Thursday, September 22, 2016

Political Correctness is my enemy

I loathe political correctness.

I think that political correctness is poison to society, and poison to human friendships and relationships.

The idea that we must speak according to the strict and punitive dictates of a political agenda so as not to "offend" others who do not want to hear a different (yes even "offensive") viewpoint? It's abhorrent to me.

The demands of political correctness (and its growing fruit, the speech code) are a bit totalitarian, are they not? To mandate, with real social and now even financial/legal penalties, that we speak according to what one group of Americans finds "comfortable" and "acceptable" is dangerous.

Promoters of political correctness will insist that PC's aim is simply civility, respect, and politeness. Nonsense. I am at the same time anti-PC and pro- civility in discourse, pro- respect for human dignity (not respect for all ideas), and pro- politeness in dealing with others.

No, political correctness is something else altogether. It's about control and coercion, not manners. It's about suspicion and conformity, and it's about forcing agendas that not everyone accepts.

I am so, so sad for the purveyors (prisoners) of political correctness. They truly believe that they are shaping, effecting, and marching toward a golden age of social justice, a utopia of equality and harmony. What they are actually doing is killing discourse, killing human relationships, and ending the free-flow of ideas among people of goodwill. PC is a strait jacket on thought and speech, which is a barrier to real human intimacy.

PC is enslavement, and we've been warned about it for many decades. Remember George Orwell's classic book, 1984, published in 1949? Do students read that anymore? This, and other classic books like it, were cautionary tales, yet it appears a whole segment of society (including a whole lot of young Americans who have never seen life any other way) didn't heed the warning.

Last night I looked up Newspeak, the mandated new language forced on the populace in Orwell's novel:

Newspeak intended not only to force the populace to conform their thoughts and ideologies towards those of The Party, but to make it impossible to even conceive of any other point of view. 

Thoughtcrime, a word used in the novel to describe the act of thinking socially unacceptable thoughts or holding opinions that are ideologically distinct from The Party’s.

Thought police, the term for the group in Nineteen Eighty-Four that monitored the populace for any signs of unorthodox thought or action.

Sounds a little too familiar, doesn't it?

I'm going to give you my rules for speech, for anyone who wants to talk to me or be my friend:

1. Be polite and respectful when in dialogue, but do not limit thoughtful discourse out of fear that an idea you have might "offend" another.

2. Black people/White people/Hispanic people/Asian people are all human beings and are allowed to comment and have opinions on any aspect of any human culture or human nature. I place no restrictions based on ethnicity or race. You all have free speech, without fear!

3. Women can comment on "men's issues", and men can comment on "women's issues." In fact, since men and women are human, you all can comment on any human issue whatsoever, without fear!

Basically, I have just given you your freedom. I have confirmed your human dignity. It is beautiful and joyful to be free, isn't it?

I will never in my life surrender my human dignity and my free conscience.

I have never felt like a victim (nope, not even as a woman in this land of the "war on women" -- I must have missed the memo), and I have never spoken the words or even implied, "You are not allowed to speak on that because you are a woman/man/Latina/African-American/Caucasian!"

I am a mother, I am middle-aged, and I have a longer perspective on what has come to pass recently in our society. Therefore, I am compelled to say this:

I am truly sad, even heartbroken, for all those who are growing up in a PC culture without knowing anything different. Not only are we less polite and more coarse as a society these days, but those slavishly committed to PC will find it a struggle to achieve interior joy. PC is a fearful, suspicious, closed-off place to be.

I wish and pray that the politically correct and perpetually offended could feel what freedom of speech and freedom in relationships -- the true and honest give-and-take of a human conversation -- feels like. Because it must take a lot of energy to stay in line with "approved" speech and thought, to constantly walk on eggshells wondering if one has a "right" to speak about or discuss an idea. And since the "rules" about exactly who can say exactly what are ever-changing and increasingly restrictive, the difficulty, division, and misery inherent in political correctness is only going to get worse.

Get out while you can! Run, I say!

Now, I imagine this post has been a "microaggression" to some, but as long as it's still legal for me to speak and write what is politically incorrect, I will continue to do so. And if I'm ever jailed for my "offenses" someday, I'll still be gloriously free in my mind, and that's no small thing.


  1. I need a safe space because of this post.


  2. JoAnna, you can head to your nearest university! :D

  3. Gosh, Leila, you didn't even give us a "trigger warning"!
    I need my "emotional 1st aid kit", stat! Did you see this story? It's a REAL thing.

    And props to U of Chicago -- for issuing a letter to incoming Freshmen that they will be NO safe spaces at their school. I think this is great, because people will shop colleges like businesses. Drive a market for "big boy/girl schools". Let the others have each other.

    BASKET OF DEPLORABLES, I guess that's my category! Thanks, Hillary. But whatever you do, Mrs. C., don't call evil deeds done by the left "deplorable", right?

