Guest Columns
The Humanitarian Hoax of Political Correctness: Killing America With Kindness – hoax #29
Political correctness is a humanitarian hoax. It is a deceitful end-run around the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech.
The Humanitarian Hoax is a deliberate and deceitful tactic of presenting a destructive policy as altruistic. The humanitarian huckster presents himself as a compassionate advocate when in fact he is the disguised enemy. Political correctness is a humanitarian hoax. It is a deceitful end-run around the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech. This is how it works.
Freedom of speech means freedom to disagree
The freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution award citizens the right to disagree without fear of reprisal. American civil society is predicated upon the freedom to express disagreement, and is diametrically opposed to the politically correct demand for avoidance of language that might be offensive and hurt someone’s feelings.
The freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution do not care about anyone’s feelings – political correctness does. Political correctness is a severe prohibition on free speech disguised as courtesy.
Political correctness – you dare not disagree with this!
Political correctness (PC) is marketed by its devotees as progressive, compassionate, sensitive, and caring. Itis defined as the avoidance of language or actions that are seen as excluding, marginalizing, or insulting to groups of people who are seen as disadvantaged or discriminated against, especially groups defined by sex or race. Political correctness has been embraced by leftist liberals with religious fervor in America. The problem of course is deciding WHO will determine what is and what is not insulting.
Historically, political correctness was associated with the Communist Party and dogmatic Stalinists. The term was used disparagingly by Socialists who considered themselves to be morally superior and more egalitarian than the Communists who they were competing with. Not much has changed – today the leftists who adhere to political correctness consider themselves morally superior to conservatives who refuse to surrender their freedom of speech. The leftists have conveniently appointed themselves as the definitive authority on what is and what is not considered hurtful, offensive, insulting, or hate speech.
Diversity of appearance and behavior, but not opinion
The staggering hypocrisy of leftist inclusion is evident by their superficial embrace of those who simply look different – tall, thin, short, fat, black, brown, gay, straight, bisexual, transsexual etc etc. What leftists do not tolerate is anyone who thinks differently – there is no place for oppositional views in leftism. Equally hypocritical is their politically correct impulse to restrict free speech based on hurt feelings since their standard applies only to leftist hurt feelings. Leftism is a supremacist ideology.
The left has introduced secular tyranny to America.
Political correctness v. the Constitution
The U.S. Constitution guarantees my rights to freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble, and freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances. Without freedom of speech there is no freedom. It explains why any attempt to abridge or curtail freedom begins with restrictions on freedom of speech and also explains why every despotic regime, including the left in America, necessarily prohibits free speech.
The humanitarian hoax of political correctness is that it promotes the lawless disregard for the First Amendment guarantee of free speech as altruistic. Political correctness most definitely “abridges” freedom of speech which is not altruistic, it is repressive.
You can’t avoid offense in a free society
In a complex society of millions of people there are many who have ideas and beliefs that will be offensive to others. The First Amendment guarantees that they are free to think their thoughts, they are free to say them, but they are most definitely not free to act upon them. The Constitution acknowledges the difference between thinking, saying, and doing.
In America, morality, good taste, civility, courtesy and common sense have traditionally been the societal pressures applied on people to conform to cultural norms of acceptable speech. Children in kindergarten learn that “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” They are taught the distinction between words and actions. Kindergartners are taught to tolerate offensive speech even when it hurts their feelings.
Political correctness equates words with acts
21st century America is witnessing a regressive blurring of boundaries between words and actions. The politically correct leftist demand to restrict free speech because it might hurt someone’s feelings blurs the boundaries between speech and action and drives people into a world of infantile subjective reality. In the world of adult objective reality hurting someone’s feelings with words is not the same as sticks or stones breaking bones. Why are leftists regressively insisting that it is?
The leftist Culture War on America is using the extraordinary social power of peer pressure to demand conformity to its tenets of political correctness. PC is their instrument for creating divisiveness, silencing opposition, and destabilizing the country. When people are no longer free to express their opinions without being censured or ridiculed, when students are no longer free to argue their ideas, when Conservative speakers are no longer allowed on campus, we are no longer living in a free society. We are living under the tyranny of leftist group-think peer pressure.
Restriction of speech goes beyond “consideration for feelings.”
The Left is idealizing the restriction of free speech as altruism. Consider the ongoing debate regarding what is and what is not permissible speech regarding Islam in America under the influence of the seditious Muslim Brotherhood. Islamists are straightforward – they tell you that it is against sharia law to criticize Muhammad or Allah and the punishment is death. Islamists unapologetically reject the authority of the U.S. Constitution and the secular laws in America that guarantee free speech. Islamist sharia law is a supremacist ideology.
Instead of protecting free speech, Leftists protect the Muslim Brotherhood and whine that criticizing Muhammad or Allah hurts Muslim feelings making them feel marginalized and insulted. They have even invented a word for it – Islamophobia. Leftists have joined the Islamists and are equally unapologetic about not recognizing the authority of the secular laws in America that guarantee free speech including criticizing Muhammad and Allah.
