Being offensive....

[Deranged Nasat]

Nine times out of ten political correctness is just a thoughtless buzzword assholes use when they get offended by people getting offended at them for behaving like assholes.

It's completely divorced from its original meaning and intent, and is largely empty rhetoric held up by those who worry about "The War on Christmas" or the Nanny State or evil socialism taking over the US and similar non-issues based on grossly exaggerated or outright false examples.

Are there people who get offended too easily? Absolutely, just as there are people who seek to cause offense too easily and then hide behind the shield of political correctness to turn the criticism around as if they're fighting for freedom or something. But being offended by something has nothing to do with political correctness in and of itself.

On a related note, in my experience nine times out of ten those who bitch about hate crimes legislation are people who are historically ignorant or have never been terrorized for being a member of a protected class (white people are protected too, BTW). Therefore they think burning a cross on a black person's lawn is simple vandalism and spray-painting "Jews Must Die" on a synagogue is just harmless graffiti with no intent to terrorize or force people to leave.

Ah, but what of those of us who have been terrorized or abused in part due to attitudes about our social group and which are not classed as hate crime because it isn't about hate? That's the issue I have with it personally- it prioritizes some people's mistreatment above others by suggesting attitudes allowing for violence or intimidation against certain groups are wrong, but for others entirely acceptable.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Ah, but what of those of us who have been terrorized or abused in part due to attitudes about our social group and which are not classed as hate crime because it isn't about hate? That's the issue I have with it personally- it prioritizes some people's mistreatment above others by suggesting attitudes allowing for violence or intimidation against certain groups are wrong, but for others entirely acceptable.

I don't know what your group or situation is, but hate crime legislation in no way says terrorizing or abusing other groups is "entirely acceptable," it simply covers those groups that are Constitutionally (state or federal) protected classes.

If there is another group that faces a high incidence of being terrorized for who they are, the logical step would be to add them to the list of protected classes, not to repeal all hate crime legislation until it can meet some impossible standard of catering to every conceivable group that might ever face adversity. That's just a recipe for never having any legal protections at all.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Ah, but what of those of us who have been terrorized or abused in part due to attitudes about our social group and which are not classed as hate crime because it isn't about hate? That's the issue I have with it personally- it prioritizes some people's mistreatment above others by suggesting attitudes allowing for violence or intimidation against certain groups are wrong, but for others entirely acceptable.

I don't know what your group or situation is, but hate crime legislation in no way says terrorizing or abusing other groups is "entirely acceptable," it simply covers those groups that are Constitutionally (state or federal) protected classes.

If there is another group that faces a high incidence of being terrorized for who they are, the logical step would be to add them to the list of protected classes, not to repeal all hate crime legislation until it can meet some impossible standard of catering to every conceivable group that might ever face adversity. That's just a recipe for never having any legal protections at all.

But when your group will never receive protection, because society wants to continue treating them the way they've always been treated and punishing them if they refuse, that "logical step" will not be taken. In that case, victims see how others are protected and how abuse of those people is presented as a terrible thing, and in the absence of any such care for themselves, they have it drummed into them that their pain is less important or less of a problem. It does indeed send the message that those of us who don't slot into the right group are acceptable targets.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I'm sorry for whatever you went through, but I don't really know what to tell you without specifics, and it kind of seems like we're getting sidetracked from the big picture here to focus on your individual experiences which I can't comment on.