This most certainly is prevalent within the new era of left wing politics. The PC shit is irritating, my demographic simply can’t take a joke anymore in part due to this. I’m not racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic… whatever other cards one can pull I generally don’t discriminate apart from those who unwaveringly preach hate/violence towards certain demographics.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I was called out at one point for using the word ‘retarded’ and pulled my autism card as a defence mechanism. Retarded is hardly used as a pejorative term for the intellectually disabled nowadays. If I recall correctly I was referring to a political situation that seemed very stupid to me.
Apparently me calling a situation retarded equates to me discriminating against all of those with an IQ below 70. I can understand a stance against the use of homophobic/ethnic slurs, as these are offensive and have legitimately been used to discriminate against large cohorts of people. But to push further and state “well, you can’t make jokes either or use words with alternative definitions because one aforementioned definition might come across as discriminatory” is nanny state madness .
My brother was called “transphobic” by some college kids recently over some absolute bullshit regarding Ellen Page. I think it was a discussion as to how identifying as a “they/them” makes no sense. I don’t understand it either. She identifies as a boy, why not go with “he” as opposed to ‘they’. It’s not possible for one person to be described via a plural pronoun unless you are, in fact two people.
Edit: this isn’t me showcasing intolerance, rather I just don’t understand it. No one has ever explained the concept of they/them pronouns to me. I also don’t understand the concept of being transgender as defined by current constructs. I was under the assumption transgender = you identify as the opposite sex and thus get a sex change/make yourself appear more masculine/feminine. But now some are stating gender is a fluid construct, I don’t understand how this could be possible. Biological gender can’t be altered, the gender one identifies with can be altered. That being said, I don’t understand the concept of identifying as both male and female.
Left wing politics haven’t always been this way. It’s interesting as the mainstream right and the mainstream left both seem to be navigating more and more extreme waters. Further deviating away from philosophies/ideologies once deemed important within both political spectrums. As this divide deepens it’ll become more and more difficult to find middle ground.
If I had to choose between living under the rule of a society abiding by modern left wing constructs vs modern right wing constructs however I’d choose the left over the right. Quite frankly, I don’t want a model of gun ownership in Aus akin to what America has. I don’t want abortion banned, I don’t want harsher penalties for misdemeanours/victimless crimes, I don’t want same sex marriage outlawed, I don’t support fracking, coal mining or large scale deforestation. I don’t like the idea unregulated capitalism wherein a few corporate cartels dominate as opposed to a model of regulated capitalism that caters more towards the working man where a number of fiercely competitive small businesses work in conjunction with one another. I don’t like strip searching kids (Australia), lockout laws, “red tape” endless rules associated with the right wing government here etc