[WikiEN-l] Political correctness vs NPOV

Fri Feb 25 07:32:00 UTC 2005

What if any zealot realises an objection to any reference whatever to Mr X being Gay, having children
outside of marriage, being of non-caucasion marriage, having "***-challenged" outsode of marriage,
etc.

This is a problem that wikipedia can and does have.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Christiaan Briggs" <christiaan at last-straw.net>
To: "English Wikipedia" <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Political correctness vs NPOV
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 21:01:09 +0000

> 
> Yes, an ambiguous term, like "discrimination." Many terms that are 
> equated mostly with negative connotations (mostly for political 
> reasons) are in fact neutral terms. Hence we have negative and 
> positive discrimination for instance.
> 
> Christiaan
> 
> On 24 Feb 2005, at 7:48 pm, Ray Saintonge wrote:
> 
> > That effectively converts the term into an ambiguous one.  We may 
> > easily agree that the three issues that you list have more 
> > positive than negative connotations, but the person who believes 
> > that trees cause pollution will see the political correctness of 
> > the environmentalist as a negative.  This does not bode well for 
> > any menaingful use of the term.
> > Ec
> >
> > Christiaan Briggs wrote:
> >
> >> Political correctness may often be used as a pejorative term but 
> >> it actually has positive connotations as well as the negative 
> >> that Ray has pointed out. Political correctness has been used 
> >> for all sorts of issues, e.g. civil rights movement, womens 
> >> rights, and the environment to name a few. In this sense it is 
> >> not always something to be "overcome" but encouraged in some 
> >> instances.
> >>
> >> Christiaan
> >>
> >> On 24 Feb 2005, at 6:19 pm, Ray Saintonge wrote:
> >>
> >>> Arno M wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Just out of curiosity - does Political correctness apply as 
> >>>> NPOV or as an ideology as described below?
> >>>
> >>> Political correctness is independent of the ideology it 
> >>> supports.  It can attach to any ideology.  It will generally 
> >>> involve supporting the "right" views as they prevail in the 
> >>> society out of fear of being seen as different.  Sometimes the 
> >>> penalty for not being politically correct may be social 
> >>> ostracism; in other circumstances, such as in Nazi Germany, the 
> >>> penalties could be far more severe.  In the United States 
> >>> supporting the troops in Iraq is a matter of political 
> >>> correctness.
> >>>
> >>> Thus I would see political correctness as neither NPOV nor an 
> >>> ideology.  At the same time practitioners of political 
> >>> correctness have a personal need to believe that their actions 
> >>> express a NPOV, something which they can easily confirm in the 
> >>> positive feedback loop of their own community. Overcoming 
> >>> political correctness requires both insight and courage.
> 
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