Bevor ich nach Kanada, Früher habe ich, dass die USA denken. hatte das Monopol der politischen Korrektheit. Zumindest in New England, wo ich wohnte, everyone wishes you “Happy Holidays,” instead of “Merry Christmas” oder “Happy Hanukkah” oder “Good Kwanzaa” or whatever.

Aber es stellt sich heraus, dass selbst more Canadians support the concept of political correctness.

Laut einer aktuellen Angus Reid Public Opinion poll, 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, während 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. Nur 25% of Canadians, und 31% der Amerikaner, think that comedians must be politically correct.

Allerdings, Die Umfrage ergab, “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% in Kanada, 46% in der US), Rennen (54% in Kanada, 42% in der US), obesity (53% in Kanada, 45% in dem US), and ethnic origin (59% in Kanada, 46% in der US).

Und almost two-thirds of Canadians (63%) see no problem making jokes about religion, während weniger als die Hälfte der Amerikaner (46%) übereinstimmen.

Nach meiner Erfahrung, Canadians are also a lot more likely to wish you “Merry Christmas” als “Happy Holidays.” Is this society that highly values multiculturalism less concerned about offending various cultures? Was denken Sie? Post a comment below.

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

Photo by NatalieMaynor (Flickr)