Saturday, March 11, 2017

This Is What I Mean by Political Correctness

I just go onto the BBC website to check out the news and I'm greeted by a story hailing Silence of the Lambs as a movie "ahead of its time" (horrible phrase") because it's all about the male gaze (or something), and I'm told how we've all been shown up as voyeuristic patriarchal monsters because we fell in love with Hannibal Lecter (or something).

Well, I didn't fall in love with Hannibal Lecter. I really liked the movie Red Dragon (a lot more than Silence..., which I thought was mediocre), but I thought Hannibal was bad beyond words, and I've lost all interest in Hannibal Lecter and co. since then.

I'm just so sick of the preaching, the man-bashing, the white-bashing, the heterosexual-bashing, the white heterosexual man-bashing, the multiplication of ever more and ever weirder "identities" which I'm supposed to tiptoe around, the relentless consciousness-raising, the weird and arbitrary division of "identities" into those which deserve extravagant commiseration and those which deserve nothing but calumny.

I've mentioned several of my reasons for leaving Facebook already. The main one may have been left-wing Catholics who were very willing to preach their left-wing beliefs but very unwilling to defend the Faith itself.

But another was the endless consciousness-raising. "Ten Things Not to Say to a Parent." "Ten Things not to Say to a Vegan." "How to Interact with an Introvert", etc. etc. etc.

Introvert pride really seemed to be all the rage by the time I jumped ship. You know, I'm an introvert, and I don't see any reason to be especially proud about it. I wish I was an extrovert! Or at least, I wish I was less introverted. A world full of introverts would be a nightmare.

But if you are going to be proud about it (and I suppose, by what I've previously written about identity, I can hadly complain about that) then celebrate introversion-- don't bash extroverts or complain about introverts being misunderstood and underappreciated. Write a novel with an introverted hero. Start a League of Introverts. Wear an "Introverted and Loving It" badge. Just don't whinge about it!

Increasingly, I just ignore the mainstream media.

5 comments:

  1. Sorry, Séamus from Australia, I accidentally deleted your comment (the "publish" and "delete" buttons are right beside eaach other, and on my smartphone I've hit the wrong one several times). But I still have your comment from the notification email, so I can copy and paste:

    "One little spark recently-my parents were waiting for the news to come on and had resigned themselves to a few minutes of a cooking show... This one was a traveling cooking show... Set in Spain... And they aired bits of El Cid. "ooh", said mother,"have we seen that one?". I thought..."wonder of they're still allowed to sell it?" And, yes,I got it on blu-ray for $10au. The lady at the counter remarked what a great old one it was... Of course that could be because El Cid wars with as many heterosexual white males as Muslims. By the way, is the Turks Head still in Dublin... Under that name??"

    Yes, it does. I've never been in it, though.

    As for the lady in the video shop, probably she was as sick of this political correctness as I am. Plenty of women, blacks, gays and other favoured PC groups are. Many of them have taken to YouTube, such as Roaming Millennial (female and mixed race), who is worth checking out. I've never seen that film. How do you find BluRay?

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  2. I'm not entirely sure if the difference with blu-ray isn't psychological, but my father had to buy a blu-ray machine because he'd accidentally bought a video or two he couldn't use, so if I buy him anything I usually go for blu-ray to make his purchase worth while. I notice when speaking of Travellers you don't use the G- word. I heard that that's a punishable offence in Ireland(republic) and yet both Celtic Thunder and Altan have used it in cds released in Australia

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  3. I don't think the Travellers are gypsies, though. I wasn't aware of that law, but if it exists I think it's stupid.

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  4. I could be wrong with the identification.
    It was actually friend who was studying theology in Rome a couple of years ago who mentioned the law;the rector where he lived was an Irishman who kept up on the news. The story I got was that a politician was actually fined a huge amount for flaunting the law. The priest wasn't particularly in favour.
    No doubt there can be too much negativity towards peoples at times. Irish Catholics have experienced it. Somehow , believe it or not, I didn't realise as a child that they (whether travellers or gypsies or another distinct group) were Catholics(!) until I was in a car somewhere past Castleknock direction and we passed some caravans,I spotted the Infant of Prague through some sort of window. At that time the area wasn't very built up. I can remember, later, one family came in to something my parents used to bring me to(think it was Miraculous Medal prayers at St Mary of the Angels, Church Street) and the girls could sing so beautifully.
    But at the end of the day , no matter how others have been discriminated against we should never be ashamed of being white, non-indigenous, heterosexual and male

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    Replies
    1. Well, it's true there is negativity towards some groups, but my remedy is always the same; celebrate, don't agitate. Affirm, don't whinge. Sure, denounce injustices, but don't get stuck in a constant feedback loop of injustice and indignation.

      The Travellers in Dublin actually have a non-geographical parish of their own, which I find interesting.

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