New research reveals that more Americans than ever have a negative opinion of “political correctness”.
According to a poll released by the CATO Institute, just 28% of people believe political correctness has made society better, while 71% of Americans believe that the cultural trend has “done more to silence important discussions our society needs to have.”
Recently, those on the left have run on platforms touting the need for more political correctness in our society. Meanwhile, one of the pillars of the Trump campaign was the idea that political correctness is a scourge that needs to be done away with. Given polls such as the one conducted by the CATO Institute, it’s easy to postulate that Trump’s stance on political correctness played a big role in his 2016 victory.
So why is that political correctness has fallen out of favor? On the surface, “being PC” seems innocent enough. The idea of speaking and behaving in a way that is non-offensive to others doesn’t seem like too big of a controversy. However, if you look past the surface, it doesn’t the participants of CATO’s survey are onto something.
Political correctness is a cudgel often used by those on the far left to silence the voices of anyone they don’t agree with. Why debate with someone on the real issues when you can plug your ears and call them a racist, bigoted, homophobe?
If the accusations stick, as they far too often do, you can silence your opponent without ever having to show that your ideas are better than theirs. This way, you don’t even have to listen to their ideas at all so long as you can you can convince enough people that they are “politically incorrect”.
With this being the case, political correctness and all of its consequences have become the greatest threat to free speech that our nation has faced in modern times, and you don’t have to look long to find examples of political correctness stifling free speech. It effectively amounts to little more than self-censorship — the kind that would make Joseph Stalin jealous.
In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton made almost no effort to debate Trump on his policies or even describe her own policies. Instead, her entire campaign was focused on painting Trump as a racist and a sexist. To her and her ilk, these unfounded claims should have been reason enough to silence him and hand Clinton the presidency. Granted, there was plenty of mudslinging and little substance on both sides, but Clinton was supposed to be the more qualified, experienced candidate. Yet her entire campaign could be summarized as “Trump is not politically correct, and therefore his ideas don’t matter”.
The examples of political correctness’s negative consequences are even more frightening in academia than they are in politics. Conservative speakers such as Ben Shapiro, Stephen Crowder, and Ann Coulter are now facing a tremendous uphill battle just to be allowed to speak at public universities across the nation. When they do book a speaking engagement, the universities are prone to canceling on them or charging the organizations hosting them outlandish fees in order to silence them. Meanwhile, students on the left violently protest, threatening the safety of the conservative speakers and students in attendance alike. Their excuse for engaging in these deplorable acts that are in direct violation of the First Amendment? Political correctness.
By and large, people know how to be decent human beings without needing legislation or a social movement. Political correctness, at its heart, has nothing to do with making us more kind and accepting. Instead, it is a cleverly-designed tactic to keep differing opinions from ever being heard.
On the fringes of society, these tactics have worked. Far-left individuals are more intolerant of differing opinions than they have ever been, comparing the ideas of those who disagree with them as acts of violence.
Thankfully, it seems the vast majority of Americans see through this cultural ruse and what it has given rise to.
~ Conservative Zone
