The Disease of Political Correctness

Political Correctness (PC) is the way we treat each other in order to avoid being offensive. The term fails since being offensive is something subjective and depends on one’s culture, ethics and personal experiences. With PC human interaction gets lost in a-la-carte behaviour and meaningless savoir-vivre. People avoid expressing their ideas because they are afraid being criticized. PC serves as an unofficial social contract. Everyone’s identity becomes a pulp of mediocrity.

The vast majority of humans, like most other mammals in the animal kingdom, are politically correct. This form of behaviour serves the group since the alpha male, the non-PC leader, can direct the masses at will. This also explains the phenomenon why many, while they do enjoy being in this passive behavioral state, find themselves attracted to non-PC assertive individuals that speak their mind. This reinforces the idea of PC as an evolutionary adaptation—one that is aimed to focus power on one individual in order for the group to survive. Thing is, we don’t need this evolutionary autopilot anymore. We are nowhere near being threatened by other animals.

By being politically correct, one avoids friction, conflict and confrontation. Learning how to speak and act properly in order to be accepted comes hand in hand with ideas of “positive thinking”, “positive energy” and other childish self-worshipping delusions we see trending around us.

For example, almost everyone reading this post belongs to the elite 15% of this planet that has adequate food, clean water and a safe shelter on a daily basis. We think “positively”, yet we avoid reality because our environment is as safe as a glass bubble. No wonder “The Secret” was such a hit of a book. Do you want something special western human? Just dream it and the universe will make it happen for you. As if the safe space of our western culture was not enough, PC makes sure to safe-proof our minds as well.
 

The comfiness of modern life has soften our character and spirit. Even if we are going through so-called “economic crises”, here in the west we have the basics to enjoy on a daily basis. Most people on this planet struggle daily in terms of life or death in order to survive. I wonder how many “positive energy” individuals have the balls to preach to a starving child in Africa that his situation is such because he attracts “negative energy”. This is not only bullshit but downright hubris to humanity itself.

We hear what we want to hear and speak what others want us to speak. It seems that the self-help movement of the 80’s with cults like the one of Tony Robbins has evolved into what we see around us today. People are afraid to talk and think, not only because they are afraid of criticism from others, but also because they are afraid of their own minds. “No negative thoughts, think positive, everything is going to be alright”. It doesn’t get more pathetic than this.

We have managed to incorporate this politically correct mantra in our relationships. We reinforce it in cosmopolitan-level articles that urge us to “detox” our social life from all this negativity or what it comes to be—reality itself. We cut off people that don’t agree with us and join groups that reinforce our own superstitions. We have stopped arguing in person in order to discover one another. Ancient Greeks developed such an amazing culture because they argued on a daily basis with each other about their ideas. What do we do? We report things we don’t like to Zuckerberg, or worse, flag content to hide it. Yeah. That’s better. Everything is “safe” now.

The PC trend is sculpting people to be way too sensitive with everything that goes on in their lives. We are nourishing our inner spoiled brat so that others can cater to our “positivism”. I wonder, why after so much positivism in our western culture we are still popping up pills like M&M’s? Why are we so obsessed with being happy if we are indeed investing on positivity so much? We are full of shit and we know it. We just hope that no one will notice if everyone is playing along.
 

The News and Social Media have changed their rules of conduct, removing all “negative commentary”. We demand this new lingo so much that our friends, coworkers and even politicians and leaders have become liars, hypocrites and crooks— and we have the guts to complain on top of it!

The average perception craves political correctness and this is exactly what we are getting. Every single leader out there, every politician, represents the average perception. We are our politicians. When we bitch and moan about their actions we are in fact angry with our own hypocrisy, not them. They are just business people satisfying a market based on demand.

Political Correctness has become a symbol, a flag. There is a surge of group creation across all domains for all kinds of things. People demand “rights”, as if one group suffers more than the other. We end up stripping the freedoms off another group for the sake of our security, imprisoning each other under the shackles of governmental control.

We forget that all humans have by default equal natural rights. "Human rights" and other privileges were created when some people grouped together and gained special treatment at the expense of others. This is why after such a long time when one mentions "human rights" is like mentioning "God". The term is so vaguely defined, so subjectively understood, it becomes pointless.
 

Human rights were perhaps the first attempt for making the masses politically correct. After WW2 the United Nations decided that all humans should have the same fundamental rights. Of course this never worked, because the ones controlling the United Nations make wars to gain resources and excuse every inhumane action as collateral damage. “United Nations”. What a farse. If nations were really united we wouldn’t be talking about human rights now would we?

Yet we still believe in this bullshit in the same way we believe that thinking about a positive outcome will make it happen. Imagine everyone being “positive”. Everyone in the west will be millionaires, everyone will have great health, everyone will get awesome jobs, everyone will have awesome families, everyone will be a pioneer.

Who will be cleaning the toilets in our schools? Who will be cleaning our shit in hospital beds? Who will be taking our trash outside? Magic motherfuckers. Magic! We share pictures of war, famine and misery in order to show how “humane” we are, while they migrate in our kingdoms in order to clean up our shit. Our tax funded corporatist exploitators brought them in our doorstep. We complain about the politicians we hire as hitmen while we enjoy all the goodies with “positive energy”.
 

Why do you think humans suffer so much from loneliness even if we are more connected than ever? Why do you think we visit therapists to talk about identity crisis or our problems with the rest of the world? We wear so many politically correct masks that we have lost track with reality. “Positive Energy”, as if life is the green valley with my little pony. We have become spoiled brats accusing the world for “patriarchy”, “capitalism”, “corruption”, “fat shaming”, “government”, “religion”, turning all the arguments against one another since everybody carries their own ideology. What a circus. Nobody can take any offense anymore. Nobody can criticize anyone since everyone can put themselves in a “disadvantaged” group.

I understand that we have always worn some kind of a mask and behaved in some kind of political correctness more or less. Nobody denies this. As humans living in complex societies this is rather a necessity. Today though, the phenomenon has turned people against their own selves. We might see, for example, a group of five people sitting in a coffee shop sunked in their mobile screens liking each others’ posts, as if all internet interaction takes place in another dimension. Turn your head some degrees left and you witness a hipster taking 500 selfies on her porch. Which one will gather the most likes? Even though she knows that she doesn’t look like that in real life the illusion is sustained since everyone is doing it. And then we wonder why we pop pills and complain why people cannot see “who we truly are”. Oh yes. Think more positive and don’t forget to tweet about it.
 

We sacrifice our identity in order to become accepted. We sacrifice our freedom of expression for the sake of safety. We demand only positive things, shoving reality under the carpet. The very profession of a psychologist exists because we cannot be real with each other. Therapists are friends on payroll. We wouldn’t want to cause any “negativity” in our friend circle or show any form of “weakness”, right?

We have become an avatar, a by-product of political correctness. One can either be real and suffer the social exclusion or forever be absorbed into this bottomless pit of inclusive absurdity.

---

image sources: 1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 5