What is Political Correctness?

Political correctness... To shut down discussion and dissent, and to stifle debate, without having to actually discuss the points made, or the merits thereof.

To attempt to point out the odious nature of political correctness is to restate the crucial importance of plain speaking, freedom of choice and freedom of speech: These are the community's safeguards against the imposition of tyranny. Indeed, their absence is tyranny. The declared rationale of this tyranny is to prevent people being offended, by compelling everyone to avoid using words or behavior that may upset: Homosexuals, women, non-whites, the crippled, the stupid, the fat or the ugly - by way of a few examples.

This reveals not only its absurdity but also its inspiration: The set of values that are detested are those held by the previous generation; thus, in an act of infantile rebellion, their subject(s) have become revered by the new generation. Political correctness is merely the resentment of spoiled children directed against their parent's values, and hence the reason political correctness is so often used by the political Left in America - they are the nation's children.

A democracy depends on the widest possible dissemination of facts, and the freest possible discussion of them. Crying 'racism' when none is either leveled or implied merely takes the focus from the issue at hand, and re-directs it at the speaker.

Political correctness is narrowing the range of acceptable opinions, down to those held by a small group that enforces it. It is an attempt, often successful, to coerce the majority to accept the opinions of the enforcing group by suppressing any contrary opinion - and making independent thought unacceptable. The enforcing group may be afraid of the the consequences of open discussion, or of making the facts known. It generally has a practical motivation: It wants something of value (money, jobs, special privileges) to which it has a weak claim. So it attempts to enforce its claim by ruling any disagreement outside the bounds of acceptable discourse. This is unnecessary when the claim is self-evidently strong, but may be the only means of getting the claim accepted when it is weak.