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Subject:Re: Provocation? Damn straight. From:"W. C. Mackey" <wmackey -at- CTS -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 30 Jun 1995 13:04:23 -0700
Right On
On Thu, 29 Jun 1995, Matt Ion wrote:
> This is prompted by the number of responses I've received to my little comment
> to "Skhan -at- wb -dot- com", to wit, "You're so cute when you're in a snit."
> Okay, it was deliberate provocation. No, wait. Provocation? Nah. A
> "tweak".
> Nobody - NOBODY - that I know in real life, either on a personal or a
> professional level, is this uptight about PC crap. Most of them are irritated
> by it as much as I am.
> So I wonder, why is it I can't act and talk the same way in here, with other
> professionals, as I can in "real life"? Or are ALL my real-life friends and
> business associates just unenlightened boors? Maybe I'm not meeting the right
> kind of people?
> I try to participate in subject and threads that are on-topic for this list.
> I try to be helpful when I can. Unfortunately, it seems I can't do so without
> someone biting my ankle for being "politically incorrect" - be it
> inadvertantly insensitive, to blatant and intentional anything-ism. Now I
> know how a mailman feels going into a yard full of schnauzers.
> Okay, so my comment was deliberately intended to smack someone back. So sue
> me. Considering the constant abuse I keep getting in my inbasket while just
> trying to be myself, I think I've been remarkably restrained.
> Okay, okay, so I should just wipe ALL adjectives and adverbs from my
> vocabulary. I should write all my postings as completely bland, devoid of any
> personality. That would solve the problem, right?
> Sorry. That's fine when actually writing a technical document, but I really
> don't see it being necessary for interacting with collegues on a daily basis.
> As has been pointed out so many times before, it becomes impossible for one to
> concentrate on the POINT of the whole job when one must spend all one's time
> concerned with who's going to be annoyed next.
> Other people have their "pretty little heads" and "bright lassies" - these are
> phrases that are as often as not regional ("bright lassies" sound SOOOOO
> Scottish) and while they may offend your PC 'sensibilities', they may be compl
> etely innocuous in the writer's native location.
> So it starts to become, not just a matter of one person forcing on another
> their ideas of what "politically correct" should be, but their concepts of
> what it is coloured by their particular environment or location. Let's try to
> remember, this is a GLOBAL network, and "offensive" in one language may be
> common, completely acceptable, or even considered a compliment in another.
> So it all becomes pretty pointless anyway.
> Personally, I would dearly LOVE to get back to the gist of what this list is
> for and not be bothered with this anymore. Unfortunately, it seems that the
> only way I can do that is, as I said, become just another bland,
> character-less automaton at the keyboard. No opinions, no humour, no nothing
> for fear someone might not like it. "Just the facts, ma'am" (no, wait,
> "ma'am" is sexist).
> So, if anyone has any questions I have a response for, expect direct mail
> only. No more will anyone have to worry about my knowledge or experience
> gracing the public airwaves. No more will I add to discussions of dtp
> software, sentence structure, or just WHY it's "i befere e except after c".
> Thank you all very much for such a lovely start to my day. I must now go to
> work.
> Matt
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Bill Mackey |When I was younger I spent my time learning
| Less and Less about More and More,
|Now that I am older
wmackey -at- crash -dot- cts -dot- com | I know nothing about everything
