Essay on Politically Correct Culture

There is no exact definition of the expression, politically correct culture. However, the term generally describes policies and measures or languages used to avoid offending or disadvantaging certain groups in the society. Debate on political correctness has been going on for decades and may not end anytime soon. While many people do not recognize the importance of political correctness, some view the subject as important to the society. This paper seeks to explain how the topic of a politically correct culture is hurting instead of helping the cause.

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Enforcing political correctness in the society is censorship. If certain racist, sexist, insensitive, and discriminatory behaviors as well as ideas were considered bad, it would make sense to stop using them. However, forcing citizens to avoid certain discussion topics or use specific language would be wrong since this violates the freedom of speech, in that, it is an expression used to humiliate people into silence. Free speech means that everybody has the right to express their opinions on certain issues, even if one does not agree with them for speaking about the issue (Fry, 2016). For example, when one tells another that he or she simply wants to be seen as politically correct,' such a statement is a direct violation of free speech. In its actual form, free speech is an unfettered conversation about the real issues facing the society. This does not mean issues that affect the majority only because it would be undemocratic to exclude minorities from the societal conversation (Haltiwanger, 2015). If people want to create a truly democratic society, then marginalized groups must also voice their opinions, as the society will be forced to change the language it uses to describe people.

Enforcing political correctness also ostracizes people for discussing issues that some people would rather choose not to address. It is intended to discourage an uncomfortable, but important conversation even before it starts (Haltiwanger, 2015). As such, political correctness does not teach individuals to be mindful of certain problems or issues in the way that they think, rather teaches them simply to avoid offending other people. Political correctness also prevents people from honestly expressing their sentiments on contentious topics. For example, a person may discourage others from being politically correct when their objective is to dismiss a particular topic as irrelevant (Haltiwanger, 2015). This shows that some people are afraid of having open conversations about vital issues in the society because of their fears and insecurities, and this seems to perpetuate ignorance and prejudice.

Additionally, most people today, particularly the leftist, have become very sensitive to language regarding political dialogue. Often, political correctness is characterized as a measure used by hypersensitive liberals who emphasize much on the power of words. Indeed, words have power, and they have context and history that some people may not easily understand unless they associate with the group, people, or culture they have been used to reference (Chait, 2015). For example, when one comes from a privileged background, it is difficult to understand how oppression feels like. Privilege does not necessarily mean that one is better off than others; rather, the privilege can be invisible and a product of history, culture, and geography. The context in which a particular language is used is very important because what may seem to be clear to one person could be ambiguous and complex to others. A persons subjective perception of the world may give him or her reason to view certain issues, phrases or words as frivolous (Chait, 2015). Therefore, before dismissing other people as being politically correct or insensitive, it is important to give them an opportunity to speak out their minds because one might be able to learn something from their opinions. Political correctness can be considered as inconsequential, not because there are many people who are actively seeking respectful ways to talk about complex issues, rather because there are people who are confronting them for it.

Political correctness also involves avoiding hurting other people or groups, especially the minorities. Focusing on hateful emotions, discomfort, and anger triggered in people rather than focusing on the moral wrongdoing, or the underlying mistake discredits political correctness. This is because, on the societal importance scale, feelings are lower than morals and, therefore, taking offense might be deemed trivial (Fry, 2016). Once feelings are included on the subject of political correctness, it allowed some people to laugh at or become angry with anybody who felt offended by a particular issue. This allowed many people to stop being concerned with political correctness, and therefore, stopped being concerned with the problems that initially inspired it. This makes political correctness unpopular and unattractive, thus hardly upheld, and whenever it is encouraged, it fails to accomplish the intended goals.

In conclusion, this paper has sought to explain how the subject of political correctness is hurting instead of helping the cause. For example, enforcing political correctness would amount to censorship since it infringes on the freedom of speech. It also prevents people from discussing sensitive, but unavoidable issues in the society. Indeed, political correctness has not helped its cause; rather, it seems to be doing exactly the opposite.

References

Haltiwanger, J. (February 2015). Why political correctness is bullsh*t and it's hurting society. Elite Daily. <http://elitedaily.com/news/politics/political-correctness-bullsht-hurting-society/920643/>

Chait, J. (January 2015). Not a very PC thing to say. How the language police are perverting liberalism. New York Magazine. <http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/not-a-very-pc-thing-to-say.html>

Fry, S. (April 2016). Stephen Fry on political correctness and clear thinking. YouTube. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJQHakkViPo>