![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
"Political Correctness" is baaaaaad.
May. 17th, 2007 12:10 amBackground: Some Idiot DJs engage in a bit of "comedy" where their guest breathlessly describes how he wants to rape and murder Condi Rice and Laura Bush. People get upset and complain to their employer, and some of them threaten to boycott the stations that run the show. The employer suspends the idiots*. Finally, their fans defend them, claim it's terrible censorship, political correctness run amuck, they should boycott the station for suspending the bozos, and the bozos had no control over what their guest say anyway. Since I fully expect the fan in question to delete my comment from his livejournal**, I post it here as well:
Yeah, it's not like they have a bleeper, or the power to cut off a guest's microphone or anything like that. And "Bob" knows that this Political Correctness thing has gotten out of hand. Time was, you could joke about lynching niggers and gassing kikes all day long, and no one would raise an eyebrow. But now it's gone too far; if we can't laugh about uppity bitches getting raped to death, what CAN we find humor in?***
In all seriousness, this is _not_ censorship, it's a private company deciding that their employees stepped out of line and punishing them for it. True, they might not have made the decision to discipline them if it hadn't been for the complaints of certain members of the general public, but that's how it goes. The Money-Grubbing Capitalists decided they stood to lose more money if people boycotted their sponsors, than they would if they annoyed their audience by suspending the bozos. That's how it works. People vote with their pocketbooks all the time (Hell, you're doing that with your protest _right_now_); Do you seriously think they _shouldn't_, that such "economic blackmail" is equivalent to government censorship? Can you honestly say that there is no humor that you, personally, would find offensive enough that you would boycott the entertainer in question? If someone joked about say, burning switch-hitting furries alive, you wouldn't be even slightly tempted to shun them?
Anyhoo, no one is "silencing" the bozos in question. They can say whatever the hell they please, it just won't be on their employer's broadcasts. Free Speech does not imply that anyone else has an obligation to listen to it, or pay them for it.
* The causal relationship is assumed, but I suppose it's possible their employer was acting because of principle rather than profit.
**As is his right, and I won't whine "Censorship!" when he does it. Turns out I was wrong aboout that, and he has at least partially realized the error of his ways. Happy I am not to be disillusioned and forced to consider someone I previously thought was cool, as a jackass. I _hate_ when that happens.
*** Please note that the _only_ time I use language like this is when I'm trying to call attention to someone else's bigotry. To anyone who was offended by the bozos, _and_ my words, I apologize, but I still feel that my harshness was justified in order to make my point. And anyone who _wasn't_ offended by the bozos, but was offended by me? You can go fuck yourself.
Yeah, it's not like they have a bleeper, or the power to cut off a guest's microphone or anything like that. And "Bob" knows that this Political Correctness thing has gotten out of hand. Time was, you could joke about lynching niggers and gassing kikes all day long, and no one would raise an eyebrow. But now it's gone too far; if we can't laugh about uppity bitches getting raped to death, what CAN we find humor in?***
In all seriousness, this is _not_ censorship, it's a private company deciding that their employees stepped out of line and punishing them for it. True, they might not have made the decision to discipline them if it hadn't been for the complaints of certain members of the general public, but that's how it goes. The Money-Grubbing Capitalists decided they stood to lose more money if people boycotted their sponsors, than they would if they annoyed their audience by suspending the bozos. That's how it works. People vote with their pocketbooks all the time (Hell, you're doing that with your protest _right_now_); Do you seriously think they _shouldn't_, that such "economic blackmail" is equivalent to government censorship? Can you honestly say that there is no humor that you, personally, would find offensive enough that you would boycott the entertainer in question? If someone joked about say, burning switch-hitting furries alive, you wouldn't be even slightly tempted to shun them?
Anyhoo, no one is "silencing" the bozos in question. They can say whatever the hell they please, it just won't be on their employer's broadcasts. Free Speech does not imply that anyone else has an obligation to listen to it, or pay them for it.
* The causal relationship is assumed, but I suppose it's possible their employer was acting because of principle rather than profit.
**
*** Please note that the _only_ time I use language like this is when I'm trying to call attention to someone else's bigotry. To anyone who was offended by the bozos, _and_ my words, I apologize, but I still feel that my harshness was justified in order to make my point. And anyone who _wasn't_ offended by the bozos, but was offended by me? You can go fuck yourself.