Dangerous Political Correctness in England

[Adam_S]

Hey all, found this on sky news. Im English, and im not sure what its like in America, but im sure soon it will be illegal to call Christmas Christmas,

“Some councils and government departments around the country are discouraging the use of the word “Christmas” during this year’s celebrations in case it offends minorities of other religions. Council bosses in Luton have renamed their Christmas lights “Luminos” so as not to annoy the town’s Muslim population, and bosses at a library in High Wycombe banned posters advertising a carol service over fears it would uspet people of other religions.”

It gets worse every year - whats next?

 

[HagiaSophia]

Adam S:

It gets worse every year - whats next?

The catacombs…again.

 

[mairegal]

I’m not sure if Muslims object to Christmas, after all they honor Jesus as a prophet, and Mary is honored as well. I think the problem is with secularists who use the ‘giving offense to other religions’ excuse.
mairegal

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

mairegal:

I’m not sure if Muslims object to Christmas, after all they honor Jesus as a prophet, and Mary is honored as well. I think the problem is with secularists who use the ‘giving offense to other religions’ excuse.
mairegal

I think that is right: much of this action is anticipatory - it does not imply that there has been one single complaint ​

I think that there is more to this sort of silliness than secularism: the Blair Government is very inclined to “nannying” people, and the kind of action taken by that council looks very much like a result or imitation of this tendency to play safe, to outlaw or forbid things just in case people might conceivably abuse them, or offend someone, or hurt themselves. There is very little room for common sense in “Blairified” Britain; people are not trusted to act like responsible adults, but they are cosseted. No one must be offended in any way - so people are treated like small children. You in the USA have no idea just how tiresome this attitude can become

The trouble is, that when people are infantilised like this, they become soft and incapable of using the sense they are not trusted to exercise. No wonder that the compensation culture has grown so much is the last few years - where there is no liberty to be wrong, & no risk of being hurt, there is no responsibility, no growth in moral character: just vastly unreal expectations about life - which, BTW, is an abstraction; so it cannot owe us anything at all. Liberty is essential to a state - and this government is highly authoritarian: the next thing that our “secular Puritans” want to do to us, is, introduce ID cards. Under pretext of protecting us from terrorism - of course ##

 

[bapcathluth]

## I think that is right: much of this action is anticipatory - it does not imply that there has been one single complaint

I think that there is more to this sort of silliness than secularism: the Blair Government is very inclined to “nannying” people, and the kind of action taken by that council looks very much like a result or imitation of this tendency to play safe, to outlaw or forbid things just in case people might conceivably abuse them, or offend someone, or hurt themselves. There is very little room for common sense in “Blairified” Britain; people are not trusted to act like responsible adults, but they are cosseted. No one must be offended in any way - so people are treated like small children. You in the USA have no idea just how tiresome this attitude can become

The trouble is, that when people are infantilised like this, they become soft and incapable of using the sense they are not trusted to exercise. No wonder that the compensation culture has grown so much is the last few years - where there is no liberty to be wrong, & no risk of being hurt, there is no responsibility, no growth in moral character: just vastly unreal expectations about life - which, BTW, is an abstraction; so it cannot owe us anything at all. Liberty is essential to a state - and this government is highly authoritarian: the next thing that our “secular Puritans” want to do to us, is, introduce ID cards. Under pretext of protecting us from terrorism - of course ##

Cosseted, now there is a word we Americans don’t use often and it is a beauty. I like your vocabulary, Gottle.