By BRENDAN HALL
An anonymous person once said, “political correctness is simply a speed bump in the traffic of truth, free thought and speech.” To be even less politically correct, it is ruining modern day culture.
In the past couple decades, the insatiable push for people to be more politically correct has gotten out of hand. Radical individuals are working harder than ever to find something offensive in every word that leaves a person’s mouth; it would not be surprising if they started calling the unemployed “involuntarily leisured.”
The root of the problem in the political correctness movement is not the movement itself but rather the people who head it. Instead of rational leaders looking for a common ground to set the standards, irrational men and women such as Jesse Jackson and Sarah Palin continuously attempt to shove the need for political correctness down society’s throat. If moderate individuals were to lead the movement, people would be more receptive to their points of view.
The biggest problem with the political correctness movement is that it ignores context; regardless of what’s said, it’s offensive. But context means everything. Who cares about cleanliness; context is next to godliness.
For example, one of the most explosive words in the English language is the n-word. Recently, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, a talk radio host, was criticized heavily for her repeated use of the word on the radio. However, she wasn’t using it in a derogatory, demeaning or racial sense; she was simply making a statement about how people use the word.
But that doesn’t matter because immediately people across the country went into a fury. People instantly discounted the context of the word and painted her in a negative light for using it. She was tagged as being ignorant and insensitive.
The biggest irony though is that fanatic individuals claim that people who use such words are ignorant, but by ignoring context and closed-mindedly condemning the use of the word, the accusers are actually the ignorant ones.
On that note, racial radicalism has become ridiculous. Everything is racist. One of the most annoying things is the use of the word “African American.” No one else is called Asian-American or European-American, so why should black people be treated differently; ironically, it actually discriminates them.
Often times crusaders for political correctness will go to unreasonable lengths to find offensiveness in harmless scenarios. In California, the NAACP forced the ban of a graduation card that stated the recipient would “conquer the universe” because what was meant to say “black holes” sounded like “black whores.” In any other universe, that would be neurotic, but not in this one.
Even worse, the political correctness epidemic is ruining comedy; because people don’t understand the purpose behind such comedians as Daniel Tosh or Bo Burnham, they immediately crucify them and their jokes. The hit show Tosh.0 is frequently criticized for its blatant use of racial and social stereotypes as well as its Schadenfreudian humor.
Yet what critics don’t see is that the jokes aren’t meant to be offensive; if they were, it wouldn’t be funny. Rather, by playing off stereotypes and peoples’ blunders, the show is actually mocking and chastising such obscene ideas. Tosh.0 is essentially the Huckleberry Finn of modern television.
The push for political correctness is nothing more than a biased movement dominated by biased people, a pathetic power struggle. There is no true solution other than the removal of political correctness; people need to get over their false illusions to see the truth and enjoy the humor. If everyone would lighten up then there would be no need for being politically correct in the first place.
The sooner the gilded movement for political correctness ends, the sooner true acceptance can be achieved.