Tuesday, August 26, 2003

This fear of hurting somebody's feelings could destroy America

DANNY BROOKS says:

“The most dangerous threat to the United States is not the threat from another country -- after all, what country can compete with our military? -- or terrorist cells or weapons of mass distraction. It is political correctness. Those two words have been used to confuse, irritate and placate Americans for years.

The topic came up recently on my favorite morning radio program, "The Ace & TJ Show." Ace is the lead singer of a rock band, Charity Case, that raises money for Grin Kids. A female caller claimed that Ace was sexist because he didn't want women in his band. Everyone on the show tried to explain that he's not sexist, because the definition of "sexist" is someone who thinks that his or her gender is superior to the other. He simply wanted to be in a band with all guys because he, like me, grew up listening to all-guy, heavy-metal bands. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Political correctness has blurred the true definitions of many words in the English language to the point that more and more people no longer know what they really mean. A new PC term for illegal immigrants, as I learned from TJ last week, is "undocumented immigrants." We wouldn't want to hurt the feelings of people who are breaking the law by being in this country illegally, now would we?

It's spreading across the Atlantic. A play opened in London recently was titled "The Bell Ringer of Notre Dame" because the word "hunchback" might offend some people. In the words of fellow Libertarian John Stossel, "Gimme a break!"

It was bad enough when the PC police decided that some Little League games would no longer keep score because the losing team might suffer severe trauma to their delicate little psyches. God forbid that they would learn that they cannot always win and perhaps practice harder in hopes of winning the next game.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that this country was founded on the very principles that are becoming politically incorrect -- hard work, competition, self-sacrifice and doing what is right over what is popular. What we are doing is creating a generation of hand-wringing, bleeding-heart, liberal weenies who will have practically no marketable job skills when they are handed their diplomas and sent off to get a job in the real world. After all, who is going to want to hire someone who isn't motivated, hard-working or competitive?”

More here. Via American Realpolitik

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