Прежде, чем я переехал в Канаду, Раньше я думал, что U.S. had the monopoly on political correctness. По крайней мере, в Новой Англии, где я жил, everyone wishes you “Happy Holidays,” instead of “Merry Christmas” или “Happy Hanukkah” или “Good Kwanzaa” or whatever.

Но оказывается, что даже more Canadians support the concept of political correctness.

Согласно недавнему Angus Reid опрос общественного мнения, 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.”

Наоборот, 45 percent of Americans oppose political correctness, в то время как 41 percent support it.

Это смешно?

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. Только 25% канадцев, и 31% американцев, think that comedians must be politically correct.

Однако, Но что, если вы едете в Канаду на работу? “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% в Канаде, 46% в патенте США), гонка (54% в Канаде, 42% в патенте США), obesity (53% в Канаде, 45% в нас.), and ethnic origin (59% в Канаде, 46% в патенте США).

И almost two-thirds of Canadians (63%) see no problem making jokes about religion, в то время как менее половины американцев (46%) согласны.

In my experience, Canadians are also a lot more likely to wish you “Merry Christmas” чем “Happy Holidays.” Is this society that highly values multiculturalism less concerned about offending various cultures? Что вы думаете? Post a comment below.

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

Фото NatalieMaynor (Flickr)