Political Correctness and the Figurative Death of Society
Society has seen a precipitous shift from an oppressive to a more openly equal and democratic unit. Various measures are being carried out to ensure the inclusion of racial minorities, the “fairer” sex and so forth. This in turn has seen the rise of a new breed of social stigma: political correctness.
According to Answers.com, the term “politically correct” is defined as being or perceived as being over concerned with such change, often to the exclusion of other matters. Now, why exactly is political correctness such a negative trait? Well, because it has influenced the way society perceives race, religion, gender, physical attributes et cetera, curbing freedom of speech and democracy as a whole.
Starting with “race”, this is arguably where political correctness is most prevalent. With more and more racial assimilation, you can find a person of any race in any part of the world. With that, minorities begin to be formed and with social guidelines sprouting by the day, majorities have to tread with more caution in order to prevent the oppression or marginalisation of other races.
However, the degree of caution exercised has become excessive where minorities are granted some sort of redundant immunity when all they want is legitimate democracy. However, there are some instances where certain individuals use PC to their advantage to gain leverage. For example, it is now a criminal racial offence to call someone a “coconut” in public in Britain.
As asinine as it sounds, this decision was actually made by Bristol Magistrates' Court after a Jamaican-origin black city councillor, Shirley Brown, referred to an Asian Tory councillor as a “coconut” during a council debate in February last year. In the black community, the term “coconut” is supposedly a derogatory label for blacks that are “white” on the inside. Brown was subsequently charged with a twelve month long conditional discharge and 620 pounds sterling.
Gender too often entails the most extreme manifestations of political correctness. Men are labelled as intolerant, sexist and egocentric by radical female movements, a cruelly incorrect stereotype so to speak. According to Rebirthofreason.com, “men in the past had all the power that they oppressed women, and that men living now have to atone for the transgressions of men of the past. In the world of political correctness, white males are determined automatically and universally to be malicious and immoral.” Worst of all, political correctness has caused this incendiary statement to be forced down the throats of many.
Lastly, physical attributes are often the central topic of politically correct individuals and groups. Let me just state that the enforcement rights to physically handicapped people is nothing less than commendable. There is some amount of political correctness in semantics (E.g. the term “short” being replaced with vertically challenged) but that is not what bothers me. Rather, I would like to highlight one particular physical “deformity” in particular, obesity.
It may be true to say that the media often paints an unrealistic image that men and women alike have to conform to, sometimes resulting in shrunken egos and low self-esteem. However, the inverse is becoming more and more prevalent, perhaps as overcompensation to the aforementioned. Now, more and more people are coming up with ludicrous statements like “As long as you feel good, you look good”. The underlying problem here is this gives obese people false confidence, leading to little or no effort to ameliorate their physical condition. According to the Dailymail, Council chiefs may ban the word 'obese' because it could offend fat children. They want to replace it with the phrase 'unhealthy weight'.
That ridiculous statement above quite aptly sums up just how severely political correctness has been weaved into our society. We have to rid ourselves of this superfluous baggage and use rationality to decide what is apt or not. Otherwise, this abhorrent stigma is going to continue to be present as our society continues to pervert reality with condescension and misconceptions. And if we don’t, we darn well better be prepared for an Orwellian fate. Looks like George was spot on.
BY BYRON ONG
According to Answers.com, the term “politically correct” is defined as being or perceived as being over concerned with such change, often to the exclusion of other matters. Now, why exactly is political correctness such a negative trait? Well, because it has influenced the way society perceives race, religion, gender, physical attributes et cetera, curbing freedom of speech and democracy as a whole.
Starting with “race”, this is arguably where political correctness is most prevalent. With more and more racial assimilation, you can find a person of any race in any part of the world. With that, minorities begin to be formed and with social guidelines sprouting by the day, majorities have to tread with more caution in order to prevent the oppression or marginalisation of other races.
However, the degree of caution exercised has become excessive where minorities are granted some sort of redundant immunity when all they want is legitimate democracy. However, there are some instances where certain individuals use PC to their advantage to gain leverage. For example, it is now a criminal racial offence to call someone a “coconut” in public in Britain.
As asinine as it sounds, this decision was actually made by Bristol Magistrates' Court after a Jamaican-origin black city councillor, Shirley Brown, referred to an Asian Tory councillor as a “coconut” during a council debate in February last year. In the black community, the term “coconut” is supposedly a derogatory label for blacks that are “white” on the inside. Brown was subsequently charged with a twelve month long conditional discharge and 620 pounds sterling.
Gender too often entails the most extreme manifestations of political correctness. Men are labelled as intolerant, sexist and egocentric by radical female movements, a cruelly incorrect stereotype so to speak. According to Rebirthofreason.com, “men in the past had all the power that they oppressed women, and that men living now have to atone for the transgressions of men of the past. In the world of political correctness, white males are determined automatically and universally to be malicious and immoral.” Worst of all, political correctness has caused this incendiary statement to be forced down the throats of many.
Lastly, physical attributes are often the central topic of politically correct individuals and groups. Let me just state that the enforcement rights to physically handicapped people is nothing less than commendable. There is some amount of political correctness in semantics (E.g. the term “short” being replaced with vertically challenged) but that is not what bothers me. Rather, I would like to highlight one particular physical “deformity” in particular, obesity.
It may be true to say that the media often paints an unrealistic image that men and women alike have to conform to, sometimes resulting in shrunken egos and low self-esteem. However, the inverse is becoming more and more prevalent, perhaps as overcompensation to the aforementioned. Now, more and more people are coming up with ludicrous statements like “As long as you feel good, you look good”. The underlying problem here is this gives obese people false confidence, leading to little or no effort to ameliorate their physical condition. According to the Dailymail, Council chiefs may ban the word 'obese' because it could offend fat children. They want to replace it with the phrase 'unhealthy weight'.
That ridiculous statement above quite aptly sums up just how severely political correctness has been weaved into our society. We have to rid ourselves of this superfluous baggage and use rationality to decide what is apt or not. Otherwise, this abhorrent stigma is going to continue to be present as our society continues to pervert reality with condescension and misconceptions. And if we don’t, we darn well better be prepared for an Orwellian fate. Looks like George was spot on.
BY BYRON ONG
