The fallacy of Political Correctness.

Since you can’t look up political correctness (PC) in a dictionary or phrase book other than the online repositories, here’s the most accurate definition I could find, from Wikipedia;

Political correctness (adjectivally, politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term denoting language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social offense in gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, handicap, and age-related contexts. In current usage, the terms are almost exclusively pejorative, connoting “intolerant” and “intolerance”.

In other words, it’s the attempt to alter human speech patterns and thoughts so as to not offend anyone.

Here’s what’s wrong with that idea.

Setting aside the actual fact that political correctness promotes censorship as well as trying to manage what you, as a human being actually thinks, the even moreso simple fact is that there’s simply no way to “not” offend someone.

Take the recent Christmas holiday season for example.  For the last several years, we’ve all seen and read stories about how we’re not supposed to say “Merry Christmas”, instead inserting such inane greetings as “Happy Holidays” so as to not offend Jewish, Muslim, or other religions that might not celebrate Christmas.  You’ve even read stories about stores like Wal-Mart and Target banning their employees from saying “Merry Christmas” in order to appease their customer base.

The problem is, this is America folks.  America as a whole is essentially a Christian nation, so when a store like Wal-Mart (arguably the largest retailer on the planet) puts the kibosh on Christmas to keep from offending any group of customers, they’re actually serving to offend lots, and lots of people.

… but that’s ok, now that Henry Brown (Republican) from South Carolina and his Congressional cohorts are coming on board.

I present to you, HR111-951, a bill before the 111th Congress designed to

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the symbols and traditions of Christmas should be protected for use by those who celebrate Christmas.

In other words, designed to make it illegal to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” by protecting it by law.

I don’t know folks.  Who wins in this situation?  Why can’t we, as Americans learn the difference between people trying to be offensive, and being offended?  I think almost everyone working for a company has probably had to endure some sort of bullshit “cultural diversity and sensitivity” training, so why hasn’t everyone figured out to just accept that some times, people say, and do stupid things and may offend (intentionally or not) but NO ONE has some mysterious right to “not” be offended…

In the end, the practical result is that — with few extreme exceptions — there’s nothing anyone can say on any given topic without offending someone, so being PC is a complete waste of time, energy and effort.

All I know is that between Wal-Mart, Target, and Representative Henry Brown, all of this crap is enough to completely take the fun — as well as the Christ — out of Christmas.

Wayne Hunt
segwayne.com

Category: Featured Articles, Politics
Tags: Add new tag, Christmas, Christmas and holiday season, Holiday, Holiday greetings, political correctness, South Carolina, United States, wal-mart

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