https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/pc-or-not-pc-1.3182691
(Follow the link above or skip down to the letter if you've come here from my facebook link)
A short letter I wrote last year to the Irish Times taking a crack at an article by #LarissaNolan in which she criticised 'political correctness' and loud hailed the impending disintegration of free speech! I forgot to post it last year... anyway here it is! Perceptions of the purpose and relevance of political correctness are apparently dividing people more and more, and therefore becoming more pertinent.
Political correctness in modes of expression is essentially tied to language and discourse. The understanding of the extent to which language and discourse enact power has been evidenced in writings as old as 450 years: 'the pen is mightier than the sword' and all that kinda craic, but just older again. It's certainly not a new notion. But still the idea persists that 'freedom of speech' is absolute, and that it means that it ought to be inconsequential to say anything, to anyone, or any group, anytime.
As much as political correctness is not an absolute, neither is freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is not an absolute for reasons of socio-linguistically created, destructive actions which start way before bullying, go all the way through discrimination, prejudice and racism, and end up at horrors resulting from the creation of xenophobic discourses which create ideas, through language, about how, uncultured, unrefined, lazy, savage, evil or vile 'other' people are.
Worrying about the growth of the above-mentioned seems far more reasonable to me than worrying about political correctness.
Frankie Boyle is a daycent benchmark of political correctness if ya ask me!
It's not so much about what the words mean, but rather how they are used and what is done with them.
A short letter I wrote last year to the Irish Times taking a crack at an article by #LarissaNolan in which she criticised 'political correctness' and loud hailed the impending disintegration of free speech! I forgot to post it last year... anyway here it is! Perceptions of the purpose and relevance of political correctness are apparently dividing people more and more, and therefore becoming more pertinent.
Political correctness in modes of expression is essentially tied to language and discourse. The understanding of the extent to which language and discourse enact power has been evidenced in writings as old as 450 years: 'the pen is mightier than the sword' and all that kinda craic, but just older again. It's certainly not a new notion. But still the idea persists that 'freedom of speech' is absolute, and that it means that it ought to be inconsequential to say anything, to anyone, or any group, anytime.
As much as political correctness is not an absolute, neither is freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is not an absolute for reasons of socio-linguistically created, destructive actions which start way before bullying, go all the way through discrimination, prejudice and racism, and end up at horrors resulting from the creation of xenophobic discourses which create ideas, through language, about how, uncultured, unrefined, lazy, savage, evil or vile 'other' people are.
Worrying about the growth of the above-mentioned seems far more reasonable to me than worrying about political correctness.
Frankie Boyle is a daycent benchmark of political correctness if ya ask me!
It's not so much about what the words mean, but rather how they are used and what is done with them.
The Letter
Sir, – Larissa Nolan’s article on political correctness seems so hypocritical and riddled with interpolation that it must surely be an elaborate parody of hypocrisy (Opinion, August 9th).
Nolan launches an all-fronts attack on a relatively innocuous tweet by Lena Dunham. The tweet by Dunham comments on a seemingly prejudicial, although completely un-contextualised, private comment, at JFK airport.
Nolan, in an effort to discredit the tweet that discredits the comment disingenuously loud-hails the impending disintegration of free speech by descending down a rabbit hole of criticism about an act of free-speech that criticises an act of free-speech which had seemingly criticised free sexual choice. Whatever about free speech, at least freestyle speech is alive and well! – Yours, etc,
Nolan, in an effort to discredit the tweet that discredits the comment disingenuously loud-hails the impending disintegration of free speech by descending down a rabbit hole of criticism about an act of free-speech that criticises an act of free-speech which had seemingly criticised free sexual choice. Whatever about free speech, at least freestyle speech is alive and well! – Yours, etc,
NICK DORAN,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.
The offending article by Larissa Nolan: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/larissa-nolan-political-correctness-will-hurt-us-all-in-the-end-1.3180394
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