PC Thugs

Lisa: "She called me a PC thug"
Homer: "Ohhhh, I've been called a greasy thug too, and it never stops hurting"

- The Simpsons

That quote comes after Lisa turned in a paper revealing that Jebediah Springfield was a dirty scoundrel, and not actually the great pioneer Springfielders believed him to be. Really, it has nothing to do with the argument I am about to make about political correctness, but it is relatively apropos.

Political correctness is a detriment to society for several reasons. (And as an extension so are PC thugs).

First of all, the entire idea is communist. I don't mean like in a joking, calling someone communist for a stupid reason, way. I mean literally communist.

Second, it infringes on free speech. This portion is debatable, because it gets into the idea of how far does free speech go as a means to insult someone, but political correctness goes far beyond just being a safeguard for defamation.

My biggest issue with political correctness, though, is when people take terms that aren't offensive, and try to create a less offensive way to say them. Often times the PC thugs will take the technical term for something (i.e. mental retardation - yes that is the actual medical term for someone with lesser cognitive ability) and decide that term is inappropriate. Therefore, we are no longer allowed to call things by their correct name.

Let's look first, however, at the Communist nature of a PC world (not the nerd magazine). I'm not going to waste time explaining what Communism is, because neither you or I know enough about it to speak intelligently (if you claim you do, you're a pretentious self absorbed know-it-all liar). Regardless, we all know that Communism is based on the idea of equality, specifically the notion of socioeconomic equality. In elementary terms, it is a system of control.

And what, exactly, is political correctness? It is a system of control.

This, of course, doesn't mean that people should run around calling others derogatory names, but it also doesn't mean we need to censor people to the detriment of free speech. Should everyone start calling each other fags or cunts or retards? Obviously not, but any rational person already knows that.

When people decide you have to call a given social group a certain name, often without consulting that group in the first place, you are simply perpetuating Communist ideals.

For example, some of the PC powers that be have decided American Indians should only be referred to as "Native Americans." This is the politically correct terminology for a group of Native people. The fact is, however, that many of those Native people actually prefer the term "American Indian." Obviously, calling them "injuns" or "redskins" is offensive, but the average person (well the average person north of the Mason Dixon line, at least) knows these terms are offensive. People aren't that dumb.

People don't need to be protected from what they say. All this Communist censorship does is lead to confusion. What can I say? Can I call that person this? Can I call this person that? This confusion ultimately leads to people creating their own terminology and slang terms, slang terms that are far more offensive than anything the PC thugs are trying to censor.

The fact is, censorship in general goes against, at least last time I checked, the Constitution of the United States of America. I believe it says something about the right to free speech. For example, if I want to call The Kicker a fuck face goat licker, I can call The Kicker a fuck face goat licker. (Note I have never actually seen The Kicker lick a goat, I'm just alluding to the possibility that he may or may not have licked a goat at some point in his life.)

In all seriousness, though, over-censoring certain terminology is a form of infringing on freedom of speech.

Here is an example I encountered a couple of months ago:

I was writing an editorial about handicap parking at UMD (hey, look, here's the article) and was told by my editor I have to use the term "disabled" instead of "handicapped." So why, then, does every parking sign in the country refer to the parking spot as "handicap" parking? And why is this an issue? Handicap and disability are essentially synonyms. How did one become more offensive than the other? The Oxford English Dictionary definition for "handicap" is "a condition that markedly restricts a person’s ability to function physically, mentally, or socially." You know what the second definition of "disability" is? "A disadvantage or handicap."

They literally mean the same thing, so who decided I am not allowed to choose what terminology I use? The fact is, censorship is a fundamental impediment of free speech, and in the particular case above, freedom of the press as well.

The threat of Communism and the destruction of freedom of speech are not the biggest issues with a PC world. We're not going to be overtaken by communism any time soon, and the only reprimand against using politically incorrect terms are the bible thumpers and Republicans shouting about how terrible everyone who uses the term "gay" instead of "homosexual" are. (Even though, ironically, they hate gay people.)

The biggest issue with a PC world is that we are taking terms that aren't actually offensive, and trying to change them for no apparent reason. I shouldn't have to question whether or not I am allowed to call a retarded person retarded. The medical term for people with lesser cognitive abilities is, in fact, mentally retarded. It isn't mentally challenged, or mentally handicapped, or mentally disabled, it is mentally retarded. The fact that we have been ingrained to use "retard" as an insult is a completely different issue, and yet that is the exact reason people can no longer use this correct terminology.

People take certain terms and make them derogatory all the time, which is a completely separate issue than the realm of political correctness. (I blame religion, but that’s neither here nor there.)

The fact is, in the case of using these terms as an insult, the offensive part isn’t using the term itself, it is acting like an inoffensive term is actually offensive. Calling a straight person “gay” isn’t an insult. Calling a non-Jewish person a “Jew” isn’t an insult. The insulting thing about these terms is the people who believe they are insults in the first place (again, Bible thumpers and Republicans). I am neither gay nor Jewish, but for the life of me I cannot understand how calling me “a gay Jew” is supposed to be an insult. It is incredibly offensive because you are using it as an insult, but it’s not like there is anything wrong with being a gay Jewish person.

Not to get all after school special on you, but it is this intolerance that forces people to believe we need protection in the form of political correctness. The reality is, most of us don’t.

As long as people aren’t being intentionally insulting or derogatory, they should be allowed to say what they want. Political correctness is born out of a belief that we need a form of verbal protection. The reality is, however, the average person understands the difference between right and wrong. We can police ourselves. We do not a group of people deciding what we can and cannot say. We do not need a group of people censoring us.

We do not need the politically correct.

Given the choice between the PC thug and the greasy thug? Well, I’ll take the greasy thug every single time.

-Juice