Question

has political correctness replaced common sense?

Answer 1

Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, Hallmark banning the word “gay” from its “Deck The Halls” Christmas ornament. While being political correct, Hallmark replaced “gay” with “fun” in the line “Don we now our gay apparel".Hallmark justified its move, stating, “Today it (gay) has multiple meanings, which we thought could leave our intent open to misinterpretation.” only proves how true the statement is. Yes indeed Political Correctness has replaced common sense.

Let's try to understand the meaning of Political Correctness as dictionary definition "the avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against." In a nutshell it is nothing but governmental imposed system of manners. What was once the job of common sense and good manners is now mandated to us by the government.

Political Correctness has robbed Americans of Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Expression. Every other day we see a report in the news about how someone offended another, lawsuits ensue, people get fired, and the President apologizes for the evils that have perpetrated in the world.

The problem with the Political correctness is the concept that it validates being overly-sensitive. Before political correctness came into picture, being offended by everything was considered a negative trait, so people learnt to be more thick-skinned and less sensitive. The movement of being Politically Correct counteracts this by saying that it's okay, even desirable, to be overly-sensitive to peoples' words. What we get is perfectly innocent people who are not racist/sexist/homophobic that are lampooned just for using a turn of phrase that does not fit into the PC movement's narrow, arbitrary criteria. A recent example would be the ESA scientist who bore the brunt for wearing a shirt with girls in bikinis on, the man wasn't sexist, yet he still got punished and verbally attacked as if he was. It's injustice pure and simple. Perhaps a more worrying effect is that people while being politically correct, even sometimes judge factual statements to be politically incorrect and hence punishable.

The quickest way for a society to implode is not from financial crisis or outside invasion. It’s when its moral fabric disintegrates, and when rights are lost, not by force, but through voluntary surrender.  Sometimes it is not about “my rights”, but about what is common sense.