The Patriot Post® · The Profanity of PC: Words Matter

The curse of PC is founded in words, consistent with the original strategy of the Frankfurt School – manipulating speech. Correctly descriptive words are replaced by more innocuous ones to obscure the truth. A few random examples: Disabled is replaced by physically impaired; Blacks by African Americans, terrorists by militants; terrorism by workplace violence; mentally ill by intellectually impaired; government spending by investment; illegals by undocumented immigrants; Christmas tree by holiday tree, etc. ad absurdum. Seems relatively harmless, right? Don’t offend others (especially those with agendas); nobody really wants to offend anyone, but… Just remember: Truth Has No Agenda.

Since we’re dealing with deceits, we also ought to take the time to define fact, since what we’re dealing with here is truth. “Everything is what it is, and not another thing,” said Bishop William Butler in the 18th Century; this in fact describes the essence of truth. Truth is what is – fact, certainty, reality, actuality, perfection – simply ‘what it is, and not another thing,’ – a first principle having no discernible origin. Truth is where everything begins – even lies. An origin can’t be perfectly defined because we must use words, artifacts that require truth to even be.

We devise words to try to describe what is as best we can, but our definitions necessarily use those same words so are by nature imperfect. A few thoughts on words: 1) we take them at face value; 2) we take them for granted; and 3) they are only approximations for our best guess at reality. Their significance is not so much the words themselves, but what they mean, and we have to use them as best we can to achieve this. Using them otherwise is playing games with truth, unethical on its face.

Issues identified with Political Correctness have expanded from the holy trinity of race, class and gender to include such things as terrorism, global warming, income equality and a host of others (some examples of which follow). But the original is race as embodied in…

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Affirmative action is the politically-correct term for social engineering (itself a euphemism for positive discrimination) contrived to promote special opportunities for particular minority groups to achieve equality in areas from which they may have been historically excluded – employment, education, culture and, more recently, financial compensation. The justification for affirmative action is that the WMRC (White Male Ruling Class) must compensate for past deliberate discrimination by ensuring that prescribed minority groups – special cases – are included “in all programs”. (Other subjects such as gender, abortion, gay marriage and other matters of applied emotion – feelings – are similar in character.)

Affirmative action doesn’t stop short of changing the Constitution (or the dictionary) by rewriting history – changing the meaning of words (e.g., marriage) to suit some minority.

Nor is it enough to achieve equality – preferential (affirmative) treatment is demanded.

RACIAL ISSUES

Racism (the raison d'être of affirmative action) is the politically correct term for discrimination. Charges of discrimination began with race and its definition has expanded exponentially to become a catch-all used when nothing else seems to gain traction.

Racism holds that members of races other than white should be treated preferentially. By (politically-correct) definition only whites can be racist. The idea of liberal blacks vilifying conservative blacks cannot be racist according to the politically correct. (It’s instructive that the entire race of Orientals is notably absent from both sides of the equation.) It’s black vs. white – us vs. them.

The phenomenon of racism has expanded to border security and immigration issues and sentencing and incarceration of criminals. Recent studies by the University of Minnesota(!) have concluded that air pollution is racist. Wherever there is an instance of ‘applied emotion’ (gay marriage, abortion, etc. – where ‘feelings’ trump rationality), ‘racism’ will likely be found.

Other applications of PC include terrorism, ‘global warming’ and more:

‘Militants’ have been attacking American soil for years. The aggression began well before September 11, 2001; more recently our embassy in Benghazi was attacked by terrorists – four Americans including our Ambassador were killed. This is, by any standard, warfare, but President Obama has taken the PC line with “…America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam.” And “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance…Throughout history, Islam has demonstrated…religious tolerance and racial equality.” Lies? Read the Quran and decide for yourself. And decide if Major Nidal Hasan’s murdering of 13 unarmed persons at Ft Hood in the name of Allah is ‘workplace violence’ (as it is officially labeled).

‘Global warming’ is a politically-correct term for the perfectly natural occurrence of climate change. The issue is split down party lines – it’s political, not scientific – Progressives employing biased (and bogus) data, ignoring facts as necessary to panic the proletariat into buying into their power- and money-grabbing agenda.

And there’s more. Political Correctness is part of an effort to delegitimize reason in favor of emotion. Why? Because reason, and the intellectual rigor (truth) that undergirds it, represents the ultimate stumbling block for those with totalitarian impulses. And their efforts stand a good chance of succeeding with the indoctrination (in both public school and college) of younger Americans by the Progressive academics who dominate our educational system.

The ephemeral WMRC has been replaced by a clear minority of strident Progressives demanding their way and getting it. Saying the “wrong thing” in America today can get one fired. Wearing a religious token can get one removed from the classroom. The words ‘Choose Life’ on a state license plate can be ruled ‘unconstitutional’ and ordered removed.

We have a problem. Our freedom of speech is at stake. We need ethics; we need honesty. Showing PC for the lie it is will go a long way toward the solution.