Something that gave me a bit of festive joy today...

[Stazbumpa]

Or: Why the Political Correctness nazi's are so utterly wrong.

It's Friday 23rd of December, the eve of Christmas Eve, there's 3 of us sat in the Prison Gatelodge and its about half 3 and all of us are willing the clock to reach 5pm in the next 10 seconds.

A figure emerges into view from the early dusk gloom, a man in Islamic regalia, the prison Imam no less, returning from prayers in the prison multi faith room. So we note him down as having left the jail and say cheerio, but I have to physically stop myself from blurting out "Merry Christmas" to him, which I've been doing to everybody all day.

His face then appears at the the small gate window. He grins and in unsteady, but perfectly understandable english, he says, and I quote:

I hope you and all of your families have a very happy Christmas, good afternoon.

Our jaws all hit the floor at roughly the same time. We managed to keep it together long enough to wish him the same.

True story.

So the question is: is this PC stuff out of control or what?
Why am I afraid to be English in my own country, rubbing shoulders with people from different backgrounds who, it seems, are actually quite happy with me being English, if only the rule makers had bothered to ask them first?
I was led to believe that other faiths don't like Englishness, or Christmas, or democracy, or cartoons, or fish and chips and that they cannot/will not except anything other than what they will blow themselves up for.
Or have the PC crew, and the media in general, got it wrong??

Sorry if I'm ranting or not making any sense, but in my job I have a very real sense of "dont say/do this to/near these types of people". For example, our Gatelodge Xmas decs have been limited to a very small silver tree in the corner this year, largely because we were unsure if we were allowed proper decs in case someone got offended.

Anyway, sorry if I've bored you. Just something I needed to share.

 

[Krazeh]

Political correctness only has one purpose which is to ensure that everyone is aware that there are differences between people. It is hte most useless concept ever dreamed up.

 

[ECA]

Merry Winterval to you all!

 

[Mazling]

I'd rather know what people are really feeling than waking up with an axe embedded in my face.

 

[Draylor]

Why am I afraid to be English in my own country

Because your an overly sensitive Daily Mail reader?

Get a grip, wishing a "bah humbug we dont believe in it" type a Happy Christmas isnt going to kill them.

 

[throdgrain]

Glad to hear it Staz, some sanity for once

 

[Sharma]

However Draylor, from what it seems, even if you only say a few words or a series of actions and someone takes offense to it, in this day an age it can land you in a nice load of shit, which is what takes the piss.

 

[Trem]

Because your an overly sensitive Daily Mail reader?

Get a grip, wishing a "bah humbug we dont believe in it" type a Happy Christmas isnt going to kill them.

Lmao, Staz overly sensitive? It's you're not your by the way, now don't be all sensitive about that.

The muslims are generally fine with the whole thing in my experience, its the lefty white spastics that make us believe they aren't.

 

[ECA]

its the lefty white spastics that make us believe they aren't.

They are the lefty white scopeys these days.

 

[Trem]

LMAO

Pld tbh.

 

[nath]

What interests me is that you were so shocked. I've been labelled here as a fully fledged member of the PC brigade but I don't see why it's so amazing that a muslim wished you a merry Christmas. I also have no problem with wishing other people (any people) merry Christmas*. Strikes anyone who would be surprised about that particular incident is taking things far far too seriously.





*Other than for the fact that I hate everyone and hope they have miserable Christmas'

 

[Turamber]

The imam was just being polite, fair play to him. Having respect for other peoples religions and values does not preclude a balanced, sane individual from enjoying his own religion/values.

I've shared a feast at Ramadan a few times with Muslims, and spent a number of weeks in Istanbul during the same period. Common sense and genuine goodwill carry a lot more weight in this household than that PC shite.

 

[rynnor]

PC obsessed?? There seems to be a lot of threads with people slamming political correctness these days - these can be summed up as :

Bloke1 - Bloody PC crap!

Bloke2 - Yeah its crap!

Bloke1 - Yeah! <wanders off>

Is it possible to discuss things without dividing everyone into PC/Liberal/Communists or Right wing/Reactionary/faschists?

 

[throdgrain]

No, not when everything , for example lots of things on this forum, get boiled down to the same old holier than thou bullshit.
Im sick of it, and so are lots of people.