Where we stand today
Consider the current restrictions on free speech and creeping sharia law in America:
- I am an American and free to criticize the government.
- I am an American and free to criticize Jesus.
- I am an American and free to criticize Yahweh.
- I am an American and NO LONGER FREE to criticize Mohammed.
Any movement whether secular or religious that refuses to recognize the established laws of the U.S. Constitution is seditiously promoting anarchy.
Ideas are not equal
It is simply untrue that all ideas and norms are equal. Any civil society must decide on shared cultural norms to determine what is acceptable and what is not acceptable behavior. Societies that embrace the politically correct narrative that all ideas are equal are necessarily accepting the unacceptable. That is the situation that America finds itself in today.
Consider cannibalism. If some people embrace cannibalism they are free to live in parts of the world that support cannibalism. In the United States cannibalism is strictly forbidden – it is an idea without value. What about child marriage? In Muslim cultures the marriage to a nine year old may be a good idea but in the West we call it pedophilia – it is strictly forbidden. Sharia law supports killing homosexuals, female genital mutilation, “honor” killings, and a myriad of other repressive and culturally abhorrent practices that are strictly forbidden by our U.S. Constitution.
Political correctness is essential to tyranny
Political correctness is central to the leftist narrative and is the lethal humanitarian hoax being used to shatter the foundation of our free society. There is no freedom without freedom of speech.
Public debate about Islam is no longer allowed in America. There is no open exchange of different opinions on the subject, no criticism of Islam permitted, and no discussion of the glaring conflicts between Islamic sharia law and the U.S. Constitution. The Leftist/Islamist axis including the colluding Internet behemoths have unapologetically silenced any discussion about Islam and the existential threat it poses to America.
Secular and religious censorship is dismantling the First Amendment using political correctness disguised as courtesy. The freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution award citizens the right to disagree. Freedom of speech guarantees the right to verbally express that disagreement. The future of our Republic depends upon our ability to speak freely.
There is no freedom without freedom of speech.
The leftist Culture War on America is designed to destroy America from within and replace our government with Marxist socialism.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s War on America is designed to destroy America from within and replace our government with Islamic sharia law.
The red/green axis is the seditious alliance of the leftists and the Islamists with common cause to destroy America. Both require a regressive return to the magical thinking and fearfulness of childhood. We cannot let them prevail.
We must remember the kindergarten lesson of sticks and stones and restore the distinction between words and actions. The regressive left has deliberately blurred that boundary to restrict free speech and demand compliance to their increasingly restrictive standard of what is and what is not acceptable speech. Leftists are using the magical thinking and fearfulness of childhood to persuade America that words can break bones – they cannot.
Time to choose between freedom and political correctness
Americans must choose. We must decide if we are going to tolerate hurt feelings to preserve freedom of speech or if we are going to become dhimmis to the tyranny of leftist censorship and Islamic intolerance. It really does not matter whether forbidden speech is religious (criticizing Muhammad and Allah) or secular (criticizing political correctness). Free speech guarantees the right to express disagreement and opposing ideas without fear of reprisal.
Without freedom of speech there are no other freedoms – there is only conformity, fear, and enslavement. We can live free by restoring objective reality and honoring the adult distinction between words and actions articulated in our Constitution. Or we can allow ourselves to be duped by the humanitarian hoax of political correctness and forfeit our freedom of speech to the insanity of the regressive leftist world of subjective reality where words can magically break bones.
We must choose between sanity and insanity. It is the choice between freedom and enslavement.
This article also appears on the author’s Pundicity page and independent site.
Linda Goudsmit is the devoted wife of Rob and they are the parents of four children and the grandparents of four. She and Rob owned and operated a girls’ clothing store in Michigan for forty years before retiring to the sunny beaches of Florida. A graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Linda has a lifelong commitment to learning and is an avid reader and observer of life. She is the author of the philosophy book Dear America: Who’s Driving the Bus? and its political sequel, The Book of Humanitarian Hoaxes: Killing America with ‘Kindness’, along with numerous current affairs articles featured on her websites lindagoudsmit.com and goudsmit.pundicity.com. The Collapsing American Family: From Bonding to Bondage and her new release, Space Is No Longer the Final Frontier––Reality Is, complete Linda’s quadrangle of insightful books that connect the philosophical, ideological, political, and psychological dots of globalism's War on America and individual sovereignty.
Linda believes the future of our nation requires reviving individualism, restoring meritocracy, and teaching critical-thinking skills to children again. Her illustrated children’s book series, Mimi’s Strategy, offers youngsters new and exciting ways of solving their problems and having their needs met. Mrs. Goudsmit believes that learning to think strategically rather than reacting emotionally is a valuable skill that will empower any child throughout his or her life. Plus, in Linda’s words, “I have yet to meet the child who would prefer a reprimand to a kiss.”
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