chipotle | A contrarian view (Reply)

This appeared on a mailing list I'm on, in which someone had referred to looking for the "God shot" of espresso (i.e., a really good "pull" from an espresso machine) and someone else joked that the ACLU was threatening to sue people to remove the word God from "God shot." As is the way of mailing lists, a small war over the propriety of this sort of joke erupted, although the war was more polite and thoughtful than many I've seen. Someone posted this observation:

I, for one, believe that "political correctness" is one of the few civic and civil achievements America has seen over the last few decades. Maybe that's why so many people mock it. Some may emphasize and recoil at the coercive effect that "correctness" has in inhibiting a few who are generally more powerful or privileged, but that's a small price to pay in return for a much heightened awareness and sensitivity, especially at a time when the Internet allows us nearly anonymous access to thousands of others.

I know I've certainly grown more sick of people using the phrase politically correct as a way to dismiss all concerns of others, not merely histrionics, than I was sick of people saying, "That [joke|text|sign|cloud formation] offends me" in the first place. And you know, if you really mean "don't expect me to take any responsibility for my own words and actions," don't call it "personal responsibility."