Reply #36: of course I don't mind being polite to people [View All]

I try always to be polite. I probably don't always succeed, but I try.

You know, maybe it's the phrase "politically correct" that bothers me. I don't know where the term originated, whether from the right or the left. In any case, it strikes me as such a dogmatic phrase that it pisses me off a little.

I'm not fighting for my right to use the "N-Word," in case you got that impression.

I can remember using that word exactly one time in my life, and it has bothered me a little ever since. It was when I was robbed and beaten by a group of black guys. If it had been a group of white guys, I probably would've called them "motherfuckers," or something instead. Still, that's the only time I remember using the word, so it's not like I'm complaining that I'm not allowed to use it.

Of course sexual harassment is a problem. However, let me relate my only brush with it. I was once nearly fired from a job after my immediate supervisor reported me to her boss for "sexual harassment." I was puzzled at hearing this. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what I could possibly have done. I had never flirted with her. I wasn't the least bit attracted to her, physically, intellectually, or in any other way at all. I had never told her a dirty joke or made an off-color comment to her of any kind. And I had even politely listened to her ribald tales of youthful indiscretions.

You know what it turned out that nearly cost my job? A couple days earlier I had slammed my right index finger in a very heavy wooden door in the office, nearly breaking the finger. She saw my anguished grimace, and read my lips as I mouthed the word "fuck." I didn't even make a conscious decision to mouth that word. It was just a reflexive action to some fairly intense pain -- and I didn't even say it out loud. That got me reprimanded for "sexual harassment." Don't you agree that's pretty fucked up? That's the kind of thing that makes me mad.

And what about the people on DU who just can't let the Duke "rape" case go? There are people on here that are still siding with the stripper and Nifong, just because they want some "privileged, white boys" to get nailed. And forget about holding the stripper to account for the false accusations.

I'm about as progressive as they come, and pretty damn liberal. But I think some people that consider themselves good liberals can become so extreme on the political continuum that they wrap around that continuum and become something very much like the extreme right, united with them in moral certitude and authoritarian dogma, leaving little to no room for free thought.

But, hey, I was only making a dumb joke about Gene Simmons, so what do I know?