JBower: Is any of this true?

Best crawl out from that rock you've been living under & live in the real world. M'dear.

One of my pet hates is when someone says, "I think that inappropriate."... looking around the room for approval.

Inappropriate to whom... themselves. Do I care what THEY think. What about what anyone else thinks? What about what I think? I have the right to voice my opinion in a manner I feel IS appropriate & fitting in that particular situation, without having to find out if I have to, "fit in to a particular clique."

I have seen some of these people voice one opinion to one group & the opposite to another group & a different opinion in another set of circumstances. Just to fit in with the group they are with at the time. They then get upset when I point that out to them & say, "that inappropriate." Go figure.

The school who stopped talking about Santa and putting up Christmas Trees because a muslim
Woman said it went against her religion should be ashamed of themselves for being browbeaten by this. Don’t they have any backbone or pride in their own cultural traditions.

Christmas is as much a big cultural tradition in the West as it is a religious one.

This muslim woman was showing her ignorance about this. Santa and Christmas trees have nothing to do with the religious side of Christmas and there is no reason that Santa and Christmas trees can’t be celebrated.

Surely they could have solved this by allowing the Muslim Children
A chance to get up and speak about Ramadan or whatever the Muslim celebration is on the days when that was occurring.

For educated people these school teachers and leaders showed very
Little intelligence in sorting this matter out without silly bans.

Cherful: For educated people these school teachers and leaders showed very little intelligence in sorting this matter out without silly bans.
This is what they are taught at Uni. & if they don't agree with what they are being taught they are threatened with failing their Teacher/Social Workers Course. From personal experience with one of my young soldiers when I was in the ARES & my wife’s best friend when they were doing their respective Courses. Anti men & pro Gay/Green/Minority/Women & very Politically Correct. To the point of having discussions of what can be considered Politically Correct Speak with the aim of changing the language. That was a great discussion with my wife's ex friend. (She tried to make her Gay)

Like Jboyer I too am skeptical about some of the claims in this article especially about the Muslim woman. I hear these kinds of claims all the time yet have never heard them come from the mouths of Muslims. The author admits that this was just a story told her by a past colleague. After all, how would you sue someone for having kids draw pictures of Santa Claus? I don't think it is actually a tort.
However, I also believe that political correctness is a serious issue in Australia and needs to be combatted. It is quite easy to combat though, simply by refusing to partake in it and always speaking the truth, regardless of whether or not others may be offended.

Political correctness is what politicians and the like use when they want to force on you something you don’t want. Kind language on the other hand is what we use so as not to unintentionally offend or cause harm. You have studied the issue academically and professionally but write by stringing together a pile of questions with no substance -looks like you’re doing research, or worse, dog whistling for what you were not game to say in text.

Rainbow sheep is so silly it has to be a hint at GLBTI for the reader and not really what happens. The obvious thing to do for the kids is to use white, black, brown sheep in different verses - note that these are the actual colours of sheep, they are all one syllable and they fit the tune while rainbow doesn't.

What is wrong with kind language that says what we mean but nothing more? I think respectful language and equality are intrinsically linked. It is what stops people from coming to you, noting your skin colour and, if it’s not white, calling you a dirty n**ger (can't type it here). You wouldn’t ask the police for help but call them “pigs” to their face. There isn't anyone who doesn’t want to be treated with respect and dignity.

What is Australian culture? Any one answer will deny a significant proportion of our people their culture. Even mateship and a fair go are on the nose because they are self-congratulatory denying that we have plenty room for improvement.

"Freedom of speech is becoming scarcely obsolete" means not obsolete which is great news. Freedom of speech should always be secondary to freedom of biology that we can't change like race, gender, sexuality, skin colour, disability, medical status, etc.

I guess we can be thankful that Political Correctness is only the belief system of a tiny minority of Australians and that outside the managerial and academic caste it has little relevance and is not applicable to everyday situations.
Normal people operate on what I call the difference paradigm, where gender, racial and ideological differences are accepted and form the basis of a sound and sensible appraisal of the society we live in.
Normal people who recognise that these things matter and that there are different traits, attitudes and behaviours associated with different groups can safely navigate a multicultural/multiracial society, a person whose approach to the world is based solely on a set of beliefs is going to struggle to get by.
These Politically correct types in government and academia are no different to the fanatical sects of Muslims, Jews and Judeo Christians, they're just a tiny minority of hysterical extremists who refuse to face reality and have to rely on dogma and a set of beliefs in a universal way of seeing the world just to be able to make it through the day.
There is no human race, there is no such thing as equality, and no possiblity of a universal set of values, there is only difference and diversity but from that diversity comes creativity, vigour and a vital energy, political correctness is the polar opposite of all that's good in the world since it's totally opposed to creativity and vitality.

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