Saturday, September 5, 2009

Grown men can't pick on children without being questioned. It's all PC gone mad.

Michael Laws is providing excellent fodder for the NZ Herald and indeed all New Zealand news outlets at the moment. The banning of gang patches, the battle to save Wanganui from the dreaded 'h' and now this: parents angry about Laws writing a heated letter to school kids in response to their request to put the 'h' back in W(h)anganui, uh-oh. He argued:  
"When your class starts addressing the real issues affecting Maoridom - particularly the appalling rate of child abuse and child murder within Maori society, then I will take the rest of your views seriously."

Ruffled feathers, anyone? I wonder if Michael Laws takes Your Views seriously? If he does, he might feel safe in the comfort of his many fans. Should Michael Laws have to apologise over his letter to Otaki School?

LukaDuka (Newton)
I am all for ML. This country has gone to the "PC correct" dogs. He hit the nail on the head.

Luigi (Auckland)
At least we can count on Laws saying it like it is, rather than spouting some PC based claptrap we have had to endure over the past 9 years. The kids were prompted by their teacher - no doubt. They were arrogant in "their" letters - no doubt again.

andy pandy (Blenheim)
Go Michael! The more you stick it up the PC brigade the better. Of course these kids were put up to it by their teacher (and other adults?) No self respecting kid would voluntarily enter into such a debate of their own accord. The whole things a media beat up and makes me ashamed to call myself a kiwi.

Notice the reoccurrence of anti-PC sentiment. Such language goes down well with a large number of Your Views users, who seem to drop negative references towards political processes and "political correctness" in order to strengthen their argument that New Zealand has "gone soft". It is easy to see how this kind of language prevents users from engaging with oppositional arguments in a constructive way, instead it constructs a separation between two sides who see eachother respectively as "PC cardigan-wearing nanny-state-loving hippies" and "ignorant narrow-minded racist bigots". I quite like James W's contribution to the discussion in this thread, an attempt to deconstruct the constant negative references to "PC":

James W (Auckland Central)
Whenever people say "It's PC gone mad!" what they mean is "I can't say or do offensive things anymore, waaaaah!". How about just being a decent, respectful citizen?

Nicely put James W. To use LukaDuka's phrase, you "hit the nail on the head".

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