The Patriot Post® · Political Correctness – A Progressive Pathology
Political Correctness (PC) seemed to be merely an annoyance to those of us comfortable with the truth; we assumed that honesty would eventually prevail over its obvious fiction. Well, we were wrong. We failed to appreciate the virulence and potential impact of 15% of the population. The ‘right’ to not be offended has become the trump card of Progressives. PC has become the new norm.
All Americans have the right(s) to life, liberty, happiness, property and free speech (among others), but nowhere in our founding documents can be found the word fair (or fairness) or the right to not be offended. Personal feelings have no protection nor have they any effect on free speech; feelings are not political. Our Constitutional rights do not include protection from insensitive, upsetting or offensive speech, nor are we guaranteed ‘fairness’ in our dealings with others. Personal feelings remain personal and must be dealt with personally. It’s not the purpose of government to protect anyone from being offended.
But Progressives would have it otherwise. Enter PC.
THE ORIGINS OF PC
PC may have been an issue in China as far back as 2500-years ago. Confucius observed that the first thing to do to restore a state to health was to call things by their right names rather than use understatement to distort the truth…
…but the foundations of modern Political Correctness are found in Critical Theory, an early-1900s product of Germany’s Institute for Social Research (The Frankfurt School). Based on Marxist conjecture and underlying thesis that “all history is about which groups have power over which other groups,” its goal was to combine social theory, philosophy, economics and cultural criticism to delegitimize reason in favor of emotion and eliminate the distinction between the individual and the group. It was a deliberate attempt to promote and spread Communism, nothing less.
Whereas Western thought upholds the individual, in communism all valid ideas are purported to come from The State. The Frankfurt School endeavored to bring about the self-destruction of Western Civilization by manipulating speech and thought patterns (changing language) through instilling feelings of guilt and spreading the idea that certain of its beliefs are disrespectful of others and therefore not to be tolerated.
The movement came to the US via New York in 1920 and California in 1930, firmly ensconcing itself at the University of Wisconsin along the way. Eventually critical theory abandoned its German idealistic roots and morphed into American pragmatism and, finally, progressivism and Political Correctness.
The Frankfurt School succeeded. Our freedoms have been compromised as planned.
Issues identified with PC have expanded from the holy trinity of race, class and gender to include terrorism, global warming, income equality, gay rights and a host of other progressive agendas.
More to follow…