Has political correctness actually gone mad?

If someone is getting upset by seeing someone else wearing a Geisha or Indian costume at a Halloween party, he needs to get it act together. Something must have gone seriously wrong at his upbringing.
 
If someone is getting upset by seeing someone else wearing a Geisha or Indian costume at a Halloween party, he needs to get it act together. Something must have gone seriously wrong at his upbringing.
Things have gone seriously wrong in many of our upbringings. For some, relentlessly facing racism, which can inhibit one's ability to view certain things in the ill-concerned manor that the majority can.
 
Well…maybe they should understand that their perception is the problem and not the action itself. Time to grow up.
As minorities have been told throughout history.
 
Bend the world around their own warped worldviews.

Does it matter that there isn't a Mexican alive, or dead, who gives a shit if whitey turns up to a Halloween party in a sombrero? Nope. And since when were the Japanese an oppressed minority? :lol:
 
Bend the world around their own warped worldviews.

Does it matter that there isn't a Mexican alive, or dead, who gives a shit if whitey turns up to a Halloween party in a sombrero? Nope. And since when were the Japanese an oppressed minority? :lol:
1942?
 
I'm increasingly starting to wonder if hobbers is actually a radical PC lefty, determined to undermine the opposition cause.
 
When they occupied most of SE Asia and were busy massacring the occupents of Alexandra hospital in Singapore and beheading Australian POWs in Indonesia. If only we'd known they were feeling a bit hard done by we'd have cut them some slack.
Given we're discussing the views of a Canadian university student union, I did assume we were contemplating the treatment of those of Japanese origin, in the West.
 
:lol: I am not even sure anyone if you are wumming or serious. Getting offended by something that neither harms nor intendeds to offend you is not the same as getting upset about racism and discrimination.
Racism, nor discrimination, needs to be deliberate, nor does it require you to see how it can be harmful, for it to be so.

EDIT - I wouldn't WUM in threads like this. We just come from very different starting points. I find it hard to imagine how you come to many of the conclusions you and others of a similar mind on these topics do, as well.
 
Well…maybe they should understand that their perception is the problem and not the action itself. Time to grow up.
Isn't the problem here that this is Halloween though? So by dressing up as a national stereotype of some sort the conclusion might be there is something scary or bad about that nation?

Not that I think a ban is the right approach, and I have no idea what half of the stuff in there is doing in there, but its ultimately well meaning.

The biggest problem in my experience with things like this is that the equality and diversity offices in universities almost entirely get taken over by white, female students who are, actually, the majority group in almost every University in the Western world which leads to a really weird dynamic of a majority dictating to a minority about what they should/shouldn't be offended by.
 

Open a history book.

The Japanese philosophy in that era was pretty well aligned with Hitler's. Are you also suggesting Germans are a suppressed people? Would I get lynched if I turn up at a Halloween party in Lederhosen?

Given we're discussing the views of a Canadian university student union, I did assume we were contemplating the treatment of those of Japanese origin, in the West.

The excellent treatment? Koreans and Japanese in North America do better than just about any other demographic.
 
Isn't the problem here that this is Halloween though? So by dressing up as a national stereotype of some sort the conclusion might be there is something scary or bad about that nation?

Not that I think a ban is the right approach, and I have no idea what half of the stuff in there is doing in there, but its ultimately well meaning.

The biggest problem in my experience with things like this is that the equality and diversity offices in universities almost entirely get taken over by white, female students who are, actually, the majority group in almost every University in the Western world which leads to a really weird dynamic of a majority dictating to a minority about what they should/shouldn't be offended by.

yes. Halloween is apparently a problem. The logical conclusion of this is that all costumes are bad. Which costume can’t be perceived as offensive? With the fitting personal history/experience/background, you can get offended/upset by pretty much everything. Not just costumes, but literarily everything; even in your everyday life. If we get rid of anything that offends anyone, there won’t be anything left. That’s the point where some level of self-reflection should set in: Some things that offend me are really the problem of my own perception.

This kind of out-rage culture is just unknown to me, because I have never encountered anything like that in reality. Fortunately only few people seem to be actually bothered by something, that shouldn’t worry them.
 
yes. Halloween is apparently a problem. The logical conclusion of this is that all costumes are bad. Which costume can’t be perceived as offensive? With the fitting personal history/experience/background, you can get offended/upset by pretty much everything. Not just costumes, but literarily everything; even in your everyday life. If we get rid of anything that offends anyone, there won’t be anything left. That’s the point where some level of self-reflection should set in: Some things that offend me are really the problem of my own perception.

