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Political correctness is not just insane, but losing the script Cannoli Send a noteboard - 18/11/2017 09:16:12 PM

In the opening couple of episodes of the Netflix series "The Punisher" about the eponymous Marvel character, there is a thing where a federal agent of middle eastern descent who was investigating corruption or something, but has been transferred. Her supervisor, who happens to be a bad guy, so she's off the hook for her stupid reply, in slapping down her insistence on pursuing a case, points out that she got in trouble the last time and says that she's lucky to have a job and that he guesses the higher ups wanted to keep their poster girl. She then whines that his comment is sexist & racist & belittles her abilties...but he is not denigrating her! He is speaking of OTHER PEOPLE'S attitudes, and their motivation not punishing her more severely. Outside of heroic fiction, that is a FAVOR. You are alerting someone of the parameters under which she is being tolerated by someone with the ability to take away her means of making a living. This is a professional investigator, and she is unable to determine the precise nature of an individual's statement, and choose to focus on the personal emotional meaning, rather than the consequential aspect.

So that, right there, is a sample demonstration of the nincompoopery of the writers, and their out-of-whack values and intelligence. So then we come to the real values dissonance. In a flashback to when he had a family, Frank, the title character, recalls his son referring to his job as "killing hajis". Whereupon Frank slaps him and tells him never to say that again. So, considering Hollywood's attitude toward corporal punishment (very frequently, the act of striking a child to remonstrate is shorthand to signal that a parent or step-parent is rotten, and I cannot recall the latest work in which spanking was positively portrayed), we have a child abusing multiple murderer...who draws the line at a very mild insult that could be perceived as racist. That's the priority now. Slightly derogatory comments are worse than murder and child abuse. Let the chitauri and parademons have the planet.

Oh, and by the way, the aforementioned Middle Eastern woman is the daughter of Iranian immigrants. Guess who plays her mother. Just guess. (hint: it's the only woman who ever plays such roles on any show or film with a budget). And she responds to a casual question asked in a getting-to-know-you context, referencing her last name "Are you Persian?" With "American," before adding that her family were immigrants. If you're really American, you answer that question like everyone else in our "nation of immigrants" does. You say "yes" or "no" depending on which is correct. Here's the other thing. There is no such country called Persia in existence today, nor has their been for the lifetime of either person in that conversation. If she was being asked her national loyalties or country of origin, the question would have been "...Iranian?" By asking if she was Persian, the interlocutor was distinguishing between her ethnic identity and the country not held in high esteem by, like, anyone, these days. The surprising thing is that he asks her to a social meeting after that exchange.

Cannoli
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Inde muagdhe Aes Sedai misain ye!
Deus Vult!
*MySmiley*
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Political correctness is not just insane, but losing the script - 18/11/2017 09:16:12 PM 207 Views

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