You may think you’re a rebel, but really, you’re just being kind of a douche. You’re not a special snowflake because you don’t want to be ~*one of those oversensitive PC people*~. Yes, you have freedom of speech. Yes, you can say certain things. But that doesn’t mean that you should.
I can’t possibly articulate my thoughts better than this article manages to do, so I’ll just leave an excerpt here:
“…deriding left-wing* efforts to change mainstream behavior towards marginalized groups as “political correctness” is itself a subtle and politically correct way of supporting racism, sexism, and other forms of marginalization.
…Political correctness, to many, is just that. It is elitist, acceptable, “correct” to not make racist jokes. To make a racist joke is to challenge the status quo, to bravely breach manners and etiquette and correctness. It is to be the maverick that the mainstream loves to se itself as. At the far end of the right wing, it’s standing up against those fascist liberals. But in reality, those who fight what they deride as “political correctness” are doing the very opposite. They are the status quo. They see themselves as defenders against an oppressive takeover of the public sphere. Yet all that is asked of them is that they not insult marginalized people. By their refusal to stop, they are demanding that marginalized people put up with more oppression.
Political correctness, real “political correctness”, demands an end to the continued marginalization of those peoples. It is not a matter of what is offensive, distasteful, or “correct”. Therein lies the major misunderstanding, even among those who advocate for political correctness. I don’t give a damn if something is offensive, distasteful, or what. It is not about that. It is about marginalized people, and not kicking them when we’ve already stabbed them, stolen their lunch, knocked them over, and punched their kids in the face a few times.
…They are not asking for “correctness”. They are asking like everyone stop acting like they are not in the (figurative) room.
And you know what? We have a right to demand an end to a culture of marginalization, an end to rape culture, an end to celebrating indigenous genocide. And so on. This is not the same as demanding that someone change how they think, or act. But culture works through social pressure, and the only way we can change our culture is through exerting some.”
*As a disclaimer, I see left-wing folks get all up in arms about “political correctness”, too, so I don’t think it’s just a right-wing problem.
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When people constantly complain about having to be politically correct.
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