 

[Louster]

Haha, and this whole anti-PC brigade thing isn't "holier than thou"? Frankly I find all of this fucking tiresome and don't believe any of you have any real idea what you're talking about. Except for Clown.

 

[rynnor]

No, not when everything , for example lots of things on this forum, get boiled down to the same old holier than thou bullshit.
Im sick of it, and so are lots of people.

Sick of what tho - sick of political correctness right?

But this seems to be raised as the great evil on this forum these days - people focus on extreme examples and then use these to perpetuate the PC=Bad mythos.

At its root political correctness is about tackling peoples prejudices - sure there are many examples of it going too far but personally I'm glad that it has killed off a lot of the old shit.

Not so long ago it was seen as perfectly acceptable to makes jokes about peoples colour/nationality/religion - does anyone here actually want those days back???

Its hard to acknowledge your own prejudices and people find it difficult to change - much of the anti-pc backlash is based on this resentment.

 

[Moo]

Political correctness must die. Set the black faggots on them!

 

[TdC]

Or: Why the Political Correctness nazi's are so utterly wrong.

It's Friday 23rd of December, the eve of Christmas Eve, there's 3 of us sat in the Prison Gatelodge and its about half 3 and all of us are willing the clock to reach 5pm in the next 10 seconds.

A figure emerges into view from the early dusk gloom, a man in Islamic regalia, the prison Imam no less, returning from prayers in the prison multi faith room. So we note him down as having left the jail and say cheerio, but I have to physically stop myself from blurting out "Merry Christmas" to him, which I've been doing to everybody all day.

His face then appears at the the small gate window. He grins and in unsteady, but perfectly understandable english, he says, and I quote:



Our jaws all hit the floor at roughly the same time. We managed to keep it together long enough to wish him the same.

True story.

So the question is: is this PC stuff out of control or what?
Why am I afraid to be English in my own country, rubbing shoulders with people from different backgrounds who, it seems, are actually quite happy with me being English, if only the rule makers had bothered to ask them first?
I was led to believe that other faiths don't like Englishness, or Christmas, or democracy, or cartoons, or fish and chips and that they cannot/will not except anything other than what they will blow themselves up for.
Or have the PC crew, and the media in general, got it wrong??

Sorry if I'm ranting or not making any sense, but in my job I have a very real sense of "dont say/do this to/near these types of people". For example, our Gatelodge Xmas decs have been limited to a very small silver tree in the corner this year, largely because we were unsure if we were allowed proper decs in case someone got offended.

Anyway, sorry if I've bored you. Just something I needed to share.

I'm glad your view of the world grew a tad larger Stazman. Your resident Iman being polite and respectful. Next time Ramadan comes around be sure to wish him a good sugar fest at the end of it and make his jaw drop Don't worry, it won't turn you muslim to wish him well, but it's nice, polite and respectful right back at him. In other words, imo the media do have it wrong.

My taxi driver, a bloke from Marocco, drove me about with my broken leg all through the Ramadan. Used to bitch no end that the fasting always screwed up his footy condition. We got along famously. Behave to others as you yourself wish to be behaved to innit. Regular bloke with a job he is, and football mad. He's not going to be planning something nasty, just like 99.9% of the rest of the world. There are a few evil fucking cockbadgers about though, and many aren't tanned and robe wearing but look just like thee and me.

sorry for the ramble. it's late and I'm off to kip.

 

[mank!]

What interests me is that you were so shocked. I've been labelled here as a fully fledged member of the PC brigade but I don't see why it's so amazing that a muslim wished you a merry Christmas. I also have no problem with wishing other people (any people) merry Christmas*. Strikes anyone who would be surprised about that particular incident is taking things far far too seriously.





*Other than for the fact that I hate everyone and hope they have miserable Christmas'

word to big bird

i've got muslims friends who celebrate christmas. shocking isn't it?

 

[Stazbumpa]

My original point, which appears to have been totally missed by all but a very few here, is that I'm ranting against the PC lot who want to us to not have Xmas, fly English/British flags etc etc purely because it will (according to them) offend the "ethnic minorities", when in actual fact the "ethnic minorities" actually dont mind us doing any of these things anyway.
Thats what I was getting at.

