Politically Incorrect

TRIGGER WARNING: examples of hateful racial, ethnic, & religious slurs below.  You have been warned.

I was thinking about something Donald Trump keeps saying...  that he sick of "Political Correctness" and that it is "killing our country".  Jeb Bush was pretty ticked off the other day too after being caught in a Political Correctness "got ya!"    I'm thinking to myself...Trump is just an asshole who will use anything as an excuse for having no control over his mouth.  The anchor baby comment by Bush might be another story.  Has political correctness gone too far?  While political correctness is sometimes, maybe even often, over done I see it as one way to at least put a sock in the mouths of those who have no self control, but have we become so obsessed with the idea that we can't hurt anyone's feelings that certain topics are off limits or so limited by the fear of saying anything incorrectly that we just avoid the whole issue?  

I thought I should at least read up on "political correctness", what it is, how and when it came about...I just wanted to find a quick executive summary of the topic..sadly, none exist. It's a much larger subject than I initially gave it credit for.  However, after reading or reviewing a dozen or so articles I was able to learn a few of the basics.   The phrase has been around for quite a long time, much longer than I would have suspected.   That the meaning of political correctness varies with the person describing it and that the definition has changed  so often it has become a nearly a useless phrase. Most often is is used as a hammer, and you hear it used as a hammer more often by those on the right. At least that's my conclusion, and I don't mean hammer, as in "a useful tool", I mean hammer as in a weapon used to bludgeon others.

On the one hand political correctness makes for more polite conversation. I'll give it that much.  The use of words that can be hurtful like chink, dink, darky, half-breed, hymie, jap, jungle bunny, raghead, sambo, mackerel snapper, wetback, and wop are discouraged. That's a good thing.  Where Donald Trump and I disagree is that I don't see "political correctness as being inherently bad, unless it goes way overboard, which sadly, seems to be the case more often than I'm comfortable with.    To me "political correctness is about using respectful language, be it based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.  

Beyond acting to modify crude comments political correctness is overdone and in some cases people have just gone nuts.   Take the subject of "trigger warnings".  That the very idea of a topic is so offensive that we can't even talk about it without first warning our listeners that some part of the discussion might be uncomfortable.   If we do talk about it we have to be so careful in selecting our words that talking about the subject is something like trying to walk through a mine field blindfolded.  Sometimes perfectly serviceable words are deemed in appropriate.   Anchor babies is a good example.  When you say it Everyone knows what it means...so if you are talking about persons (not citizens) who come to America and have children and you want to debate whether or not those children should be citizens if they are born here I don't see the issue with using the term.  Just me, probably someone will explain to me why it's offensive, but it seems like a perfectly descriptive phrase.  When I say it or hear it I don't think of it as a slur, just as a description that describes babies born here of parents who are not citizens.  It's probably a conversation we should be having...the subject of immigration I mean...whether it be legal or illegal, documented or not documented, yet we can't have said debate because just hearing the term throws a wrench in the gears of a discussion.

It's true, some ideas make some people uncomfortable, but ideas have always made some people uncomfortable.   The earth is round!  That idea once got people in trouble.   To expect College professors, to warn their students ahead of time if certain ideas and concepts are going to be mentioned in class is just about the craziest notion I've ever heard of.  Yet Trigger Warnings have become "a thing" at universities all over the country.    Of all the places where  freedom of thought should be encouraged you would think college would near the top of the list.  Students protest if a speaker is brought to the campus who has controversial ideas.

What have we done to our children and grandchildren?  We seem to have protected them for so long, from anything that might make them uncomfortable, that they can't even be in the same room with someone who might have an idea that offends them.  I wonder how that will work for them in the real world after graduation?     Yes, maybe "The Donald" is right,  Political Correctness as gone too far, though in his case a good strong muzzle or a dirty sock in his mouth might be just what is needed.

It's sad, political campaigns are supposed to be about ideas for solving the problems of the nation, instead we argue about HOW we should talk about certain subjects.   Instead of hearing discussions about immigration policy we hear a discussion about what words we can and can't use when, if, we ever get around to actually having that discussion.  It's rather like diplomats arguing about the shape of the table and the seating arrangement instead of getting down to the purpose of the meeting in the first place.