PC culture got Trump elected

[PsYcHo]

Trigger Warning- This thread focuses on the negative aspects of PC culture. If you are PC this will offend you. If you are not PC, this will annoy you more.

So this made me roll my eyes so hard I think I need corrective lenses now. http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/12/tone-policing-and-privilege/

So this is just one of many PC non issues that are floating around now. To speak directly to this one, let me try to explain how it makes me feel in PC speak.

When you marginalize me for asking you to calm down, you are ignoring MY feelings by making it all about you. I don't ask you to calm down because I don't value you opinion, I ask you to calm down because in my household, raise voices led to yelling, which led to violence, and this makes me apprehensive and nervous. I am triggered whenever I hear people talking in a manner that appears aggressive. Looks for safe space with therapy puppy.

So this is actually a mild example of what annoys me about extreme PC culture. I don't have a problem with people not wanting to offend others, the problem I have is it seems like the most fringe PC elements take offense at EVERYTHING! So when someone comes along who is intentionally offensive (See Trump), valid arguments against him get lost in the cacophony of bs.

Just a quick example, the "Birther" idiocy. That was a stupid movement IMO; a last ditch effort to use a possible technicality to prevent the other side's guy from winning. But somehow this got turned into racism? Da Fuq? This is the same tactic they used to try and get Ted Cruz disqualified during the primaries for being born in Canada. Spoiler, Cruz is whiter than mayonnaise.

So is PC culture getting out of hand, or am I just an asshole?

[EquALLity]

I think your general idea is largely right, however:

Just a quick example, the "Birther" idiocy. That was a stupid movement IMO; a last ditch effort to use a possible technicality to prevent the other side's guy from winning. But somehow this got turned into racism? Da Fuq? This is the same tactic they used to try and get Ted Cruz disqualified during the primaries for being born in Canada. Spoiler, Cruz is whiter than mayonnaise.

The reason why it's racist is because there was no reason to suspect Obama wasn't born in America in the first place. Nobody ever questioned the birthplace of Bernie Sanders, and his parents are immigrants. I wonder why that is.

As for Ted Cruz, we already knew he was actually born in another country. It's not like we randomly decided to investigate, it was just a known reality.

[PsYcHo]

The reason why it's racist is because there was no reason to suspect Obama wasn't born in America in the first place.

But what does that have to do with him being black? And I think most conspiracy theories are bullshit, but I enjoy looking at the "evidence", and there was some. Real or fake, it made me wonder.

Just declaring it RACIST!! because he is black makes people start to pay less attention when people say something that IS racist. Desensitization.

[EquALLity]

The reason why it's racist is because there was no reason to suspect Obama wasn't born in America in the first place.

But what does that have to do with him being black? And I think most conspiracy theories are bullshit, but I enjoy looking at the "evidence", and there was some. Real or fake, it made me wonder.

Just declaring it RACIST!! because he is black makes people start to pay less attention when people say something that IS racist. Desensitization.

What reason for them questioning his place of birth is there besides him being black?

[PsYcHo]

What reason for them questioning his place of birth is there besides him being black?

I could give you the reasoning people used, but I'll suggest you look into yourself. (Helpful tip, do it in incognito, otherwise those cookies will suggest all kinds of stupid shit. )

The question I have is, if he were in the exact same situation, but white (he is half, technically), would that have been racially motivated? Why would they(Republicans) try to use the same exact tactic on Cruz if it was solely racially motivated?

[Mr. Purple]

I'm really skeptical of the idea that trump was elected because of PC culture. I think more important factors are that he got constant exposure, and trump would tell anybody anything they wanted to hear without worrying about facts or contradictions. Most politicians do this to some degree, but trump took it to a level we have never seen before and it worked. I think it's just a case of the public being blindly partisan and gullible. The fact that people are too PC seems like a small part of trump's success based on what I hear from the conservative people I know. I could be wrong though.

The question I have is, if he were in the exact same situation, but white (he is half, technically), would that have been racially motivated? Why would they(Republicans) try to use the same exact tactic on Cruz if it was solely racially motivated?

I can see how the birther movement could be called racist though it's slightly hyperbolic. I don't think the birther nonsense could be successfully pushed for that long with zero evidence if Obama wasn't black. I would be surprised if trump wasn't leveraging Obama's race there. I think there are problems with using the word racist when it comes to implicit bias because It unnecessarily waters down the word, but at the same time, it would be nice to have a way to point out what trump was doing, and "racist" seems like the closest thing you can fit into a sound bite. Ted Cruz not being US born wasn't pushed nearly as much or as long as Obama, and he was actually born outside the US, so it makes sense to use for a whole different reason. It wouldn't make any sense to use that tactic against Obama if he wasn't black, and it wouldn't make sense to use it against Cruz if his birth certificate didn't actually say he was born in Canada.

[PsYcHo]

I'm really skeptical of the idea that trump was elected because of PC culture.

I'm not saying that it was the primary reason, but with the direction PC culture is going I think it may have caused a small proportion of low information voters (enough to win) to not take the accusations seriously.

As far as the reasoning for not pursuing the birth certificate issue further with Cruz, perhaps it is because it didn't work the first time. I will agree that where it concerns Obama, the real racist picked up the issue and ran with it, but I don't believe it was started for racists reasons, just a pathetic last ditch effort to keep a strong candidate from being elected.

[Mr. Purple]

the real racist picked up the issue and ran with it,

Of course racial bias is involved in the birther movement, but "racism" makes it sound like that bias involves negativity towards that race, which is completely unnecessary to explain the birther movement. Actual racism may not have been involved at all. It could just be that conservative people don't associate black people with america for some reason, even if those conservatives have the exact same opinion of all races.

It's probably more accurate to call it racially motivated rather than racist, but most people would hear those as the same thing.

[EquALLity]

the real racist picked up the issue and ran with it,

Of course racial bias is involved in the birther movement, but "racism" makes it sound like that bias involves negativity towards that race, which is completely unnecessary to explain the birther movement. Actual racism may not have been involved at all. It could just be that conservative people don't associate black people with america for some reason, even if those conservatives have the exact same opinion of all races.

Seeing African Americans as un-American sounds like racism to me.

[Mr. Purple]

Seeing African Americans as un-American sounds like racism to me.

Yeah, It does sound racist, but it isn't. That's why discussing this is so difficult for people.