I'm not viewing what the Imam said as completely un-characteristic or anything else. Him saying merry christmas to us isn't the point, nor am I shocked/puzzled/amazed/whatever that he said it. I'm not shocked to "discover" that other religions accept/celebrate Christmas either ffs, because I knew it already. Any moron with even a modicum of research ability and access to Google knows that.
What is the point is that we all had been indotrinated into thinking that he would never say it and that us saying it to him would be akin religious bigotry. I was shocked at how it flies full in the face of what idiots, who I didn't believe much to begin with, keep telling us to believe.
I'm belly-aching about idiots making rules to outlaw offense to others when in fact people didn't actually find this stuff offensive in the first place.

Because your an overly sensitive Daily Mail reader?

Get a grip, wishing a "bah humbug we dont believe in it" type a Happy Christmas isnt going to kill them.

Fuck off.

Not so long ago it was seen as perfectly acceptable to makes jokes about peoples colour/nationality/religion - does anyone here actually want those days back???

Jokes about colour are wank and wrong, let them die and be forgotten.

Jokes about nationality are fine, eg: Little Britain's Indian shopkeeper sketch. As the customer puts items on the counter the Indian guy passes comment on each one. Newspaper goes on counter, "cathing up on the days news?". Can of coke, "thirsty?". Customer scans the top shelf skin mags, "planning a wank?". Hilarity. Why? Because is based on reality.

Jokes about religion are also fine. Organised religion needs the piss taking out of it tbh.

Common sense and genuine goodwill carry a lot more weight in this household than that PC shite.

Precisely.

One more thing, and this is aimed at the anti-anti-PC crew. A jail had an inspection recently, and one of the few things that the muppets who inspected it could find wrong was that the staff were wearing small St George Cross tie pins, which they had bought for a charity.
Said staff received a bollocking for displaying symbols that could be viewed as racist.

Tell me that this isn't complete dogwank.

 

[rynnor]

My original point, which appears to have been totally missed by all but a very few here, is that I'm ranting against the PC lot who want to us to not have Xmas, fly English/British flags etc etc purely because it will (according to them) offend the "ethnic minorities", when in actual fact the "ethnic minorities" actually dont mind us doing any of these things anyway.
Thats what I was getting at..

I am not convinced that this huge PC conspiracy actually exists outside of the media's fevered imagination - it is just a backlash against change and will die down in time. Most people are sensible and decent but some are idiots and have to have laws laid down to limit their idiocy.

What is the point is that we all had been indotrinated into thinking that he would never say it and that us saying it to him would be akin religious bigotry.

But where did this indoctrination come from? The media - and it only works on people who dont know any muslims - people are all basically the same - the basic tenets of the Muslim faith are very similar to all the other faiths.

Jokes about nationality are fine, eg: Little Britain's Indian shopkeeper sketch. As the customer puts items on the counter the Indian guy passes comment on each one. Newspaper goes on counter, "cathing up on the days news?". Can of coke, "thirsty?". Customer scans the top shelf skin mags, "planning a wank?". Hilarity. Why? Because is based on reality.

Thats actually a racist joke and not about nationality - a lot of asian shopkeepers are nowadays born in the UK so your left with a bad racial stereotype.

I'm not a fan of Little Britain anyway because its shite and not a patch on League of Gentleman but also because its promoting a very lazy form of comedy where it laughs at those who are different - it has jokes against the disabled/gays/asians/transvestites etc. Maybe next week it will have some anti-semitic sketches...

One more thing, and this is aimed at the anti-anti-PC crew. A jail had an inspection recently, and one of the few things that the muppets who inspected it could find wrong was that the staff were wearing small St George Cross tie pins, which they had bought for a charity.
Said staff received a bollocking for displaying symbols that could be viewed as racist.
Tell me that this isn't complete dogwank.

Its easy to criticise rules that seem to go too far but imagine a situation where you went into a jail as a christian where there were muslim symbols on all the walls and all the staff wore muslim symbols - I think you'd find it intimidating.

Thats what the rules there to prevent - its unfortunate that these charity crosses were caught by the same rule but thats what its designed to do - there was nothing stopping you wearing the crosses while you were off duty though?

