Everyone's for political correctness/policing speech until these tactics are used to silence THEM.

[MadDAsHell]

Policing speech has all kinds of political advantages:

1) You can take something completely out of context and use it to label your opponent as sexist, racist, whatever label is mostly political effective

2) You can then use those labels as your excuse to not engage in debate/discussion, especially if you're fairly uncertain of the validity/strength of your own argument. e.g. "I'd be more than happy to discuss your concerns about Hillary's donors but Bernie and his supporters are racist, you're a Bernie supporter, and I don't have time to engage with racists.""

It's been all fun and games using these tactics over the last few decades against opponents on the right but it's shitty as hell that we're now having to deal with them internally. Who in their right mind, 1 year ago today, would have guessed that Bernie Sanders and his supporters would be considered the "racist" wing of the Democratic party?

Not to mention that whole separate discussion that we as a party are ACTIVELY eliminating the true horror of such words by using them as political tools. With how much we've abused these words over the years, does the average young person today even know what racism looks like? What sexism looks like? What bigotry looks like?

The question is, will we learn anything from this? Or will we be right back to this the next primary season?

[virgogal]

1. The accusasion of "racist" has become meaningless

because it has been so overused.

I knew a guy who was accused of being a racist because he loves ice hockey and the Boston Bruins.

White man's sport etc.

Ludicrous !

[MadDAsHell]

2. Such accusations became meaningless when they became weapons instead of truths.

If we're deciding whether to call someone a racist and the majority of our brain power is used to plan out the the political advantages of doing so, rather than to consider whether the person actually did/said something racist, we're in trouble.

[ieoeja]

3. Pure rightwing drivel. n/t

[MadDAsHell]

6. Is there a way I can DURec your response? nt

[MadDAsHell]

7. Hello? nt

[Lordquinton]

4. In a stroke of irony

AUTOMATED MESSAGE: Results of your Jury Service
Mail Message
On Mon Feb 22, 2016, 01:54 PM an alert was sent on the following post:

Everyone's for political correctness/policing speech until these tactics are used to silence THEM.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511308699

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

"It's been all fun and games using these tactics over the last few decades against opponents on the right..." This poster is claiming that Democrats lie about the bigotry prevelant on the Right. Apparently a troll just decided to come out. Methinks someone is overdue for a PPR.

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Mon Feb 22, 2016, 02:05 PM, and the Jury voted 2-5 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: So, an OP about using speech police and taking things out of context to silence others is being alerted on and the excuse is a line taken out of context and being used to silence.

Alerter, you have really outdone yourself this time. Maybe read this post and stop accusing other Democrats.
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: What??
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: OP is asking a valid question and expressing a legitimate concern.
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: There's got to be a personal conflict backstory to this alert but since I can only vote on what I see here, I see nothing deserving of a hide.

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

[MadDAsHell]

5. Topical. I think we have some DUers that consider themselves more MIRTs than readers/posters.

If everyone has that attitude though there's nothing to read/post, it's just a bunch of hidden/locked posts, and DU becomes pointless.

[Matariki]

8. LOL

This place has jumped the shark.

[Lordquinton]

9. I literally could not make this stuff up.

The things you see here