PC gone Mad! - Oxford University Press has removed words like "aisle", "bishop", "cha

[Cogadh]

It underlines how stupid Political-Correctness is and why it should be expunged from Irish politics. It silences democratic debate and invents non-existent hypotheses to justify clampdowns on freedom of speech such as claiming the term "non-national" is offensive to foreign-nationals when in fact it is not. The only people who regard it as offensive are the Far Left loons in politics, the media and academia who obsess about these things. It's from the same kinf of geniuses that demand cribs be moved because of 'multiculturalism' (as discussed in the Seanad last week).

I'm no fan of 'Political Correctness gone mad' but it's not just the preserve of the 'far left' but one of the funny areas where right and left can (and do) coalesce .

[CookieMonster]

I think "aisle" is too important a word to be removed. I, for one, can never remember how to bloody well spell it!

[Riadach]

I'm no fan of 'Political Correctness gone mad' but it's not just the preserve of the 'far left' but one of the funny areas where right and left can (and do) coalesce .

The far left? Oh yes, Stalin was all about the political correctness. Why one of the reasons he wished to stamp out Belorussian culture and suppress its language, was because he thought that the idea of a 'white' Russia could be considered a wee bit racist.

[Catalpa]

The far left? Oh yes, Stalin was all about the political correctness. Why one of the reasons he wished to stamp out Belorussian culture and suppress its language, was because he thought that the idea of a 'white' Russia could be considered a wee bit racist.

So that's where you've been hiding!

How's life in Minsk these days anyway?

[Riadach]

So that's where you've been hiding!

How's life in Minsk these days anyway?

Cold, true to form, I've been staying well away from Brest.

[Cogadh]

The far left? Oh yes, Stalin was all about the political correctness. Why one of the reasons he wished to stamp out Belorussian culture and suppress its language, was because he thought that the idea of a 'white' Russia could be considered a wee bit racist.

Given I was responding to Future Taoiseach and I put 'far left' in quotes this is the response? C'mon Riadach I thought you were one of the more intelligent posters? You should be better than that nonsense.

My point was that 'PC madness' is an area were certain sections of the left and right coalesce.

[ibis]

If you keep adding entries to a "pocket" dictionary whilst not taking out some old entries you'll very quickly end up with a "desktop" dictionary.

Laptops , MP3 players & E-book readers are not yet a standard part of educational life. I'd agree that we should move towards this but that's a whole different issue.

And not one that will be addressed now that people have really got their teeth into the idea that this is a manifestation of political-correctness-gone-mad.

It seems reasonable that a short dictionary should define words in common use - the idea that one should not bother to put words in the dictionary that 'everyone knows' leads to interesting and bizarre realms. It's interesting, too, that this should have been pointed out by someone in NI, and illustrates the growing difference between NI and the rest of the UK - I imagine 'chapel' and 'minister' are in rather more common currency in NI.

[Lefronde]

Political correctness is neo-marxist muck! Whoever made decision is a son of a bishop!

[myksav]

They should get rid of most of the words in the english language dictionaries. Just give them two words to learn. Ones that will make them good little obedient little drones. "Yes" and "Sir".

Too many words make people think, and that's not good for control.

[fionnmccool]

... Nobody wants a world where black bin bags are considered racist, but neither should we return to an era where 'sambo' was considered a term of endearment...

A Sambo was always a sandwich to me.