Today, we live in a world where politics is the center of many controversies and public divide. Ever since the Presidential Election in 2016, we have witnessed a substantial increase in political partisanship, the reason nothing gets done in our government and the reason people fail to see that we are, after all, under one nation. However, public divide over politics should not be a reason to stay quiet and fear sharing your beliefs.

The basic definition of the term "politically correct" is this: taking measures to avoid offending or upsetting any group of people. Being PC allows for overly sensitive people to always have their way. It has made it incredibly easy for people to continue their life without ever having to hear anything controversial in the slightest. It also prohibits one from learning and growing in their knowledge and viewpoints. A popular of political correctness is sugarcoating or censoring. If you're going to censor your opinion, then there's no point in sharing it at all.

We've certainly all kept our mouths shut at some point when politics or beliefs comes into debate. Sometimes, it seems easier to keep our views to ourselves rather than to start an argument that generally gets heated; it's incredibly scary to share your "radical" opinions with a person or group when you know you will receive downright judgement. But allowing people to feel that their opinions are shared by everyone and their opinions must be widely accepted can be dangerous as well.

A popular belief could be one thing but the misconceived idea of a popular belief would allow people to believe that they are in the majority, while actually overruling a majority, which has occurred in instances throughout political elections. This concept is identified as the "spiral of silence", essentially stating that those who believe that their views on controversial issues are in the minority will keep their views to themselves for fear of social isolation.

We shouldn't fear saying what we think may be offensive when, in this day and age, everything is considered offensive. Don't be afraid to say what you want to say, don't be afraid to learn from others opinions as well as your mistakes, and never be afraid of others' perceptions of you.