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When does Politically Correct become Politically Incorrect?

Kaziarl

Kaziarl

Commodore
Commodore
Ok, I'm not christian, I was brought up with christmas. The first few years of school it was Christmas Break. You said Marry Christmas to people in the stores. It was about giving to each other, about family, about togetherness, etc... etc... etc...

At some point it became X-Mas, Didn't really bug me to much, X-Mas was still Christmas since the term "Don't open till X-Mas" meant christmas day.

Now, it's happy holidays... and honestly it's one of the most annoying peices of political correctness i've encountered. Here's a scenario as to why:

I'm in the story, buying santa gift cards, raindeer wrapping paper, and other assortad christmas perephinalia, and I go through the check stand. I say to the person behind the registar, "Merry Christmas." Now all that should tell the guy that it would be ok to say it back. I'm not going to get offended. But he says "Happy Holidays" instead.

So... I ask him. "Do you not celebrate christmas?"

He says he does, but the company wants the employee's to be politically correct.

So I ask him another question, "Does anything in this policy say you can't respond to someone saying marry christmas in kind?"

He again says no, the policy just says not to say it at all.

Now, I understand the need for a certain level of PC, but imho this is just too much. It kinda feels like someone is trying to push there uniformed one-size-fits-all belief that christmas can't be about anything other then religion, and we have to take everything we celebrate and take religion completely out of it, so that we don't offend someone.

I hate it, it's too much.

There is absolutely no way to keep from offending someone.



Another one. Smoking.

I admit it, I'm a smoker.

My prefered pack: Djarum Black.

Now, this one has been bugging me for a while. I live in an apartment complex and can't smoke inside. Ok, no big. The property doesn't belong to me, I just rent it.

But wait, I have a balcony... It's outside, the walls of this place are brick, and the floor of the balcony is concrete... Not very flamable... Maybe we can smoke on the balcony, right? WRONG! I have to walk down 3 flights of stairs, walk outside, AND! walk atleast 25 ft away from the building to smoke........ Sorry, but that just seems stupid. Also, there was talk of a new bill, not sure where it is in the process of becoming a law. For all I know it could just be a bill, yes only a bill, sitting there on capital hill. (sorry, couldn't resist...)

Anyway, according to this law if you OWENED your home. the property BELONGED to you, you would be fined for smoking infront of your home...

Again, this is all just my opinion, but this is another case of political incorrectness... What is your opinion on this? can PC go to far?
 
You should pack that smoking in as your new year resolution.

Why does anyone could get upset over the name of a super-commercialised, consumerism-gone-mad bloatfest is beyond me.
 
First of all, it's now PC to condemn everything as PC.

As for the guy in the store, he was representing the company and doing his job. There was no need to give him a hard time. In fact, there was no need to give him a hard time in any case. It's really okay to say "Happy Holidays." People have been saying it for a long time, despite what the Talk Radio propagandists may say.

As for smoking, aside from being repulsive, it's a public health hazard. Controlling it is not political correctness; it's perfectly appropriate.
 
but smoking on my own balcony doesn't really effect anyone but me.

And the person in the store had nothing to do with the individual, I merely asked him a question because I was curious. The part that annoys me is that the company itself was prohibiting him from saying anything but happy holidays.
 
Smoke on your balcony or inside just open a window. They won't do anything.
 
Smoking on your balcony blows back into other people's apartments and probably affects them more than any other smoking.

Personally I don't see why anyone should care if you smoke in your apartment. When you move the landlord should clean up with TSP and repaint no matter what.
 
LaxScrutiny said:
Smoking on your balcony blows back into other people's apartments and probably affects them more than any other smoking.

Personally I don't see why anyone should care if you smoke in your apartment. When you move the landlord should clean up with TSP and repaint no matter what.
Click to expand...


You have a point, however by the time it gets to the neighbors window it's dissipated to a point that I can't see it being any more harmfull then car exhaust.

And please, don't get me wrong, I don't really mind going down stairs that much. unless it's 20 degree's like it has been lately. it's more these silly rules like the one about not smoking on your own porch if you own the property.

Master of Tarquin Hill said:
Merry Christmas is exclusive. Happy Holidays is inclusive. Which is better?

