Someone once said that many of the impulses that are derided as "PC" are simply a matter of "Plain Courtesy." My apology was in that spirit.
That said, and this specific exchange over the word "lameness" aside, I do agree the Left loses a lot of people by emphasizing how much work it is to be a leftist, and by making people feel guilty about too many things. I think there is a hardcore left faithful that gets off on hard work and "guilt and "hand-wringing," but most people are - quite rightly - alienated by all that. Who wants to feel bad about shopping, sexually objectifying others, making jokes, or eating tasty food?
> From: Marta Russell <ap888 at lafn.org>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2002 10:11:44 -0700
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Re: sorry
>
>>
>> One of my disabled friends, who is anything but self-hating,
>> uses the term _lame_ to deprecate bad art frequently, so the
>> word may have different auras for different people; they
>> might not connect it with disability in the political sense.
>
> I have noticed an increase in the use of "lame" as of late. It seems
> to have become one of those trendy words like dude or rad. Another
> one is "retard" which seems to have proliferated like rabbits. And
> it is used in the pejorative often by young folks who are not
> connecting it politically but are using it pejoratively.
>
>> People who actually deride or discriminate against disabled
>> persons are probably more afraid of them than contemptuous or
>> insensitive, not that this is any reason to tolerate their
>> behavior; but it may suggest different tactics -- affirmative
>> action in preference to hand-wringing and guilt-tripping, for
>> instance.
>
> If disabled people were everywhere out there in the community do you
> think this fear would disappear?
> One first has to recognize a need for affirmative action. Notice
> that hasn't happened (legally) for disabled persons in the way it has
> for people of color and women.
>
>>
>> It should be easy, shouldn't it? What seems hard to me is
>> the fear, submission, obedience, self-distrust and self-
>> loathing which authority attempts to inculcate. Accordingly
>> a Left which promotes guilt and sorrow among its own is not
>> going to get anywhere. You don't see Marx telling people to
>> feel guilty in the _Communist_Manifesto_. No, he tells them
>> they have nothing to lose but their chains, and a world to
>> win.
>
> Thats great but you can't win that world without searching for what
> that world needs to look like first and that means confronting the
> issues that oppress people -- not just workers, but all people.
>
> Marta
>
> --
> Marta Russell
> Los Angeles, CA
> http://www.disweb.org