"You sexist/racist/libera l/elitist bastard"

Slippery slope.

I don't think Robert Hughes was advocating abandoning PC terminology jings, but reminding us that by simply using this terminology we are not 'mending' anything, and perhaps society needs to do more than merely avoid offence.

That fired my brain up bags. Much food for thought. I don't entirely agree with everything he says - reason is hard to quantify and we all know of examples where reasonable people are pushed to the limits by persistent use of inflammatory and provocative language. I couldn't care less about casual insults and PC pontifications - that's just mental gymnastics for people who get off on putting others down in order to feel better about themselves. His point about those who are quick to object being slow to put their beliefs into action is apt.

"As the late and much-missed Robert Hughes said, ‘We want to create a sort of linguistic Lourdes, where evil and misfortune are dispelled by a dip in the waters of euphemism’.

We'll go back to calling the mentally disabled 'lunatics' then, shall we?

Did the queen's remark on her annis horribilis come from the hockey loving prefect or the confirmation supplicant?

The bit about people's willingness to claim victimisation of themselves and tell the world how badly they have been treated, I do agree with. We see it so often on GN.

Excellent, Thatbags

It is an excellent article, bags, thank you.
We want to create a sort of linguistic Lourdes, where evil and misfortune are dispelled by a dip in the waters of euphemism. Superb quote by Robert Hughes.

Do you remember the 'Creature Comforts' Electricity TV adverts from the 80's? A series of animated cartoons featuring snails, penguins, tortoises etc. I seem to remember one of them, featuring a family of gorillas, was pulled because of complaints by a PC group claiming that black people would be offended by it. Some black people were, quite rightly, offended that anyone should think they would identify with gorillas

Missed out 'quote'

The Mark Twain is fine. When applied to steak.

Ah - the politics of language. A thoroughly good read this Monday morning. Thanks for the link B. A welcome exercising of the brain.

You don't need to read the whole thing word for word to understand the gist of the article. The Mark Twain quote gives enough food for thought.

Yeah, my brain would need a rest after that too, soon.

I have read the first half of the first link. I think I agree with all of it. [It was rather wordy for me, and I wouldnt say 100% that I totally understood all of it].
I will read the rest later.