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Why Political Correctness Needs to Die
Bryan McBournie | Staff Writer

3/08/02

It started off as a great idea. American society was becoming polarized in a decade of sweeping conservatism known as the 80s. That's when an idea alled political correctness came on the scene- its goal to stop hate and injustice toward various minorities.

This great idea started off like a cute little puppy, everyone was getting attached to it. Then, and excuse my terrible metaphor, the puppy grew into a dog larger and more dangerous than anyone had imagined.

Roger Ebert called political correctness "the facism of the 90s," and in many ways, it resembles facism in the new millennium. Being PC was embraced by liberals as the only way to think. Tragically, the freedom to think and speak one's mind is a right on which this country was founded.

What's so bad about being PC? Isn't it good to make everyone happy? Well of course being happy is a good thing, but part of being happy is being free to express oneself. Thinking PC means thinking, "oh, I can't think that, everyone would hate me for it," or, "that person is hateful because they think something different from me!" Sound like a free society to you? Sure doesn't to me.

Even jokes can't be funny, because it might hurt a person's feelings. Whoopi Goldberg once said, "comedy has to offend someone, if it doesn't offend somebody, it's not really comedy." She's right, if you can't poke a little fun at someone, all we have left are knock-knock jokes about cows, and don't cows have feelings, too?

I believe in understanding and equality for all races, classes, religions, etc., but thinking alike doesn't make anyone equal, it only weakens the ideals of a proud nation. Offending people is far better than letting a problem continue on its way, because if you let that problem bother other people now, it will catch up to you in the future.

College communities are notorious for being extremely PC, and sadly, that is part of the reason student media is far less popular than it was 20 years ago. When no one can think for themselves, the media becomes a mirror of a boring, one-sided, ethnocentric society.

Political correctness was a good idea that was taken entirely too far, and now it's potentially dangerous. Don't be afraid to speak your mind and think what you want, you may be the only hope we have from Big Brother.

Name: Jeff
Year: Senior
Major: English
Comments:
I certainly agree with you on many fronts. I saw an edition of Plato's "The Apology" with a "humanist" editing job. All the "hims" had been changed to "hum." It read strangely and sounded dumb. I don't want the idea of "offending someone" to be what curtails my freedom of speech. At the same time, I can understand why a lot of groups lobby for such change. The n-word, for example, calls forth so much pain and anguish as do things that circulate ideas about certain groups that are factually wrong and sociologically proven to be so. The First Amendment certainly isn't absolute in its interpretation by the Supreme Court as there are several types of things you cannot say, i.e. threats to national defense and foreign policy. I suppose in certain contexts (like The Onion or our April Fool's Edition) saying things that are false or hurtful about groups is acceptable but when it occurs over and over again it gets out as an idea that's acceptable. In the end, it would seem best that we use our best judgment and write what we feel has to be written. On another note, this is one of your better articles, Bryan. Well-composed and well thought out. Keep 'em coming!