The idea of being “politically correct” (or PC) is one that conservative folks have often seen as harmful to American freedom. The phrase has even made its way into the 2016 election, with Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson warning the American public not to be “duped” by the notion of political correctness in a recent interview on Fox News. The truth of the matter is that encouraging political correctness is not a cleverly disguised plan to strip Americans of their rights, but in fact is a way to ensure that the rights of everyone are respected.

The holidays are one of the times of the year when the idea of being politically correct seems to be the most controversial. This November, Starbucks unveiled their annual red cups for the holiday season. For 2015, the design was a simple red gradient with nothing else but the iconic Starbucks logo. The religious right had a heyday with the well-known liberal company, saying that the lack of Christmas trees, ornaments, or even snowflakes was a signal of political correctness that had “gone too far,” believing this was another step in taking away their Christmas traditions, and insulting their freedom of religion. In reality, the plain red gradient was likely chosen as a reflection of current design trends, which includes an emphasis on minimalism. Even if the omission of a snowflake was an effort to sell socially conscious coffee, the truth here is that nothing about Christmas changed. It came and went on December 25 as it always does, the offended party being unscathed by this perceived catastrophe.

The real idea behind political correctness is just an extension of respect towards groups that don’t make up a majority. A yearly debate that arises during the holidays is that of the PC holiday greeting. The idea of changing “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays” is not an attack on Christian traditions, as the opponents of political correctness claim, but instead a show of respect for the other celebrations that occur during the winter months. In fact, many American families that celebrate Christmas are not religious, so for them Christmas is a cultural holiday, not a religious one. There are, however, many more holidays during the winter season that are included when one says, “Happy Holidays,” such as Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, New Year's Eve, and more. In fact, the idea of “Happy Holidays” could even just imply the old saying, ”Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year” without having to list out both. The truth is that no one’s rights are being infringed upon by making a saying more inclusive, but this act does extend respect towards people who don’t celebrate Christmas or who may celebrate multiple winter holidays.

Political correctness goes beyond the idea of comfort, though. While the aforementioned is merely a way to extend peace toward others around the holidays, being PC can also aid in keeping people safe, by limiting negative language towards different cultural groups. Recently, the president of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr. said in a response to the terror attack on San Bernardino, that, “...if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in.” This statement ignorantly implies that all people of the Muslim faith hold violent extremist beliefs, and that the way to end violence from Islamic extremists is to shoot them before they have a chance to do the same. Falwell, Jr. received major backlash from his comments, but his supporters claimed that people were just angry because his speech wasn’t politically correct. The real underlying issue here, and the reason Falwell, Jr. received such backlash, is that the spread of hateful speech like this negatively impacts the livelihood of peaceful Muslims, who actually make up a much larger faction of the religion than do the violent extremists. After the Islamic terrorist attacks on Paris, violent hate crimes towards the Muslim community multiplied threefold, according to The New York Times, as is the trend after such events. This is not even to mention that right-wing and Christian extremist terror attacks have killed more Americans than Islamic terrorist attacks since 9/11, and that the FBI reports that the percentage of terror attacks on US soil between 1980 and 2005 carried out by Islamic extremist is less than 10 percent. In this case, being politically correct helps to stop untrue, hateful ideals that get into people’s minds and end up endangering innocent people.

The spread of political correctness is not infringing on any rights, but can in fact be a tool to foster tolerance and peace between majority and minority groups. The idea is simply giving others the respect that you expect for yourself. So the next time you are asked not to say something because “it’s not PC,” remember that no one is trying to take away your freedom of speech; you’re just being asked not to say things that exclude, marginalize, or insult people. It’s just the kind thing to do.