Political correctness, or "PC Culture," as some individuals and certain presidential candidates like to ostracize it as, seems to be frowned upon more and more as time goes on. People want to hear the truth as bluntly as possible, without any of the sugar-coating that is often used to avoid offending any one party, thus maintaining the well wishes of everyone.

While I too agree that using euphemisms solely to maintain one’s own personal image can be both pointless and infuriating, political correctness plays a more important role than just maintaining a solely self-serving middle ground.

Being a bit of a politics nerd myself (admittedly, maybe more than a bit) I often find myself watching and re-watching the abundant politically driven video clips on Facebook, Twitter, or other outlets. I attempt to be aware of both sides of the political spectrum, so as to not be blinded by biased sources that far too often resemble propaganda. After watching them for the first time, I usually turn to the comment section. No matter what the issue is, there are always dozens of impassioned individuals either praising or demanding the sources to "tell it how it is."

With the media so often being easily able to twist a story and lead its viewers into believing a distorted version of the truth, it’s no wonder that people want to be represented by someone who isn’t afraid to be frank, even if that means offending quite a few of the minority populations who would also be represented by that same individual.

Here’s the reality: political correctness doesn’t exist just to protect the feelings of those who are easily offended and victimized. That part is important, yes, but it’s not what makes PC culture absolutely crucial in our increasingly diverse society. Rather, political correctness prevents the otherwise inevitable associations between what is said of the extreme and what is said of the the moderate majority--associations that are, by nature, not only closed-minded, but dangerous.

Let’s take a look at the growing appearance of terrorism and Islamophobia, for example. It’s interesting to observe both politicians and the media in their reactions to the recent horrors of Orlando, Istanbul, Baghdad, Dhaka, and Nice, among the countless others that bloody different parts of the world every single day. Democrats call it ISIS, Republicans call it Islamic terrorism. Both condemn the other for addressing the evil in the wrong way. To the latter: as a modern, moderate, Muslim girl growing up in the United States, I agree with you. These killers call themselves Muslims, and as we all know far too well, it definitely is terrorism. So I suppose calling it “Islamic Terrorism” isn’t entirely wrong. There’s only one problem I have with conservative leaders addressing the terror threat as such. The more times my neighbors and peers hear the word “Islam” and “terrorism” side by side, the more likely they are to assume the two as one and the same. Being politically incorrect isn’t just political as the name suggests--it’s psychological. It’s behavioral. It’s learning by association. And thus, if used enough, it’s eventually unavoidable.

The issue of political correctness is far broader than this one topic. It comes into play when talking about religion, or race, or gender, or sexuality, or mental illnesses, or every other little thing that makes each of us different from the other.

I realize that we all make mistakes, and that often times our being politically incorrect has nothing to do with trying to prevent large-scale fear and scapegoating. Have I laughed at racist, homophobic, or misogynistic jokes before? Yes. Have I felt bad about it later once I put more thought into it? Yes. Does that make me a hypocrite? Probably. And I’m aware that I too have progress to make when it comes to being a more politically correct individual. I just hope that we all can grow to learn that the only way to prevent the intrinsic biases that seem to be sweeping across our society is by watching our words, teaching our kids, and simply being aware that the beautiful differences that make each of us unique are to be cherished and celebrated, not cast aside and misunderstood. Political correctness is more than just saying the right thing to appease your listeners; it’s realizing that even though your comment may seem small, it reinforces the existing prejudices that we, to this day, still find all around us.