If you want to see how perfectly meaningless the phrase "politically incorrect" (a phrase that actually was useful for the first couple weeks after it was invented) has become, check out this post by wingnut extraordinaire Debbie Schlussel. She's talking about a new Monopoly game which replaces their old iconic metal figures with ones more relevant to today and she writes, "Remember the classic race car? It's been replaced by a politically correct Toyota Prius." When you can describe a car as politically correct, you've reduced the phrase to nothing but a pointless epithet that means "anything I don't like." Schlussel is Ann Coulter without the charm.
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My favorite part of the post was this gem:
Yes, that's right, changing Monopoly pieces is a symptom of the collapse of America's market vigor and freedom. Fight the Commie Game Tokens!!
I can't believe I just read the word Charm in the same sentence with Ann Coulter's name.
That woman has all the charm of a crack whore suffering withdrawal.
Apparently, there are a lot of ways to say "something I don't like", each with their own context.
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It's a classic joke structure, you take a trait that someone clearly lacks and say that someone else is just like them, only without that trait. Like saying that George W. Bush is Dan Quayle without the brilliance, or is just like Stalin, only without the concern for the limits of government.
Sure, a car can be politically correct. And a Hummer, for example, is politically incorrect. Of course, in this instance I happen to think that the politically correct choice is right, because it also happens to be the smarter choice. But that's not always the case.
The Prius and the Hummer have very strong and obviously opposite political connotations. The Prius stands for environmentalism, whereas the Hummer....does not.
I find Schlussel's post to be insulting to all the people of the world who's IQ is greater than braindead. So a company who wants to market their highly successful product for a new generation is now "out of ideas"? Maybe I missed something but if America's creativity is on the decline surely she must have some new ideas that the game companies haven't thought of. I see she mentioned none. What a surprise.
I think "politically incorrect" was killed when it went from being mainly associated with Bill Maher's critiques of modern culture and politics to being associated with "Guides" that peddle revisionist history and science. I wrote a post on this when I discovered the "PIG" guides (of which Wells' attack on "Darwinism" is the latest entry) after reading another blog post that parodied them. What scared me was that the real books were more absurd than the parodies.
Gretchen, surely you are absolutely wrong about the cars. The point of 'Monopoly' (the clue is in the name) is to destroy all before you and become undisputed master of all the universe (and Mayfair)? How often do you see the sort of wildly successful tycoon one is supposed to be trying to emulate failing to remind us all of the size of his, er, genius, by driving around in a sensible car?
The Hummer, as you note, stands for DOMINANCE, TESTOSTERONE, MANLINESS, VICTORY and a TOTAL LACK OF F**KING CONCERN FOR WHAT ANYONE ELSE THINKS, DOES OR SAYS (Yes, I know I am shouting). Consequently, it is almost the perfect car for Monopoly.
It is, however, just a mite vulgar, so perhaps a Bentley or an Aston might be more apt.
I have heard, and no, can't be sure if this is correct, that the whole use of 'politically incorrect' started as a piece of self-mockery by some radical lesbians who were trying to get their more uptight members to loosen up.
Whether this is true or not, it WAS a useful term. Too many people were trying to pander to the noisier and least rational members of the more active minority groups such as gays, feminists, etc. (and remember Prup's Law "Whatever position you take in any political, social, religious or sexual dispute, you're going to have a few idiots agreeing with you") without having the slightest idea of what they were saying or why they were saying it.
Then the Right discovered the phrase...
Dear god, that is five minutes of my life - gone forever. Between her monopoly rant and the Bazooka Joe rant - I feel violated by stupidity. Tip to debbie - get over your damn self - it's not all about politics - it's about marketing. When a product's sales drop some companies try to find out why and make some changes. And if that comes off as "politicaly correct" that's because it's what people will buy.
I thought liberals were against free trade?
No, Liberals are against Freedom.
And in favour of terrorists and unpasteurised cheese and various other Very Bad Things.
Thank you, Ed. I've long suspected that "It may be politically incorrect to say this, but..." is nothing but code for "I'm about to say something offensive or asinine, but I consider it to be a Hard Truth, and I'm a brave rebel for saying it, and if you disagree, you're a politically correct wussy." Glad I'm not the only one.
Has anyone else noticed that most of the tokens are brand-name products? I expect that Hasbro picked up a little promotion money from New Balance, Toyota etc. - which makes Ms. Schussel's rant about "...the decline of capitalism" that much more stupid.