This kind of out-rage culture is just unknown to me, because I have never encountered anything like that in reality. Fortunately only few people seem to be actually bothered by something, that shouldn’t worry them.

It depends how you look at it. As I say, I do genuinely think its well meaning, and designed to create an environment that everyone can enjoy and participate in regardless of race, gender, religion or creed. And thats fine, it mighn't always be possible, but its nevertheless a noble enough goal. The intention here will be to prevent people who non-maliciously wear something that is genuinely offensive from preventing others from having fun, you might say that its 'out-rage culture' but I think its entirely reasonable, for example, why, say, a Jewish member of the university might have a bigger problem with someone wearing a Nazi Uniform to Halloween that actually means that they have a point, rather than them being overly-sensitive.

The problem is as I say, Union ethnic diversity officers (as they're called here) tend to be a very specific sort of person who have a very particular world view, asking them to be arbiters of taste is an incredibly bad idea. As a result of that these things tend to be very forced and become over-zealously silly rather than being an organic response to genuine offence caused.
 
(...) As a result of that these things tend to be very forced and become over-zealously silly rather than being an organic response to genuine offence caused.
I agree with that completely. I am not saying that there is no line, where costumes or generally speaking acts/cloth becomes offensive. Going to a US/NY Halloween-party in a twin-tower costume is probably not a good idea and everyone with a bit of common sense would understand that. Context is everything and I totally agree that people should pay attention to sensibilities. I was living in south africa for almost a year. People might have rightfully taken offence when I would have turned up at a halloween party black-faced or as slave-holder.
At the same time I'd expect at a Halloween party some level of humour. That is also common sense. You don't need to interpret every triviality in the worst possible way. There is simply no rational reason to get offended by a person wearing some of these costumes. Getting outraged for the sake of it is just silly regardless of the intention. It just shows a stunning lack of common sense and social awareness.
 
Where does getting outraged at the concerns of a Canadian university student union rank in the grand scheme of silliness?
 
I am not outraged at all. I was posting this as a joke and you started a serious debate.
I suspected you weren't but then I suspect hardly anyone is 'outraged' at all, by any of this, despite your suggestions that those who sympathise with the sentiments of the SU are.


I enjoy these debates, especially when I look for distraction from the football results.
Quite. The CE is a blessed relief from the football at times, as the football can be a relief from current events at others...
 
Had to google that! I've got a book on Matthew Hopkins, our old witchfinder general. He was a real cnut of a man.

He, and his book Mallus Maleficarum, were the centre of a compulsory first year module on witchcraft in Europe. A course which started with the helpful advice to forget everything we'd ever read about witchcraft in books and seen in films because the reality was tedious by comparison. They weren't wrong, but I wish I'd heeded that warning.
 
He, and his book Mallus Maleficarum, were the centre of a compulsory first year module on witchcraft in Europe. A course which started with the helpful advice to forget everything we'd ever read about witchcraft in books and seen in films because the reality was tedious by comparison. They weren't wrong, but I wish I'd heeded that warning.

It's true that they fly by making flying paste from ground-up babies though, right?
 
It's true that they fly by making flying paste from ground-up babies though, right?

Oh absolutely. And of course everyone knows that the only way to prove that someone isn't a witch is to drown them to death. Unfortunately drowning people to death often kills them, but hey, at least you know then you were wrong.
 
He, and his book Mallus Maleficarum, were the centre of a compulsory first year module on witchcraft in Europe. A course which started with the helpful advice to forget everything we'd ever read about witchcraft in books and seen in films because the reality was tedious by comparison. They weren't wrong, but I wish I'd heeded that warning.
Odd compulsory. Ours was WWII and Cold War.
 
It is a slippery slope when you start banning anything which offends someone. There is simply no end to such lists once you start them. And I speak this from experience in living in a country where any group or person files a petition in courts every other day to ban something. Heck, our SC is currently considering passing a judgement that will ban jokes mocking Sikhs.
Coming to the specific Halloween example itself, a Afro American person in US can say that people in police costumes offend them, someone with bad experience with medical professionals may want to ban Doctor uniform and so on.
IMO in a proper democracy, the right to not get offended does not exists while proper freedom of speech means that right to offend must.