“Political correctness is communist propaganda. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.” – Theodore Dalrymple
I found the above quote as I was researching and preparing to write a piece on a separate issue. It struck me as I read it that this quote touched on a topic I had been subconsciously avoiding. I had been side stepping tackling this topic just like each of us side steps situations and conversations every day on topics where we have a dissenting or unpopular opinion from those around us. So I decided to set aside the other piece and do this one here and now. So fasten your seat belts and familiarize yourself with the exits. No one is forcing you to read this, but if you value your ability to make choices for yourself you might want to stick around.
There is a very big problem in the United States today that most of us seem to be ignoring. If we do not snap out of it soon, what we tolerate today will be the norm of tomorrow. The freedoms we enjoy and that were created, bought and paid for with the lives of those who forged this nation are under attack. It is not a quick death that freedom of speech is dying but a slow and painful one. It is like a bad joke with no laughs and the punchline is a new ‘rights’ group that pops up at the end to lay waste to the person an endless diatribe of labels like ‘racist’ or ‘bigot’. These labels are thrown on in an effort to criminalize those who dared to actually speak their mind and exercise their Constitutionally protected right to freedom of expression.
We want to stay ‘politically correct’ at all times and keep our opinions to ourselves or else face dire consequences, as we all have seen from the recent example of National Public Radio firing Juan Williams for his comments in an interview on FOX news. The growing trend of being PC or maintaining the air of being on the moral high ground has reached a fever pitch this year. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if you want to really take a look at how we got to where we are now, you need to look at the roots it comes from, mainly the world of academia in the early part of the 20th century where it was used to keep objectivity in play when looking at a problem or experiment or addressing a set of issues in a debate. Since then it has been perverted into a form of socially imposed blackmail and censorship ironically by the liberal-minded using New Left Rhetoric tacticsin this country (as well as a huge push in it from the feminist movement to remove gender specificity from regular language) who supposedly champion open dialogue and freedom of speech.
We all have to stop censoring everything we say. I am not advocating that we all run wild and take leave of our sense of civility but we can no longer willingly consent to be silent for fear of possibly offending someone in the room. Being able to have an opinion different from the person next to you is how change can be made via an open dialogue. What is happening in our society today is one group or person lording over another group or individual who dares to offend their own values and belief sets. This is a dangerous thing – it is a social imposed form of censorship that tracks back to the small child in each of us who doesn’t want to stick out and just wants to be ‘part of the group’. The thing that is truly scary about this is that this is a nationwide epidemic with the main stream media doing its part to draw attention to anyone who should offer an opinion that might in any way offend someone. Personally, I blame Phil Donahue. You laugh, but I do. That man has made a cottage industry out of pointing out the horrors people do to each other and to themselves. Each politically incorrect topic came nicely boxed up in a single episode that the public lapped up like a kitten with a bowl of warm milk. I abhor talk shows for the very reason that they pander to the idea of being PC and persecuting those who do not conform. Just look at any given episode of The View or Tyra as proof positive of that theory.
The main stream media in concert with liberal pundits, bloggers and the like have made it a high crime in this country to speak your mind freely. Certain words, slurs to be specific, have been made into shackles as they carry such a terrible meaning as to have to be bleeped out or abbreviated such as the ‘N’ word. While I find the word nigger distasteful and a slur, the hypocrisy persists that blacks are allowed to use every other breath if they like but anyone else using it in any way, shape or form must be a racist. I am certain anyone of that mindset reading what I just wrote is screaming ‘oh no she didn’t!” or some equal protestation. Meanwhile it just isn’t a few specific slur words anymore, entire concepts are now becoming verboten such as the issues surrounding Muslims, terrorists, 9/11, gays, Christianity, Illegal Immigrants, the Tea Party and anyone else who opposes anything that Obama does. Basically, if you are in jeopardy of offending a single person when you speak your mind, you are committing a crime according to the Nanny State PC police. I’d say ‘God Forbid’ you want to keep your money, home and civil liberties but then I might be offending someone reading this with my Christian terminology. Oops, too late.
More and more you see the news with blazing headlines about what this person said about that person and ‘oh aren’t they racist’ for saying that, blah blah blah blah blah…. We’re tired of it. These terms no longer bring any shame to those of us who have woken up and realized that our right to speak our mind is being subverted by the liberal minority of this country. Decorum is one thing and I think it should be employed where possible, but the perversion that is Political Correctness needs to be stamped out like a roach trying to enter ones home; where there is one there are dozens more scurrying around in the dark. PC is a festering evil that we have all been trained to obey or else be called out and labeled with the Scarlet Letter du jour.
Stop bending to the will of the PC machine. Do it now before you wake up and what you have tolerated for a few decades is now the accepted and abided by norm. Those who brought you the ability to speak your mind by making it the law of this land should not have battled, argued and died in vain.
