The Dust-Up Surrounding McEnroe's Comments About Serena Williams Is A Case Study In Political Correctness
This is right.
Anyone with half a brain should be able to see what's going on here.
(Note, incidentally, that the video says that JM "took a jab" at Williams, which is false.)
I really do think that this would make a nice little case study--it's a whole lot of PC crackpottery in microcosm. One of the aspects of it that I think is most interesting is that JM didn't start the dust-up. He said something entirely true that is neither biased nor insulting, and that shouldn't even be controversial. The interviewer then chastises him in a way that's predicated on an obvious falsehood. JM responds perfectly reasonably...but politically incorrectly. Then he is made out to be the villain. Really, this is just a freaking paradigm. It perfectly illustrates one template for PC looniness. What actually--and clearly and unequivocally--illustrates PC derangement becomes, in the deranged view of the PC left, evidence of JM's retrograde, bigotry.
Furthermore...to repeat myself yet again...this isn't exactly the PC left. This is mainstream liberals and mainstream liberal media adopting the modes of reasoning of the PC left. The madness that is so intense on the far left has infiltrated the more center-left in a somewhat weakened form. Sadly, though, not much weakened. Fairly mainstream parts of the left now routinely deploy the terminology and arguments of the PC left.
This little episode is funny...but what it represents is not.
Finally:
Here's another paradigm of PC argumentation to keep before your mind, even though this incident doesn't seem to illustrate all of the elements:
PC Person: x is F!!!!!
Normal Person: Uh...no it isn't.
PCP: IT IS!!!
Norm: But we have clear evidence that x is not F; here it is.
PCP: YOU ARE A RACIST (or sexist, or whatever -ist or -phobe) for saying that x is not F!
Norm: No I'm not, you're just denying established facts.
PCP: THE POINT IS THAT ITS RUDE/MEAN/OFFENSIVE TO SAY THESE TRUE THINGS.
The denial of plain facts, the disregarding of evidence, the focus on fabricated attitudes of reasoners instead of reasoning, the routine accusations of bigotry...and when the argument is lost, the seamless shift to accusations of rudeness without acknowledging error... Man, you just see this over and over and over again.
[Incidentally: the measure of real belief is willingness to act, e.g. willingness to bet. Suppose we could set up matches between Williams and the top 700 male tennis players, with, say, one match against each. I'd be willing to bet just about everything I own that Williams would lose most of those matches. would anyone who understands this even a little bit be willing to take that bet?]
Anyone with half a brain should be able to see what's going on here.
(Note, incidentally, that the video says that JM "took a jab" at Williams, which is false.)
I really do think that this would make a nice little case study--it's a whole lot of PC crackpottery in microcosm. One of the aspects of it that I think is most interesting is that JM didn't start the dust-up. He said something entirely true that is neither biased nor insulting, and that shouldn't even be controversial. The interviewer then chastises him in a way that's predicated on an obvious falsehood. JM responds perfectly reasonably...but politically incorrectly. Then he is made out to be the villain. Really, this is just a freaking paradigm. It perfectly illustrates one template for PC looniness. What actually--and clearly and unequivocally--illustrates PC derangement becomes, in the deranged view of the PC left, evidence of JM's retrograde, bigotry.
Furthermore...to repeat myself yet again...this isn't exactly the PC left. This is mainstream liberals and mainstream liberal media adopting the modes of reasoning of the PC left. The madness that is so intense on the far left has infiltrated the more center-left in a somewhat weakened form. Sadly, though, not much weakened. Fairly mainstream parts of the left now routinely deploy the terminology and arguments of the PC left.
This little episode is funny...but what it represents is not.
Finally:
Here's another paradigm of PC argumentation to keep before your mind, even though this incident doesn't seem to illustrate all of the elements:
PC Person: x is F!!!!!
Normal Person: Uh...no it isn't.
PCP: IT IS!!!
Norm: But we have clear evidence that x is not F; here it is.
PCP: YOU ARE A RACIST (or sexist, or whatever -ist or -phobe) for saying that x is not F!
Norm: No I'm not, you're just denying established facts.
PCP: THE POINT IS THAT ITS RUDE/MEAN/OFFENSIVE TO SAY THESE TRUE THINGS.
The denial of plain facts, the disregarding of evidence, the focus on fabricated attitudes of reasoners instead of reasoning, the routine accusations of bigotry...and when the argument is lost, the seamless shift to accusations of rudeness without acknowledging error... Man, you just see this over and over and over again.
[Incidentally: the measure of real belief is willingness to act, e.g. willingness to bet. Suppose we could set up matches between Williams and the top 700 male tennis players, with, say, one match against each. I'd be willing to bet just about everything I own that Williams would lose most of those matches. would anyone who understands this even a little bit be willing to take that bet?]
posted by Winston Smith at
12:08 PM
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