youtube YouTube Stewart Lee 9 Political Correctness 41st Best Stand Up ever
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters offer it as a sharp, funny answer to 'PC gone mad' and anti-woke arguments in discussions of language policy.
What it is
A nine-minute Stewart Lee stand-up routine about political correctness and the claim that it has gone mad. It is dry, layered British comedy that takes the complaint apart.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2014 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec stdbrouw · 2022-12 · on “Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative”
Obviously there's much to laugh at in this initiative and a legitimate worry about thought being policed. That said, if you are open to changing your mind, there's an excellent 9-minute bit of stand-up comedy from Stewart Lee about political correctness you might want to watch [1] where he discusses why for example it's not "political correctness gone mad" to refer to a prostitute as a sex worker [2]. I do think the general impulse to try and create a kinder language is worthwhile, even if in practice it can spiral out of control due to virtue signaling and people with too much time on their hands. [1] [this video] [2] [this video]
Recommends zorpner · 2016-06 · on “Trump”
He's right that we're drowning in political correctness... Trump's casual racism, misogyny, and conspiracy theories are without precedent... That's some impressive cognitive dissonance, sama. Those are two aspects of the same thought happening in Trump's mind. EDIT: Stewart Lee's smart (and amusing!) bit on the idea of "political correctness": [this video]
Recommends geden · 2021-06 · on “What's Happened to the National Trust”
Stewart Lee, another British institution, telling you all you need to know about ‘wokeness’, 10+ years ago. [this video] It’s extra charged in the UK because ‘PC gone mad’, please don’t show me inconvenient truth types, map neatly onto Brexit supporters.
Cites Apocryphon · 2015-09 · on “The Importance of Donald Trump”
The problem with critiquing political correctness is that there's no definite definition of what "PC" is. A lot of what's criticized as PC is merely leftist activism and liberal policies taken to extremes. Is multiculturalism and diversity PC? (and what exactly do those even mean in terms of specific policies?) Are sexual harassment lawsuits? Is affirmative action? Tort cases? The War on Christmas? The war against the War on Christmas? Is media censorship in favor of Israel, or media censorship in favor of Palestinians, PC? Public safety regulations ( [this video] )? Why is being anti-Trump considered pro-PC? What specific statements do you consider disrespectful? I'm sure there are equivalent cr