"America needs to stop being so politically correct!" This is what I usually hear from a lot of people. Political correctness seems, for some, to be on the borderline of being immoral. Most Donald Trump fans will tell you that Americans need to stop being so politically correct. Political correctness is “the avoidance, often considered as taken to extremes, of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.” For some reason though, many will argue that people care too much about political correctness, and they need to focus on reality and stop worrying about offending people. I have three reasons why I think they're dead wrong.
1. It’s a mask for racism. I kid you not, any time I get racial slurs on Twitter, and proceed to call people out on their racism, I usually get the argument of “people need to stop being so politically correct!” That’s not what people actually mean. They use political correctness as a cop out for their internal racist and misogynistic views. Any time someone contends one on spreading obvious lies and false facts, they're called out for trying to be politically correct and not really caring about the issue at hand. Political correctness is there for a reason; so people are held responsible for the information they spread to the public and whether or not the content is obviously offensive and racial.
2. There's a reason why being politically correct is viewed as being the right way. Being tolerant of race, ethnicity, and living style is the responsibility of everyone. Yet free speech exists in America, and everybody is entitled to his or her own opinion, no matter how offensive it may be. But when people are called out on being intentionally offensive, they hide behind the cry of political correctness. Correctness is there because people feel a responsibility to always sate the information truthfully, be tolerant of all people, and not exaggerate the truth. For as much as the anti-P.C. police seem to scream over why Americans care too much about being politically correct, how can they prove that being politically correctness is necessarily a bad thing? It's because it's not. Being politically correct does not mean you don't care about the issue at hand over the other, and it means you care enough where you will not throw decency out the window just to state your argument.
3. Why is this argument only coming from one side, and specifically the conservatives? If this is such a big problem and an issue that needs awareness, why aren’t liberals talking about it? It's because it isn’t an issue. The argument is a cop out for those who want to exaggerate their opinions, and when they're called out for it, it's back to hiding behind the “people need to stop being so politically correct argument.” It seems to be a very useful tool for Republicans such as Donald Trump and his followers to spread their ideas wildly, without properly thinking through whether what they are saying can be offensive, whether there is any real validity to their argument, and being able to spread their argument, no matter how ridiculous, through a cloak.
"Stop being so politically correct." No. No, I wont. I shouldn’t have to and it doesn't mean I am a bad person.
