technically, I suppose I could "reclaim" things like "gimp" and "crip", but I'm not comfortable doing so. I found out in January of 2010 that I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy when I was a kid. Obviously mine is a very mild case; I "pass" as "normal". So for me to use those terms... well, I'm not comfortable with it, even though I do belong to crip_crit, dot_gimp_snark, and gimp_vent. Those words were never used against me, to put me down as they've been used against those who are much more visibly disabled. I don't feel they're mine to "reclaim".

Does that make sense?

[sonneillon_v]

Of course. No one is ever under an obligation to reclaim slurs or derogatory words that might apply to them. Like I said, there's a lot of disagreement over whether that's even useful. And I can understand why feeling like other people have it a lot worse makes you reluctant to do it. I claim 'queer' but I don't claim 'f@ggot' because that word has never been used against me, partly because I'm a girl and partly my 'queerness' isn't readily visible. 'Dyke' has been used against me, but I don't like that word, so I don't try reclaiming it, though I know lesbians who do

[kittenmommy]

I have no problem with "witch". I understand that "witch" covers a wide range of people, some of whom may not be very nice or may choose to dabble in darkness. That doesn't mean that all witches are that way, any more than all Christians are intolerant assholes (though I'm beginning to think that the majority are, unfortunately). And even "dark" witches don't deserve to be tortured or burned at the stake.

Am I making sense? I have a raging headache and it's hard to tell at the moment!

And I can understand why feeling like other people have it a lot worse makes you reluctant to do it.

I felt weird joining cerebral_palsy, because the posters there are pretty much all much more severely affected than I am. I think I'm the only poster there without some kind of visible sign of disability. So that was kind of weird, too, and I struggled for a while re: whether or not I truly belonged there.

I claim 'queer' but I don't claim 'f@ggot' because that word has never been used against me, partly because I'm a girl and partly my 'queerness' isn't

[sonneillon_v]

That doesn't mean that all witches are that way, any more than all Christians are intolerant assholes (though I'm beginning to think that the majority are, unfortunately)

I don't think it's even the majority. I know a lot of the time it sounds like I do, but I make a deliberate effort to keep my finger on the pulse of the religious right, and be aware of what they're up to, and because I'm immersed in it, that's what I respond to. I say "Christians" and I mean "Some Christians" and I should be more mindful about that.

It's true that fundamentalism is a plague upon our country, and that fundamentalists are both regressive and loud, so their loudness tends to drown out the more reasonable, progressive voices in the discourse. So it feels like they're a lot more numerous than they are. But I am aware that for every church that hitches their train to the New Apostolic Reformation, there are three or four quiet little Presbyterian and United Church of Christ churches who are just quietly going about their business without hurting