Thank God, with my apologies to the Almighty, that we have become “politically correct.” The term “politically correct” is defined as language or behavior intended to minimize offense while conforming to considerations of civility in debate on public policy and issues.
A day does not go by without a friend providing me with some statement, cartoon or story about political correctness. My Christmas and other holidays are enriched by emails about the use of acceptable terms when expressing seasonal greetings. I actually enjoy this whimsical consideration of my friends.
I have problems with political correctness. At home and elsewhere, rather than suggesting a news story is “pure unadulterated bull $#*!,” I am forced to suggest it merely “challenges credible truth.” Rather than state that brain matter has been substituted with other substances in the course of neurological surgery, I am forced to allow comments as an “alternate opinion.” Political correctness requires the diminution of other references to the extent that comments of sub-literate representatives are allowed to pass as credible sources for factual reference without review of actual facts.
At times, with particular reference to certain elected officials or issues, this ordeal reaches a crescendo of explicative statements with words deleted to such an extent that the result is all but unintelligible gibberish. Of course, my family and friends are spared from a barrage of words and the considerable risk that the Almighty may wish to end my comments with an independent intervening lightening bolt.
What is lost in political correctness is a tolerance that allows for factual inaccuracy and the absence of logical rigor. In exchange we are exposed to a level of sophistry that would challenge Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. When news sources are not held to account, political correctness allows editorialists and reporters to use questionable facts and assertions that blur news with opinion in a quagmire akin to animal waste storage ponds.
We should demand more. The question is whether our news sources could actually rise to that aspiration and whether we could decipher the difference. Perhaps political correctness does have a purpose other than civility.
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