Evolution of PC

Gotcha! Not really a techno-posting, but a social posting.

After the recent "macaca" incident with George Allen, I was amused to hear someone referring to it on television, replaying the video, and finding that they had bleeped out the word "macaca". Wow! Later I saw someone explaining how offensive "tar baby" was. Always one to avoid offending people, I knew then that I had to update my vast repertoire of knowledge regarding what is politically correct. I didn't even know what a macaca was (Google fixed that), much less that it was some kind of commonly used derogatory term in French (its apparent source in that good 'ol boy's vocabulary, thanks to his mother). And, thanks to the big picture book of Uncle Remus Tales we read as children, I use tar baby to refer to a sticky situation that is difficult to extract yourself from, without thinking twice. Maybe we should start using the term "Iraq" instead, but I digress.

So, I set off in my PC research and turned to Wikipedia. One thing about Wikipedia is that it is up-to-date -- for example, the George Allen entry already has all the macaca poop, pardon the imagery. In looking up "tar baby" I see it says:

American conservative public figures who have used the term to mean "sticky situation" have encountered controversy and censure from black leaders, popular daily media, and those on the American political left

And then it goes on to note:

Employment of the term by public figures on the American political left has frequently escaped censure

I felt like, "Gee, it seems kinda politically slanted for an encyclopedia." So I poked around to look at the discussion section on the article. Notably, this entry, titled "Vandalism":

Should the repeated POV changes to the "Notable Recent Usages" section be considered vandalism?

After seeing what he is doing on the Mitt Romney page, I think it is safe to refer to his actions as vandalism.

And then looking a little further at the history section, you can see the back and forth as the battle for positioning takes place online. It's obviously a work in progress, multiple pens competing for space on one piece of electronic paper. Interestingly enough, I could go in and edit it if I felt so inclined.

Oh well. I'm sure some of you may accuse me of being overly politically correct, but I suppose I will opt for "sticky situation" in the future over "tar baby."