05/11/2009

Potlitical Correctness is STALINISM and should be REPEALED by patriots and democrats

Since looking at tabloids can rot your brain, I thought I'd enlighten myself with some refined and incisive commentary, so I headed over to the Telegraph for something that doesn't just pretend to be posh. Maybe I'd find some intelligent, decent arguments about Political Correctness to challenge myself with.

Big mistake. I came across 'We must outlaw Political Correctness as ruthlessly as it has trampled on our liberties' by Graham Gerald Warner instead. Apparently:
The relentless onward march of Political Correctness is fast turning us into a Stalinist society.

Gah! Stalinist! And fast! What's responsible for this terrible sprint towards totalitarianism? The argument goes like this:

1. There's a database 'Contact Point' that is being introduced as a result of the Victoria Climbie inquiry that includes basic information - name, address, parents' names, school, etc. so that relevant authorities can quickly share information of the sort that would have helped prevent the death of Climbie.

2. Teachers have to report racist incidents at school.

3. And mothers can't even push their kids on swings in playgrounds.

4. And the police visited a two year old's parents after it hit the neighbour's cat with a stick and that.

5. "So, "The concern now is that “racist” and other offences may be recorded on the ContactPoint computer and effectively blacklist a child for 20 years."

6. Therefore, - Stalinism is coming! We must immediately repeal every Politically Correct Law introduced since 1997. And then:
At a stroke it would remove the poison from the bloodstream of British life and restore freedom of speech and expression, as well as personal privacy.

Any political party aspiring to government should have such a Bill drafted before the next general election; should include it in its manifesto; and should enact it in its first month in office. Any party not committed to that course of action should be regarded as ineligible to receive the votes of British democrats and patriots.
Phew! What a relief that it's so easy to defeat the problem Warner has invented for us.

Of course, it's all rubbish. That teachers have to report racist incidents doesn't mean they'll ever have to insert them into Contact Point. That's the strongest part of the argument too - a pisspoor slippery slope fallacy.

His two bits of support for this being likely are worse. First, he says "we live in a society where a mother cannot push her own child on a swing in a playground unless she has undergone checks for criminality", which is most likely a reference to the story about Watford Council I covered a few days ago, and therefore bollocks.

Then, he tells us "recently a two-year-old was reported to the authorities for hitting a neighbour’s cat with a stick." I think he means 'car' in a reference to this story 'Girl, 2, investigated by police for 'vandalism' after being accused of hitting car with stick', in which the Mail buries this statement from the police:
‘Within a street a couple of families were at severe loggerheads and one of the youngsters did something to one of the other family’s property.

'Police were called, they defused the situation and relevant advice was given.’

He added: ‘We aren’t talking about the child being arrested, or interviewed – that can’t happen – and the child’s DNA was not taken as we have no lawful power to do that.

‘The previous advice given to the parties involved in this street was, “You don’t go and sort it out yourself, you call the police”.

‘As far as we are concerned, they did the right thing and the matter was resolved to the satisfaction of the people whose property was alleged to have been damaged. It was a mountain out of a molehill anyway.’
Not exactly Stalinism is it? Police tell feuding families to call them instead of trying to sort things out themselves, and one family calls them when a kid hit their car with a stick. Stupid call, but the police responded because they're obviously trying to avoid violent confrontation between two families. I'm being charitable here and assuming 'cat' is a typo.

So we end up with one thing that isn't true and another that makes more sense in context being used to support the idea that a database wil be used for nefarious Stalinist blacklisting of children for twenty years because of Political Correctness. It's like saying the government could send the RAF to bomb my house because they've mistaken me for a terrorist, so we should disband the RAF.

It's not as if he even tells us what laws he's talking about repealing. Well, he mentions one, the 'Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2002', which doesn't actually exist (he's talking about the 'Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000') - but getting rid of them will, like, totally restore freedom. And if you vote for anyone who doesn't want to do that, you're not a democrat or a patriot. You might even be a Stalinist.

I never thought I'd pine for the intellectualism of the tabloids.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Any political party aspiring to government should have such a Bill drafted before the next general election; should include it in its manifesto; and should enact it in its first month in office. Any party not committed to that course of action should be regarded as ineligible to receive the votes of British democrats and patriots.

If that's not an example of political correctness, I don't know what is.

Possible Piper said...

I don't see why it matters if it was a cat or a car - hitting cats with sticks is also illegal, and cats feel pain.

Of course, if it was a cat it would probably have clawed the two-year-old's eyes out in retaliation. They're not known for calling the police and letting them sort it out.

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill said...

I can't believe the myth of political correctness is still perpetuated by anyone at all, it really is a pile of horse shit, a movement that doesn't even have a movement.

How are people allowed to get away with this kind of bullshit?

*rage*

MacGuffin said...

Warner is a ludicrous right-winger who believes Sarah Palin still has 'lots to offer', blamed the Democrats for the financial crisis, believed McCain won all the Presidential debates and I seem to remember him saying Obama could never win.

He's not someone you do really read for intellectual rigour!

(PS it's Gerald, not Graham)

merrick said...

"It's like saying the government could send the RAF to bomb my house because they've mistaken me for a terrorist, so we should disband the RAF."

*chortle*

Five Chinese Crackers said...

Cheers for the comments, people. And - MacGuffin - you say Gerald, I say Graham - let's call the whole thing off!

I had to write 'Graham' because 'Gerald' is offensive to one-legged black lesbians.

thebooklender said...

I always enjoy it when people confuse "political correctness" with health and safety.

keep up the good work!