Black Mirror's 'Nosedive' episode is a metaphor of political correctness run amok. Its timing couldn't be more appropriate considering what's happening in Canada in regards to Bill C-16. Bill C-16 is legislation that introduces new pronouns to address the transgender community.
Comedian George Carlin defined Political correctness as "America's newest form of intolerance and it's especially pernicious because it comes disguised as tolerance. It presents itself as fairness yet it attempts to control and restrict peoples language with strict codes and rules. I'm not sure it's a way to fight discrimination. I'm not sure silencing people or altering their speech is the best method for solving problems that go much deeper than speech."
University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson refuses to adopt the new language. Much like Carlin he believes the legislated pronouns infringe on his free speech. Peterson argues that the new pronouns are not being adopted by people for every day use. The pronouns are being forced upon Canadians by government legislation to demonstrate political correctness. Nosedive examines the downside of political correctness.
We are introduced to Lacy Pound. She lives in a superficial, pastel, utopia. Everyone in Lacy's world has a social media profile and a profile score. Lacy rates strangers and friends on her smart phone like we rate our Uber drivers. Her notification alerts condition her to rate strangers like a dog in a Pavlov experiment. She gets her instant dopamine fix whenever someone rates her social media postings favorably. Positive ratings boost her overall score. Think of Lacy's world like Uber on steroids: We rate Uber drivers for their service in exchange for favorable ratings to boost our overall ratings score. High ratings ensure drivers continue to work and passengers continue to use the service. We engage in political correctness because we sacrifice our self expression in order to get a good score. Lacy represses a lot of her emotions because she worships her score.
Lacy lives with her brother Ryan. Ryan's 3.7 score embarrasses Lacy. Her lease expires in 4 weeks and she needs to find a new place to live. Lacy discovers a luxury apartment at Pelican Cove. She can't afford the extravagant rent but the sales rep offers her a 20% rental discount contingent her profile score hits a 4.5 rating.
This sets off Lacy on a ratings rampage. Lacy plays a disingenuous game of political correctness. She rates every person she comes into contact with a high score with the intention that they will reciprocate.
Lacy visits a booster ratings consulting film called Reputelligent. The firm's algorithm informs her that she will never get the coveted score because her inner and outer circle consist of mid to range folks. She needs up votes from high quality people - profiles with high 4s - to get a ratings boost. She needs to impress them.
Lacy's friend (Nene) Naomi Jayne Bestow, a plastic blonde Barbie; is the alpha queen of super ratings. Lacy regresses to her 11-year-old self when she does everything in her power to impress Nene. Nene is getting married. All her wedding guests are 4s or higher. Lacy needs to get to Nene's wedding if she has any chance of boosting her score. Lacy is asked to be Nene's maid of honor. Lacy's dilemma appears to be over but things don't go as planned.
The harder Lacy tries to boost her score, the worse it gets. She gets a 3 star rating from her coworker when she disingenuously offers her a croissant. People see through her false political correctness pretense from a mile away. Her good deeds are not rewarded. She is punished with bad scores for being inauthentic. Her score dips to 4.183.
Lacy discovers her flight is overbooked when she reaches the airport. The customer service rep offers her stand by but only if her rating is 4.2. Lacy can't contain her facade. Her outburst gets her a huge ratings reduction. That reduction has consequences. She can't even get a decent rental car to get her to the wedding. Lacy's luck just keeps descending when her car's battery dies.
Desperate to get to Nene's wedding, she is offered a ride by a transport driver named Sue. Sue's rating is a paltry 1.4. Lacy has run out of options and accepts Sue's offer. Sue reveals that up voting everyone couldn't evade personal tragedy. Her tragedy liberated her from her prison of political correctness: "I started saying what I wanted and when I wanted. People don't always like that. Her friends don't like honesty." Sue encourages Lacy to try it.
I am not going to give away the ending but Sue turns out to be Lacy's guardian angel. She is Lacy's voice of reason.
Lacy's world of points for good behavior is already happening in Canada. The carrots reward app is ready to give you points you can use for groceries, movies and flights for every healthy effort you make. I don't know if it will change your health but this can't be a good thing considering we're giving away our private information so that corporations can manipulate our behavior much like Lacy.
Vince Sannuto is a Toronto filmmaker. His latest is "Highway 401," for which he has set up a Crowdfunding page. His also wrote, directed, produced and acted in his first film, "Quarter Life Crisis." The movie debuted at the Toronto Italian Film Festival to a sold out audience at the Bloor Cinema. The movie is available to watch on Amazon Prime.
Points for Good Behavior; James Corbett
This episode was not about political correctness it was about over all superficiality and the way social media encourages people to make overly cultivated fake versions of themselves.
You're right. I agree that social media promotes a false sense of reality. I also believe that Lana censors herself by not revealing her ferlings when others cause her discomfort like the gas attendant who could not provide her with a charger.
Just to demonstrate the point of political correctness in the episode, Sue the truck driver highlights her politically correct hell: Her tragedy liberated her from her prison of political correctness: "I started saying what I wanted and when I wanted. People don't always like that. Her friends don't like honesty." Sue encourages Lacy to try it. Thanks for commenting.
But that's not an example of political correctness, just conformity. People use the term "political correctness" in a variety of ways but usually it denotes something that can't be said for socio-political reasons.
Someone might say for example that “This isn’t politically correct, but most Immigrants are criminals and welfare abusers”. By adding the “not politically correct” disclaimer the person implies that whatever they’re saying is factually true but people wont admit to it for fear of offending people. The claim in this example is of course both offensive and demonstrably false. It’s factual inaccuracy is what makes it offensive. It’s a deviously effective strategy because not only do you tell your base a lie but you also galvanize that lie by portraying it as some secret truth. When someone says it’s not true your followers are preconditioned to dismiss their factual argument as “just being politically correct”.
None of the things that got people downvotes in "Nosedive" were of that nature everything was far more petty which I think was also intentional.