I think that redoing the pieces and basing them on popular commercial goods like McDonald's cell phones is a very good fit for a game called Monopoly
The Bazooka Joe post just makes me imagine Schlussel standing on the front porch, shaking her cane and complaining about "kids today". Probably using the word "whippersnappers".
It is often used that way, but that's certainly not the only way it can be used. There are many things which are true and need to be said but which definitely are not politically correct. The entire field of evolutionary psychology was not politically correct when it originated, and still isn't within many circles. Theories of difference between the sexes and races in generally which are not based in social construction are politically incorrect.
To assert that there is no such thing as political correctness is to basically assert that the general populace is always right about issues which have ramifications in terms of distribution of power (that is, political issues), which is patently untrue. Being politically correct, as I understand it, means presenting speech, symbols, or behaviors primarily with the intention of pandering to this mass sensibility with little or no regard to whether it actually has any truth merit.
Being politically incorrect, then, means speaking or acting with knowing and deliberate disregard for the popular sensibility on a subject (not necessarily deliberately offending, but not pandering either). It doesn't make you right, but it doesn't make you wrong either.
Can't kill the phrase "politically correct/incorrect' soon enough for me.
That post made my brain hurt.
This has to be, quite literally, around the hundredth or so official version, not counting the thousands of unlicensed versions of Monopoly out there.
A game all about the aquisition of wealth above all else, where the objective is to drive your competitors to bankruptcy, is about the only game that cannot be tarnished by replacing pieces with actual licensed products.
That's a bit melodramatic. Repackaging something old in order to sell it to a new audience is about as American as it gets. From rap music that samples old soul and R&B to faux antique Coke signs to rebranding 20 year old styles as retro chic, there always been a market for it.
The real stupidity of her comments is that there are multiple versions of Monopoly (and other classic board games) released every year. Star Wars Monopoly, Lord of the Rings Risk, classic Sorry, wooden box Scrabble, deluxe Scrabble with rotating game board, on and on with variations in the boards, the play pieces, etc.
There was a London version of Monopoly as early as the 1930s. Last Christmas we bought one of the wooden box Risk games that was printed with original board and cards and was tricked out with the old style wooden army pieces. Cool.
The version with the Prius is called the "Here and Now" version. The tokens are as follows: Prius, Motorola RAZR cell phone, New Balance sneaker, McDonald's french fries, Starbucks coffee mug...are we detecting a pattern here?
Now why does Hasbro do this - no ideas, no creativity? Nope, they do it because these games sell. Simple. Hasbro is a company with the goal of making money. Monopoly remains the best selling game on the planet. If they can sell some Monopoly games with Prius game pieces, then who is anyone to complain? Particularly a capitalist.
And here's a little fun fact from the Hasbro site: "Over 20 tokens have been cast since the MONOPOLY® game was introduced in 1935 such as the horse, dog, car, elephant, purse and lantern."
Gee, an elephant - I guess that was a blatant endorsement of the GOP.
There are currently 10 different versions of Monopoly offered by Hasbro. Including a Spongebob version. Obviously a nod to the pro-gay agenda..thekeez
At first I couldn't get over the inanity of complaining about a version of Monopoly called "Here and Now", because it updates the counters. Then I noticed she'd said that counters advertising McDonalds and Starbucks were liberal makeovers, and I gave up trying to make sense of it all.
Jeff writes:
The wife and I have the Catopoly version (spaces are named for assorted cat breeds). Although I haven't bothered to verify, I'm fairly certain there is also a Dogoply.
Sheesh, Ginger, didn't you know we liberals love the major multi-nationals.
You've put me right off my rich, aromatic cup of Nescafe now.
I think Gretchen is right. It's certainly true that the phrase is most often misused or misapplied, and often just a cover for saying asinine things. But that doesn't mean it's not useful and accurate in some circumstances. That's part of the problem with catchphrases like this. Their meaning usually broadens out so much that people forget that they actually did mean something once.
Should be a contest to determine which catchphrase is most often abused ...
1. politically incorrect
2. judical activism
3. Darwinism
Let me understand something. What is the conservatives' objection to a private company modifying the game for which they own the trademark and (possibly) copyright if that company believes that it will make the game as modified more attractive to present-day consumers?
If conservatives would like to market a traditional "Monopoly" game, they can try to negotiate a license with the trademark/copyright owner. Maybe they can even get the moulds for the traditional figures from the trademark/copyright owner.
NB: as far as I can tell, "politically correct," like "leftist" is nothing more than a noise word meaning nothing more than "I don't like." You don't like? Fine with me. If I like, I'll ignore the noise word.