Let's have a common sense party please!

I agree, sometimes I despair at what’s happening in our society.

Big brother isn’t only watching us, he’s dictating everything we say and do.

What do you want to say that you feel you can’t?

Nothing horrible or unkind, nothing racist or sexist, nothing homophobic or blasphemous, I think it’s just a general feeling that someone is waiting to catch you out if you say the wrong thing.

I still can’t think what you want to say or think that you feel you might get “caught out” saying or thinking.

Unfortunately common sense is not very common. Further, your common sense may not be mine.

I can't understand what it is that the OP feels she wants to say but can't, for fear of being "caught out".

It's a familiar complaint, especially since Mr T ruled the world. Some of his supporters now say things that in truth, would be much better not said or even thought. I saw a photograph of a group of women T supporters, they wore stetsons and T shirts with a stiletto shoe image and the slogan "racist bitch and proud". Lovely. I'm sure the OP isn't thinking that kind of thing but it would be interesting to try and have a 'common sense' debate about what it is she can't say any more.

I don't get it either. If you don't want to say something horrible, unkind, racist or sexist, what is it you can't say?

What's common sense anyway?

I see where Sparkling is coming from.

It’s not a case of actually wanting to say something you feel you can’t, it’s about always having to be careful how you say it.
As a nation we are becoming extremely sensitive, I certainly am not advocating anyone being blunt to the point of rudeness, but I also think some people are just waiting to trip you up.

We are going back in time and acting like the Victorians that so many people like to despise as backward looking and hypocritical. The moral code they lived by was different but like them, we are taught codes of behaviour that any deviation from brings down universal moral condemnation, from which you can never ever restore your place in society.

Like them, we scour peoples lives past and present for signs that they might, at some time in the past in childhood or extreme youth, done or said something that was in conflict with their present opinions and condemn them to a life of humiliation and accusations of hypocracy.

There is no place in our society for the repentant sinner, nor was there in the late19th century.

vegansrock How about the comment I made that China seemed to be the source of most respiratory/flu type diseases that threaten pandemics, which is a fact and no comment upon the Chinese, their lives or culture. For that I was labelled racist

Do you have any other examples MOnica? I seriously don't know what these people, who claim they can't say what they want, mean.

I'd be grateful for some concrete examples of these codes of behaviour people don't like.

I can’t think of anything that I want to say but can’t, either.

I do groan when I hear the phrase ‘political correctness gone mad’, though. It is such a cliche, and is often used when people can’t be bothered to use a less hurtful term, or to think about why something might be offensive.

The idea that mysterious spies are waiting to catch people out is faintly ridiculous, really. It’s like the ‘’elf ‘n’ safety’ bods who are also apparently trying to stop our fun by insisting on minimum standards in the workplace or in public buildings- they are supposed to have ‘gone mad’ too.

I’d rather be safe and healthy, and try not to be offensive than to get upset about getting caught out’.

I dislike the fact that ordinary every day words have been appropriated and are used as an alternative word for what always had a proper, dictionary-defined word or description.

I cannot blame much older people who use words which at one time were accepted, not offensive then became offensive, now are back in a revised form of the original. It could be difficult to keep up.

Sparkling do you mean in RL or on GN?

I can understand what you mean if you're referring to GN.

Maybe the OP is referring to the alistair Stewart resignation.

Another one who’d like some concrete examples.

Good sensible post Monica, and whoever called you a racist is an idiot.
I know what the OP means, especially on forums such as this
Where there is always somebody who will be delighted to pounce on a posters words hoping to show how enlightened they are themselves.Yes, that phrase again, virtue signalling.

Well I’m thinking more about real life.

I agree with Callistemon, I have very elderly friend, a kinder person you couldn’t meet, but she sometimes says things that makes me cringe! I tell her she can’t say that anymore, but she doesn’t see why not, she’s always said it.

Not making excuses, just pointing out that it’s sometimes hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

There’s a difference between a very elderly person using the word ‘coloured’ and the use of ‘black b**h which black women in public life have thrown at them. As for the term ‘virtue signalling* FFS.

And MOnica there’s much hyperbole in your post

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

I think you'll find there are plenty of complaints about certain misogynist words in rap songs.

I think it would be helpful to separate out what goes on in the Twittersphere and other social media outlets and what the OP claimed

* We can't have a thought of our own, without being accused of something. Who are these people telling us what we must think or act. Everyone is getting cheesed of with it, getting like big brother*

In everyday life we all have a responsibility to be aware of social norms and mores , and how they change: that language plays a role in how these are expressed and understood and that language moves on and words change and develop their meaning.

The OP is hyperbolic nonsense - what has she been stopped from thinking or doing?

Sara65 seems to be the only one who has got the point. The point is not feeling unable to say something, but the fact that we CAN'T speak our minds when we wish to.

This is one of the reasons why politicians get such a shock whenever there is a referendum or election. They think they know how the public feel but they don't because they don't allow us to SAY how we feel. It is only at the ballot box that we can show our true concerns.