it really totally boggles me when people who seem otherwise reasonable go off all ranty like about political correctness and how eeeeeeevil it is and how the culture of victimhood is responsible for so much of what's wrong with the world. (sadly, i will not be giving prizes for correct identification of the usual race and/or gender of the people who i tend to hear this from. oh, or for identifying their class, either. i do not have the resources to buy people that many cookies.)

one of the very useful things that i learned in college is that if something makes me uncomfortable, i should pay attention to it and try to figure out why. if it makes me very uncomfortable and angry, i should pay a lot of attention to it, and try to figure out why.

paying attention to it does not mean subjecting myself to harm. paying attention to it does not mean automatically deciding that whatever it is that makes me uncomfortable is right. paying attention to it means, well, paying attention to it, and thinking about it more than i had previously.