Political Correctness Debate

The cluster centers on debates about political correctness, language policing, and the use of potentially offensive terms like slurs on Hacker News, with arguments both defending sensitivity to language and criticizing it as overreach or censorship.

📉 Falling 0.4x Politics & Society
2,602
Comments
19
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#3983
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

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Keywords

IT HN BS PC verywellfamily.com i.e wikipedia.org correctness political language offensive pc politically social words policing speech

Sample Comments

iratewizard Sep 29, 2020 View on HN

Thank you for policing other's language. Wouldn't want to stifle discussion with a micro aggression.

bradjohnson May 4, 2021 View on HN

Please don't hijack the conversation to whinge about political correctness.

mbrookes Jul 28, 2017 View on HN

Apparently insensitive language is ok, but questioning it is not? HN, you've lost your way.

angersock Sep 2, 2014 View on HN

It's not politically correct...the author of the comment was acknowledging that the word choice used was incorrect, and amended (not edited!) their comment to show a different phrase.When discussing things of a delicate nature, where precision matters and thoughtless wordchoice will easily derail any useful discussion, having such scruples is something to celebrate and not mock.

nathias Mar 17, 2021 View on HN

I don't believe anyone was ever offended by this, if they were, that would be their problem and corporate language policing or any other institutionalized efforts like that are evil

feet Nov 16, 2022 View on HN

It sounds like there are some misconceptions about "political correctness"

hueving Jul 9, 2016 View on HN

Your comment seems offensive to people that don't like passive aggressive political correctness.

GiraffeNecktie Oct 27, 2011 View on HN

It distresses me that "political correctness" has become a dirty "four letter" word rather than simply a shared understanding that people who address others in a hate-filled, bullying, disrepectful and demeaning way should be actively shunned and censured (i.e. not "censored").

serge2k Jan 11, 2017 View on HN

Yes. It is language policing nonsense. Quit trying to tell people how to talk because of imagined slights.

bobsmooth Apr 21, 2023 View on HN

We're concerned with social effects of saying the wrong thing.