But -- as events that have occurred not only in San Bernardino, California and Paris, France, but throughout the world have luridly illustrated -- the "polite society" that some of us have dreamed about perhaps since the dawn of the proverbial Age of Aquarius, has lost much of the ground upon which it should by now be flourishing. Today "PC" has a different meaning. Being labeled "Politically Correct" is a harsh put-down; a derisive sobriquet; an indictment; a pejorative portrayal indicative of the presence of debilitating flaws within one's personal make-up which would render it difficult, if not impossible for such persons to succeed in a harsh world that will always be unfair.
Currently, many of President Obama's critics are offended by the president's refusal to offend all Muslims through use of the term radical "Islamic" terrorists to describe a comparatively tiny cult of Middle Eastern killers who offer convoluted misinterpretations of Islam as the basis for committing gruesome atrocities. Perhaps Obama's critics believe that abandoning any pretense of "political correctness" would bring the current turmoil in the Middle East to a screeching halt.
As it is, political correctness -- based on how it tends to be applied -- sits on the same, fluid, wholly expedient platform upon which both the legal profession and the media also rest. The fact is, among its harshest critics, political correctness tends to be an exercise in selective disdain. Everyone loathes lawyers until they need one; and most of us hate the media until we have a story that needs to be told.
It's the same with the anti-PC crowd. Their antipathy for PC seems based more on exonerating their own interior prejudices than on principled disdain. A "PC mentality" effectively denies legitimacy to the appropriateness of calling a "spade a spade" -- if you get my drift. Yet many of those most disdainful of PC don't seem to understand that it's a two-way street. Typically, an element of expediency is revealed when the target of harsh words is an individual or institution that critics of PC speech cherish. If the child molesting Catholic priest operating from the church they attend were to be correctly described as a pedophile, the dimensions of the outrage that would follow would be overwhelming.
An example perhaps more relevant to today's headlines might be the willingness by many who accuse Obama of political correctness on Islamic extremism to themselves engage in politically correct soft-peddling when it comes to politically-motivated acts of terror carried out by right-wing extremists. Instead of correctly calling them right-wing domestic terrorists, they obscure the ideological bent of self-proclaimed racists like Dylann Roof by bestowing the label of "mentally disturbed" upon them.
Offended by efforts not to offend
I recall having joined my local Boys Club before so-called "political correctness" necessitated its name be updated in order to accurately reflect the inclusiveness that resulted once girls were permitted to join. I was about 13 at the time yet I still vividly recall the tremendous impact that a message displayed in the Club on a sign hanging above a water fountain had on my way of thinking:
"Cursing is an ignorant mind trying to forcibly express itself."
What's the difference here?
If you are stridently anti-PC, you might ask what's wrong with cursing like a drunken sailor around a bunch of 10, 11, or 12 year olds, and then demanding that anyone who is offended by your refusal to engage in political correctness to "close their fuckin' ears?"
Going further, how many of us today deliberately cultivate a demeanor that's so irrationally unfiltered that it's become relatively easy to look straight into the eyes of a mother holding her newborn and say, "Damn that's a fuckin' ugly kid?" and expect to be congratulated for "keeping it real?"
Perhaps more than one might imagine (looking at you, Donald Trump).
Let's go even further.
Why should you worry that those of Middle-Eastern descent despise the term "camel jockey" or that Native Americans loathe the term "Redskins?" After all, if you don't see these descriptions of your fellow human beings as offensive why should they? What's wrong with a person of "normal" intelligence deriding the mentally disabled as "retards?" What's the problem with the dehumanizing of undocumented immigrants, describing them as illegal "aliens" as if they're from another planet? If you are Irish, are you cool with the term paddy wagon? If you're an Italian, how does the term "wop" work for you?
For others, how about:
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