On Political Correctness

As a writer I’ve been following the current trend in free speech, political correctness, and open opinion online. Young people today are pushing for a world that is more inclusive and trying to ‘eradicate’ all forms of intolerance, racism, hate speech, and antiquated views of history.

I’m actually for this political correctness movement on some level, as it is going to bring about a very positive change in American society over time. There’s more than enough proof people in power in the past filtered the truth and used various means to disadvantage minorities, spread hate, bigotry, etc. But so too, in history is shown much healing and progress. If this was not true a horrible Civil War would not have been fought 150 years ago. Nothing perfect came of it, but great freedom did, just the same as two Civil Rights bills were promoted and passed in the 1960’s by two presidents who believed in moving forward.

I love the Millennial and GenZ Generations, those born after 1980. It is a generation so sensitive and free of the things that harmed earlier generations of Americans since 1963, including my own generation. You have no idea of the amount of drugs, violence, and bigotry back then. But so too came much creative energy and beauty and positive change those generations demanded. Every generation has its causes and noble values. No generation is any better. But the Millennial’s and GenZ now have the chance to make a better world for all of us. So more power to them!

But there is one critical thing they now miss. We live in a country where “free speech” is a protected right. If we start letting anonymous individuals play God online and become judge and jury over others views and what’s PC and what’s not, suddenly we are back to censorship, book burning, and worse, a terror and fear of ourselves.

Silenced Forever

It’s one thing to use technology to filter people who don’t fit our norms or a perceived societal norm. To chase down all hate speech by bullying undesirable people in your private space may seem like a noble cause. But it’s not.

All private vendors like Facebook have a legal right to manage speech in their own software, the same as you do. But at what cost is subjective censorship going to change the views of others? Do we want a world where everyone must conform and think alike? Is that even possible?

I say it’s not. Why? Because we are all Human. We all carry bigotry. We are all flawed people. You may pretend you are pure. But do you harbor anger and rage towards certain groups – your parents, whites, blacks, the elderly, the rich, the successful, the ignorant, the poor? We all have something dark we hide away from in our hearts. None of us are Buddha, or Jesus, or Mohammad. For that reason the challenge of being Human is not to condemn others, it’s to condemn ourselves and so change. Its the universal challenge to live your life to be better, and so face your evils and sins and accept the same in others and forgive every single day of your life.

It’s an entirely different issue to publicly proclaim oneself the arbiter of morality, decency, ethics, etc. over your fellow Human being…

Who grants you or anyone that power over others? We have a legal system and political system where you can vote to change the society and its laws. That will never occur via social media. It’s why in the bigger sphere of free speech, written expression in the public domain, private institutions, and public spaces must be defended at all cost against our gut “feelings” we must stop the cruelty and unjust nature of the world.

In reality, the United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights gives everyone the right to speak, protest, march, and express their views freely without fear of slander or loss of life or job or harm. It’s why we must defend the right for BLM to speak and peacefully march just as much as we must grant the KKK the right to speak and march peacefully. We have for decades though nearly all of society hates that idea.

In truth there are NO consequences ever for words.

The only crimes from speech in the US today are inciting violence and some discrimination and libel laws not always easily proven in history and in the courts. Why is that? It’s because speech is a protected right in America.

If you start making yourself some self-imposed judge over others speech rights and views, free speech is suddenly dead. The “thought police” are in charge, and you too will find yourself hiding in fear of them. We then all live in a dark frightening world trapped in fear, like something from a Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 novel where some subset of people erase history and thoughts and facts from the record books and the libraries. The rest of humanity then cowers in the corner afraid to express any view that might deviate from the popular norm.

Who wants to live in such world? Who wants some random mob ruling over their lives? Would you much rather fight to change the world via free speech, the respect of open debate, and voting, or through condemnation and shame of strangers? The latter seems pretty immature.

Ultimately you cannot change a single Human Being and their views, only your own. That’s a painful realization, I know. But by living a good life you can affect the lives of others, as you now are a living example of what a world free of hate and racism could be. Who among us remembers a family member or friend whose life changed us. It was their living example not their cruel condemnations that affected a change in us, right?

By censoring others on social media platforms or getting people fired through mass-shaming you will not change anyone. I’m not advocating any tolerance of hate in your own life and sphere. But we are already climbing out of a terrible pre-Internet darkness in recent history where groups of sensitive people living in a party culture filled with drugs, racism, and violence the past 50 years could not express their views, hide from police brutality, confront racism, and push back against discrimination as they can today. Now we all have more free speech. Lets not diminish it.

Let’s move toward more freedom, not go two steps back towards political correctness, shaming, and fear. To do so, I am convinced, will plunge us all into a world more hateful and bigoted than before. Without the acceptance of even the vilest of words and the celebration of diverse points of views, nothing good or noble or of real value can remain in such a closed, doomed, and conformist society.

– the Author



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