“Congenital disability”, not “birth defect.” “Wheelchair-bound,” not “confined to a wheel chair.” “Gay,” not “homosexual.” “Specific accommodation,” not “special needs.” “Police officer,” not “policeman.” “He/she,” not “he.”
I think you get the picture, and I’m sure you can think of dozens of different examples of the politically correct terminology that has inundated our language and held our speech hostage.
Americans have become so careful not to offend people that we actually have created new words and worse, we have actually forced ourselves to violate the rules of English grammar.
The idea of political correctness, when it gained prominence during the 1960s, did have a reasonable goal: to promote equal treatment between different people, namely men and women. However, political correctness, or PC, has become a ridiculous social and political phenomenon.
PC has gained such momentum that some people (namely white males) live in fear of telling simple, harmless jokes that might not be politically correct, but are incredibly funny.
Even worse, on some occasions people may speak off the cuff and use terminology that seems offensive to some, but was never intended to be offensive. I truly believe the remarks Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott made at then-Sen. Strom Thurmond’s birthday party last fall were harmless. Lott said if Thurmond were elected President as a segregationist in 1948, “We wouldn’t a had all these problems all these years.” Lott was not stating he believed a segregationist society is best for America, but his opponents sure made it seem that way. They loaded their political correctness rifles and set their scopes on him. And unfortunately for Lott and anyone who is misunderstood, the PC nazis are well trained with their rifles.
It appears to me the more liberal a person is, in terms of political ideology, the higher the tendency for him (not him/her) to be politically correct. On the other hand, if a person is politically more conservative, it is usually less likely that he (not he/she) is politically correct.
What is amazing to me about PC is that it is not liberal in the true sense of the word. Liberalism entails freedom — of thoughts, of words, of speech.
But liberals who insist on being politically correct are not being liberal at all. They are forcing their ideas and beliefs onto people by altering speech, and worse, by altering the intent of people’s speech. I always thought liberals disdained curtailing man’s ability to speak freely. Forcing people to use politically correct terminology promotes conformity. I always thought liberals disliked conformity.
Most liberals justify their political correctness by saying it is wrong to offend people. Let me get this straight. People can have freedom of speech, so long as they don’t offend people. Wait a minute. That sounds a little hypocritical. Oh, wait a minute, it is hypocritical. And it is stupid.
Decade after decade, case after case, the U.S. Supreme Court has maintained the intent of the First Amendment is precisely the protection of offensive speech. Flag burning cannot be made illegal because it is offensive. Rather, because it is an offensive form of expression, it is protected.
I see another consequence to PC. Liberals stratify people into groups and give these groups names (“little people,” “visually impaired”). As a result, liberals have tried to give these groups certain group-rights and group-privileges. Oh wow, what a non-democratic and stupid idea. Grouping people homogenizes them and erases their individuality. So, we have this big “minority rights” movement, rather than the continuation of individual rights everyone shares.
I have had all I can stand of political correctness. People using PC terminology is one thing, but politically correct people judging others or forcing others to use their preferred speech is outrageously arrogant.
If I offended any reader, good. If I didn’t, even better.