But that's just the thing: there is a whole lot of difference between "impolite" and "not PC"- "impolite" is inherently a matter of perception, while "not PC" is inherently a matter of absolute value, usually driven by identity: i.e. I can say the same things and just by the tone of my voice make one utterance "impolite", I can't do that with political correctness.More then that, a white man saying "nigger" is automatically assumed to be prejudiced, while a black man saying the same is not(this in and of itself is prejudice).
As to the dream of non-prejudiced language:If it will ever happen, and human nature being what it is I'm very much doubtful of that, it will happen as organic part of the growth of non-prejudiced society.It simply doesn't work in the other direction.So trying to deal with the offending words without dealing with the attitude is at best problematic- see my post at http://antongarou.livejournal.com/23549.html and most of the debate from about a year ago at http://blogdebate.org/threads.php?thread=327 (warning:Hebrew links).
At day's end the problem is very simple- something you think of as offensive/prejudiced isn't necessarily thought of in that way by the people who say it- a good example is a friend of mine who calls her fiance "creature", very very lovingly:).Language is meant to describe people, and as long as people will be imperfect we will have words for imperfection in our language, and as long as people may choose to be offensive(and everybody does it, even if only to "let off steam") there will be offensive language, and as long as people will be prejudiced, language will be prejudiced as well.
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As to the dream of non-prejudiced language:If it will ever happen, and human nature being what it is I'm very much doubtful of that, it will happen as organic part of the growth of non-prejudiced society.It simply doesn't work in the other direction.So trying to deal with the offending words without dealing with the attitude is at best problematic- see my post at http://antongarou.livejournal.com/23549.html and most of the debate from about a year ago at http://blogdebate.org/threads.php?thread=327 (warning:Hebrew links).
At day's end the problem is very simple- something you think of as offensive/prejudiced isn't necessarily thought of in that way by the people who say it- a good example is a friend of mine who calls her fiance "creature", very very lovingly:).Language is meant to describe people, and as long as people will be imperfect we will have words for imperfection in our language, and as long as people may choose to be offensive(and everybody does it, even if only to "let off steam") there will be offensive language, and as long as people will be prejudiced, language will be prejudiced as well.