 

[Draylor]

A jail had an inspection recently, and one of the few things that the muppets who inspected it could find wrong was that the staff were wearing small St George Cross tie pins, which they had bought for a charity.
Said staff received a bollocking for displaying symbols that could be viewed as racist.

Bwahahahhahahaha, quality.

Paper shufflers, gotta love 'em.

Other than that laugh this thread is a complete pile of bollocks from start to finish

 

[Sharma]

Well, I thought over about Staz's original post and took it upon myself to wish merry christmas to every person I served at work today.

Got quite a lot of positive reactions even from people who probably don't even celebrate it, I thought 'well im only wishing merry christmas, whats the harm?'.

Although needless to say there were grumpy buggers who just grunted but regardless, had fun.

 

[Stazbumpa]

I am not convinced that this huge PC conspiracy actually exists outside of the media's fevered imagination - it is just a backlash against change and will die down in time. Most people are sensible and decent but some are idiots and have to have laws laid down to limit their idiocy.

I agree with you in principal, but I tend to see the extreme of "thou shalt not...." in my line of work.

But where did this indoctrination come from? The media - and it only works on people who dont know any muslims - people are all basically the same - the basic tenets of the Muslim faith are very similar to all the other faiths.

Again, I'm inclined to agree with you. I know that Islam/Judaism/Christianity et al, are all pretty much the same. All of them basically say "be nice to others". However, idiots sometimes don't bother to find this stuff out. And sometimes these idiots are also the ones making the rules.
Lambeth Council is a prime example, as is Birmingham, who I believe have banned Christmas on more than one or two occasion, even renaming it "Winterval" with "Celebrity Lights" instead of Christmas lights.
The media does indeed have a lot to answer for when it portrays the frothing madmen that strap bombs to themselves but neglects giving a voice to people like our prison Imam.

Thats actually a racist joke and not about nationality - a lot of asian shopkeepers are nowadays born in the UK so your left with a bad racial stereotype.

I'm not a fan of Little Britain anyway because its shite and not a patch on League of Gentleman but also because its promoting a very lazy form of comedy where it laughs at those who are different - it has jokes against the disabled/gays/asians/transvestites etc. Maybe next week it will have some anti-semitic sketches...

I think you're missing the point of the comedy. For example, have you really watched the sketches with Daffyd in? There's a cracking subtext to it, made all the more funny because Matt Lucas is actually gay, and he's taking the piss out of certain aspects of the gay scene that do indeed need the piss taking.
*cough* not that I know anything about the gay scene *cough*

Its easy to criticise rules that seem to go too far but imagine a situation where you went into a jail as a christian where there were muslim symbols on all the walls and all the staff wore muslim symbols - I think you'd find it intimidating.

Without sounding silly, do you think any jails in Muslim countries would honestly give a shit? Amnesty Int. doesn't seem to think they do.
Also, St George Cross is the English flag, its our national symbol. Does that make our flag racist? Am I racist for flying it? What about the union flag?
I totally agree with making jails and other multi-racial venues secular environments, although that tends to fall flat on its face at the moment because we've had to change the entire system of aquiring meat because it now has to be Halal cosher.

Another point to make; St Georges day has in recent times been sidelined. Public apathy aside, this has also in part been due to orders from above. Pubs have been told they can't open longer (unlike pubs on St Patricks day), and many (both public buildings and private residences) have also been told to remove the English flags and St George decorations. I won't bother telling you the Prison Service rules on the subject.
Is St Georges day racist? If so, how? He was a knight from the Middle East ffs.
And if it is racist, why isn't St Patricks day, or St Andrews day?

Nobody seems to be asking what other people think before making the rules, and the voices of the real believers, whatever faith, are drowned out by the baying of the wankers who use their faith as an excuse.
Even less heard are the voices of the sensible and tolerant who don't really care what other people believe as long as it doesn't mess their day up.

PS: Interesting conversation I had with a muslim prisoner just before he was released. "Not coming back are you, jail's shit, its not what lifes about mate" I said. "Depends on what god has planned for me" he replied "if he decrees I should come back to jail, then I shall come back."
Either god is taking the piss out of this guy, or he's not listening to what his god wants him to do.

Or, he could always try not commiting armed robberies. I'm not sure he's sticking to tenants of his holy book imvho.