Smoking is bad for you.
Click to expand...

If the Customer says merry christmas, I'm sure they'd like a merry christmas back. If I worked in a store, and a customer says happy hunnukuh, I'll say it back to them out of respect for that customer. I don't see whats so bad about that.

And yes, I know, smoking is bad for me. However, I made a choice to smoke, it wasn't peer pressure, and I'll make the choice to quite when 1) I choose to, or 2) it's made illegal.
 
RJDiogenes said:
As for the guy in the store, he was representing the company and doing his job. There was no need to give him a hard time. In fact, there was no need to give him a hard time in any case. It's really okay to say "Happy Holidays." People have been saying it for a long time, despite what the Talk Radio propagandists may say.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Plus, what if he didn't celebrate Christmas; given the accusatory tone of your question, could he say flat-out, no, I don't? That conversation doesn't really go anywhere productive.
 
I live in an apartment, and the chap who lives below me used to smoke, and the smell that used to drift up into my windows was very offputting. Sadly, our block is badly designed, so even if he had smoked inside the ventilation system would just have pumped the smoke up to me as well.

Most people seem to smoke in the lift anyway.

Personally, I wouldn't exchange holiday based greetings with store staff at all, however in a similar vein, in our local Supermarket the cashiers have been instructed to apologise to all the customers for the wait... even if you just walk straight up and there's no queue.
 
Kaziarl said:
LaxScrutiny said:
Smoking on your balcony blows back into other people's apartments and probably affects them more than any other smoking.

Personally I don't see why anyone should care if you smoke in your apartment. When you move the landlord should clean up with TSP and repaint no matter what.
Click to expand...


You have a point, however by the time it gets to the neighbors window it's dissipated to a point that I can't see it being any more harmfull then car exhaust.

And please, don't get me wrong, I don't really mind going down stairs that much. unless it's 20 degree's like it has been lately. it's more these silly rules like the one about not smoking on your own porch if you own the property..
Click to expand...
"Affects" includes being annoyed. If someone doesn't smoke, the smell is noticable, pervasive and irritating.

I used to smoke. If I didn't have kids in the house I would probably still smoke. I may start again in 15 years. By then I may have grandchildren though.
 
I've been in customer service for 8 years, and when somebody tells me "Merry Christmas," I usually reply, "Yep, you too!"

It is also my response to "Happy Holidays," "Happy New Year," "Have a good night," "Take it easy," and, "See you later."

It's just easier that way.
 
Absolutely. Because do I really give a shit if my customers have a good holiday? Not even a little bit.
 
BTW, Christmas and X-mas have always been interchangeable (at least since Constantine), since the X is Chi which is short for Christ.
 
I believe that PC becomes PI the moment it becomes nothing more than patronizing new-Speak personally. If the reduction of language down to the point where everyone is assumed to have a mental age of 5 is required then it's too far.

As for the Christmas/X-Mas/Crimbo/Happy <whatever>, it doesn't phase me. I'm an agnostic and if someone wants to wish me well then I'm fine with that even if my personal definition of the season/holiday is different from others. It's just a label for the time of year. I'm certainly not going to get upset over it any more than I would if someone said "have a nice summer". Of course Christmas carols are a whole other kettle of fish... ;)

And for smoking, I have some chemical sensitivities and smoke annoys the hell out of my upper respiratory tract. Having it banned indoors in public places here was a good move in my part of the world and if I'm outside I won't begrudge people their habit because either the wind will clear the air, or the concentration of the smoke is low enough that I don't need an inhaler on me unlike indoors.
 
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Are you fucking joking me? I'm so sick of people giving people who work in
retail or food service a hard time of this kind of bullshit. Let them do there
job and stuff fussing. They work for a company that does not represent any
one religion or belief so yes, they standardize the greeting to fit that as
the employees are representitives of the company, they are not paid to
say "Merry Christmas" they are paid to say "Happy Holidays" and unfortunately
also to deal with customers bullshit.
 
I don't think Kaziarl was giving the clerk a hard time, just trying to get to the bottom of why the clerk responded with happy holiday.

I will say that I can easily smell my neighbors cigarette smoke when she sits out on her porch and I am on mine. It doesn't bother me, but maybe somebody who was sensitive.
 
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