Political Correctness

[The Magic Pudding.]

Recusant, what about a game of Tug-of-War? In that sport, you tow a line.

Yes, and a mule tows a line on a barge.
A tugboat tows a line on a ship.

The idiom "toe the line" has to do with meeting expectation, and has as its possible origin runners in a race stepping to the line to begin the race. "Tow the line," though a common error, is not only incorrect it carries a different (if perhaps adjacent) connotation.

The mast is cracking as the waves are slapping
All toe the line and tow the line lest we sink

[Asmodean]

I usually manage to suppress my inner    copy editor but sometimes succumb. Only human, not a god like some.   

It is only good and proper to when your is superior.

[Tank]

Asmo, there is an element of fear to political correctness but self-censorship is self-betrayal.

I don't agree with this.
You can embrace your inner bastard or your inner ...angel.
I posit causing harm is bad, it is good to take reasonable steps to minimise harm.
I don't know everything about everything and everyone, so sometimes it is better to just shut the fek up.
I have biases, I don't accept my life's purpose must be to banish them absolutely, but don't think I should give them free reign either.

Well said.

[Asmodean]

Asmo, there is an element of fear to political correctness but self-censorship is self-betrayal.

I don't agree with this.
You can embrace your inner bastard or your inner ...angel.
I posit causing harm is bad, it is good to take reasonable steps to minimise harm.
I don't know everything about everything and everyone, so sometimes it is better to just shut the fek up.
I have biases, I don't accept my life's purpose must be to banish them absolutely, but don't think I should give them free reign either.

I agree with you disagreeing, provided we are talking about the same political correctness.

Self-censorship is hardly betrayal. In fact, it can often serve you far better than the opposite. It has its time and place. In my case, that time and place is often alongside the complete lack of censorship. For instance;

Assuming we are in an adult discussion about some issue, I will certainly not treat you as too weak to hear my opinion as it is, even when it breaks from the standing orthodoxy on the subject, but nor will I question the chastity of your mother as a debating, literary or other tool unless it is somehow directly related to the subject matter at hand. Being rather on the self-serving side, I will also try to avoid the Wrath of the Machine, unless I'm confident enough in my ability to live on my particular hill.

This only relates to the latter kind of political correctness I talked about in my initial response. Still, that is the "whole" scope of how most people seem to understand the term today. It's actually more about being nice than politically correct in its original Marxist-Leninist sense or something near to it.

[MarcusA]

Okay, self-censorship is the betrayal of the artist in you.

[Asmodean]

Yes, it is probably that. I would still not go so far as call it "betrayal," more a disservice to your artistic integrity, and that only where applicable.

[MarcusA]

My mother on her deathbed
told me, Never change,
and I intend to.

[Asmodean]

Me..? I stopped listening to mine (in the sense of following advice "just because mother") sometime in my teenage years. Have for the most part done alright for myself, both in spite of and because of it.

[Recusant]

Recusant, what about a game of Tug-of-War? In that sport, you tow a line.

Yes, and a mule tows a line on a barge.
A tugboat tows a line on a ship.

The idiom "toe the line" has to do with meeting expectation, and has as its possible origin runners in a race stepping to the line to begin the race. "Tow the line," though a common error, is not only incorrect it carries a different (if perhaps adjacent) connotation.

The mast is cracking as the waves are slapping
All toe the line and tow the line lest we sink

Heave-ho! 

[MarcusA]

Censorship, cancel culture, is a disservice to art.

[billy rubin]

what about the display or sale of things depicting people being harmed?

this problem has a number of complx issues

paintings of battling soldiers

snuff films

use of experimental results obtained from nazis vivisecting jews

[MarcusA]

Morality is not a one-size-fits-all sort of deal.

[billy rubin]

then neither can be censorship, wouldnt you think?

[MarcusA]

Censorship is a judgement call. "Judge not, lest you be judged."

[Asmodean]

Censorship, cancel culture, is a disservice to art.

Cancel culture ought to have its picture framed right beside "disservice" in a disctionary. It hurts artists, employers, people in general and what's more, it hurts its own causes.

this problem has a number of complx issues

I think this about describes it. It's a matter of context, although I think that we can "talk" (also in form of images and such like) for the purposes of exchanging ideas about pretty-much anything.

what about the display or sale of things depicting people being harmed?

Every book, film and video game store (conventional or streaming/digital) does this. If it happens to be a documentary you are selling, where people being hurt happens to be for real... What's to be done? It's fine as described.

paintings of battling soldiers

snuff films

Some great art and/or informative content may come from precisely that. Even the medieval variety tends to have people depicted with stabby objects inserted in them and blood spraying everywhere. It's a bit stylised, to be sure, but one must assume that many such paintings and illustrations were based on actual people, events and fountains of gore. My medieval fascinations aside, I guess a picture speaks louder than words, so I leave you with a loud picture;

use of experimental results obtained from nazis vivisecting jews

This, I think, is the legitimately difficult one here because the context has been provided.

There is an expression, "fruit of a poisonous tree." Personally, I prefer "meat of a poisonous fish." Does much the same thing. (Simply for the lack of knowledge of poisonous trees with edible fruit - I suck at botany, but have had fugu)

So... Yeah. I think it depends. You could eat the metaphorical fish, but it would have to be done with great care, so as not to end up dead in the process.