    Political correctness gets people killed. Several people who wanted to report suspicious behavior by the latest terrorists in our country did NOT do so because they feared perhaps they were being "bigots" and that was "rude". If only they'd have not been mired in the derelict brain-deadening of PC culture. I am sure they carry this emotionally now, and it cannot be fun.

  4. Yes, and PC ruins friendships. I cannot imagine having friends in my life who tell me I am not to speak or comment on certain things because I am white, or whatever inherent trait makes me unworthy to have an opinion on the human condition. This week it's just gotten a little too personal for me. I don't know how folks in the PC world have any real friends or real conversations at all.

  5. And Nubby, you are so RIGHT that PC can get people killed.

  6. This is so perfect! There are many times when I refrain from sharing my pov (esp on social media) simply because I don't want to be blasted for not being pc. It's frustrating to say the least. thank you as always for putting the truth out there! Sharing now. ��

  7. The term "microaggression" in the context of pc b.s. always takes me South Park. LOL

    On a serious note, YES to all you said! The pressure is on to raise my children in the light of the Faith, upholding the dignity of all.

  8. Right! Look through the lens of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty (unifiers), not race, class, and gender (dividers).

  9. You make me laugh. :-) (in a good way.)

  10. "Being nice" will not produce deep and meaningful relationships. Because if you "get along" with everyone, you are not being honest or sincere. To be real means that someone will not like you. And that is okay when you are stable.

    I am convinced that for the most part, emotional deprivation is at its root and that is a by-product of the breakdown of the family. Seem way off? When people feel like they are special and loved simply because they've walked into the room (preferably, but not strictly limited to their mom and dad), and not because they "did" something of worth, they are secure. And when people are secure they and all those around them thrive.

  11. Excellent post! You have such a perfect way with words. I'll be sharing this! :)

  12. I pray every day to have your courage! I grew up with being nice = being PC so I have a long way to go!!

  13. Thank you, guys! And, Cheech, I am certain that your courage is building! We need more courageous people, and badly! :) Keep going!

  14. Excellent way of thinking of things, Leila. Engaging, non-PC, and Catholic.

    I think you would very much enjoy Rusty Reno's editorial summary on the same topic. Titled "Politics of Vulnerability," he makes an excellent description of how our culture is changing --- whether we like it or not --- and how our young are being taught to think. You should get the October copy of First Things magazine; I am positive you will find his lead editorial most engaging.

  15. DNBA, I am looking forward to it! We subscribe to First Things, so yay!

  16. Love this!
    How do you think the widespread use of social media has impacted our national discourse on issues that really matter? I just have to ask. I am obviously voting Republican but just cannot help but wonder whether this age of tweets and likes has reduced us to the current candidates. Back when people actually had the the time to read books our political representatives were much more admirable. it also seems so ironic how the more we use social media, the more PC we become ... Seems it should be the opposite, no? I CRAVE depth.

    Thank you for your blog!!! I still love it so very much though I rarely have time to comment.

  17. LifeHopes, I miss you!!!

    And, oh my gosh.... I think social media has definitely warped us. It's the most bizarre thing. There are many great things about social media (I use it daily, to evangelize), but you are so right that everyone is SO much more sensitive, and SO much more PC. And any word, gaffe, thought, or photo is spread around the world and lasts forever! That is sort of.... creepy, if you ask me. And a lot of danger lurks in an entity like that.

  18. Have to question this priest judgment on advocating for an unstable personality, a bait and switch businessman, An avout liar and fabricator who makes things up to his own advantage, a man who panders to racists, to hate, a man who disrespects women and brags about it . This priest advocates for this so as to deny women their choice over their bodies. FOR This one issue, he would put A man who would let every nation have nuclear weapons to do what they want to do with them, a man who would use them and brags about his wanting to use them, a man that would annihilate all of humanity through the use of nuclear weapons that he brags about he would use, A man that brags about building walls and not bridges. This Priest needs to confess and repent his sins Of advocating for a child molester and rapist, a man who builds walls and not bridges a man who would annihilate all of humanity as we know it by starting in nuclear war just to deny women their rights to control their own bodies. And I want to comment on that, for the first 500 years the official Catholic doctrine was life, i.e. our souls, begin at birth. This is the teaching of the Old Testament, the Torah ... this is what Christ preached on the steps of the temple in Jerusalem 2000 years ago. It was Thomas Aquinas 600 years later who said our souls are there at conception not Christ. Christ made no changes to the Torah with respect to this topic. So the idea that our souls are there at conception is not an infallible teaching of the church if it were the first Christians would've been excommunicated . To advocate against a position taken by the church 2000 years ago to the point of permitting a madman to annihilate the earth that is sick.

  19. This is sick. And it will eventually devolve into violence:


