قبل انتقلت إلى كندا, كنت أعتقد أن الولايات المتحدة. وقال إن احتكار الصواب السياسي. على الأقل في نيو انغلاند حيث كنت أعيش, everyone wishes you “Happy Holidays,” instead of “Merry Christmas” أو “Happy Hanukkah” أو “Good Kwanzaa” or whatever.

ولكن تبين أنه حتى more Canadians support the concept of political correctness.

ووفقا لأحدث استطلاع أنجوس ريد الرأي العام, 50 percent of Canadians surveyed believe in political correctness — defined as “language and/or behavior that seeks to minimize possible offenses to racial, cultural and gender identity groups, among others.”

In contrast, 45 percent of Americans oppose political correctness, في حين 41 percent support it.

Is that funny?

While in both countries, a significant majority of respondents said that it’s important for teachers, politicians, and journalists to behave in a politically correct way, comedians get a lot more leeway. فقط 25% من الكنديين, Ùˆ 31% من الاميركيين, think that comedians must be politically correct.

ومع ذلك, ووجدت الدراسة “striking differences in the way the two countries feel about the acceptability of jokes dealing with specific topics.”

Even though more Canadians say they believe in being politically correct, Canadians are more willing than Americans to be OK with jokes about physical appearance (54% في كندا, 46% في الولايات المتحدة), سباق (54% في كندا, 42% في الولايات المتحدة), obesity (53% في كندا, 45% في الولايات المتحدة), and ethnic origin (59% في كندا, 46% في الولايات المتحدة).

و almost two-thirds of Canadians (63%) see no problem making jokes about religion, في حين أن أقل من نصف الأمريكيين (46%) نتفق.

في تجربتي, Canadians are also a lot more likely to wish you “Merry Christmas” من “Happy Holidays.” Is this society that highly values multiculturalism less concerned about offending various cultures? ما رأيك? Post a comment below.

And you can get more details about the Angus Reid survey from VisionCritical.com.

تصوير NatalieMaynor (فليكر)