Gotta love political correctness (PC). It's the means by which people censor themselves out of fear of being ostracized. The correctness, the acceptability of what you say is somehow determined by some faceless others with the assumption they are correct. Sounds like an excellent way to do away with original thinking. Nothing to see here, move along.
In part, political correctness is a substitute for what used to be called good manners--manners generated not from a heartfelt, internal morality, but from an external, legalistic sense of right and wrong--an imposed system. And it's flexible; it can change any time the arbiters of the system decide to change it.
Politically correctness in language is just the beginning. We're already seeing the extension of political correctness past just a self-imposed gag rule. People are losing their jobs, even being jailed because what they say or believe doesn't fit the template. Freedom of speech--though inconvenient at times--is at the forefront of all of our freedoms. Lose it and you lose more.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees, among other things, the right to free speech, that is, the government can't officially impose a ban on limiting free speech. It's no surprise that, listed along with free speech is the freedom of the press and freedom of establishment of religion and the exercise thereof. But the constitution is no help against being harassed by those outside of government. And that will be the modus operandi until the First Amendment is taken away, a piece-by-piece chipping at our freedom.
It's not hard to understand that if we lose the freedom to speak our minds, the freedom of the press and freedom of religion and its free exercise would undoubtedly follow.
Nor is it difficult to extrapolate that those who are the greatest proponents of political correctness could also be those who could at some point argue for an official loss of our freedom of speech. If that were to happen, we will have entered that hopeless place where we are governed by those over whom we have no control, the very thing that caused our forefathers to break away from the despotic rulers over them.
It's all about losing our freedoms. And in my opinion, it's a matter of time.
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