Enjoy this fun, but poorly written, article about political correctness run amok :

The computer term “master/slave,” which was banned as racially offensive by a Los Angeles County purchasing department, was named the most politically incorrect term of the year on Thursday.

Among other terms on the top 10 list of politically charged words and phrases, issued by the word usage group Global Language Monitor, were “non-same sex marriage” to describe heterosexual unions, “waitron” for waiter or waitress and “higher being” for God, a term some people found too religious.
. . .
The phrase “non-same sex marriage,” was used by a former congressman who did not want to offend gay people by using the term traditional marriage, Payack said.

Also on the list this year were “Red Sox lover,” to use in place of “Yankee hater,” “progressive” for classical liberal, “incurious” rather than more impolite invectives for President Bush, “insurgents” instead of terrorists in Iraq, “baristas” for waiters, and “first year student” rather than freshman.

Wait a sec…what are “incurious” and “insurgents” doing on a list of politically incorrect terms?

Well, it looks like a writer a Reuters could use a lesson in logical fallacies, since this is supposed to be an article about terms that are politically correct. For what it’s worth, here’s the full list with my snarky commentary :

The Top Politically Correct Words and Phrases for 2004:

1. Device for master and captured device for slave in computer networking terminology

Maybe it’s just because I work in the IT field, but I’ve never found something remotely offensive about this terminology. It makes sense since the “master” device tells the “slave” devices what to do.

2. Non-same sex marriage, for marriage used in senate Presidential Primaries

What kind of crybabies would insist on a term like this??? It’s one thing if it was being used in place of “real marriage” or something, but “traditional marriage” is a perfectly acceptable term since traditionally (and by that I mean pretty much every culture for all of recorded time) has recognized marriage as being between a man and a woman. If anything, I’d think that terminology would be seen as gay-friendly since adding any qualifier to the word “marriage” implies that the institution isn’t strictly what homophobes insist it is.

3. Waitron for waiter or waitress

Is “waitron” one of those gender-neutral terms that popped up as a reaction to political correctness in the first place? Granted, it also sounds like the name of a robot, which I could see waitrons getting uptight about.

4. Red Sox Lover for Yankee Hater during the ALCS playoffs

Is the implication here that the only reason somebody would love the Red Sox because they actually hate the Yankees, or did I miss something during all those baseball games I refused to watch?

5. Higher Power for God

Whatever. Yet more fodder for the “they treat the Lord’s name like a dirty word” crowd.

6. Progressive for classical liberal

Ummmm….they’re two different terms. And it wouldn’t even be an issue if “liberal” hadn’t been made a dirty word by groups that include anti-PC crusaders.

7. Incurious rather than more impolite invectives for President Bush (such as idiot or moron)

Once again, there’s a difference between not having any curiosity about the world outside his little ideological bubble and being a dumbass. Bush is both.

8. Insurgents substituting for terrorists in Iraq

I wonder if the 80’s version of this list had “freedom fighters” listed for terrorists. Probably not…

9. Baristas rather than waitrons

Weren’t we just talking about coffee-serving robots a minute ago?

10. First year student rather than Freshman, though Frosh is still acceptable

“Frosh” is never acceptable, unless you want to look like someone who’s “incurious”.

Despite the seemingly endless parade of examples to the contrary, I still think political correctness is a noble goal. Sure, I think it often goes too far, it’s not to much to ask for people to try to be more sensitive to their peers every now and then.