© David Burton 2013

     Political Correctness (PC) has been carried to stupid extremes in the United States and elsewhere around the world. If you say or do the “wrong thing” in America today, you could be ostracized, penalized, fired, or prosecuted. Political correctness is running rampant in this nation. Any reference to Christmas in public nowadays is taboo due to the assumption that people of all other religions are offended by it. Birthdays cannot be celebrated in some schools anymore because Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate them. In another case of PC stupidity, the PC police were up in arms when ESPN used the phrase “chink in the armor” when discussing basketball turnovers by the New York Knicks’ Jeremy Lin. Since Jeremy is of Chinese descent, these ignoramuses interpreted “chink” as a “racial slur”.

     Our public schools are among the worst observers of political incorrectness. Consider these outrageous examples of a zero tolerance policy run amok in our nation’s schools: A 14-year-old student was arrested for texting in class. A 9-year-old boy was suspended for allegedly pointing a toy at a classmate and saying “bang, bang.” Two 6-year-old students in Maryland were suspended for using their fingers as imaginary guns in a schoolyard game of cops and robbers. An 8-year-old boy was suspended for making his hand into the shape of a gun, in violation of the school district’s policy prohibiting “playing with invisible guns.” Two seventh graders in Virginia were suspended for the rest of the school year for playing with airsoft guns in their own yard before school.

     “In his novel 1984, George Orwell imagined a future world where speech was greatly restricted.
     “He called the language that the totalitarian state in his novel created ‘Newspeak’, and it bears a striking resemblance to the political correctness that we see in America right now.
     “According to Wikipedia, Newspeak is ‘a reduced language created by the totalitarian state as a tool to limit free thought, and concepts that pose a threat to the regime such as freedom, self-expression, individuality, peace, etc. Any form of thought alternative to the party’s construct is classified as ‘thoughtcrime.’
     “Yes, people are not usually [Emphasis mine] being hauled off to prison for what they are saying just yet, but we {may be} heading down that path.
     “Every single day, the mainstream media in the United States bombards us with subtle messages about what we should believe and what ‘appropriate speech’ consists of.
     “Most of the time, most Americans quietly fall in line with this unwritten speech code.
     “In fact, most of the time we enforce this unwritten speech code among each other. Those that would dare to buck the system are finding out that the consequences can be rather severe.” (Ref. 1)

     And, it is not just speech that is being censored; what we contemplate doing, what we do, or what we are permitted to do are now coming under the control of the thought police. What follows are some examples of what idiots some of us have become or allow here in America.

     A Tennessee judge “ordered a family to change their child’s name Messiah, because that ‘title’ has ‘only been earned by one person.’” (Ref. 2) Fortunately, the judge’s ruling was reversed.

     In Maryland, a child was interrogated by school officials “for more than two hours before notifying his mother that he possessed a cap gun. Fortunately, it contained no caps; otherwise it would have been deemed an explosive.” (Ref. 2)

     In Michigan, “educators forced the removal of the little plastic soldiers a mother hat put on cupcakes she brought to school on her son’s birthday.” (Ref. 2)

     In California, “on Constitution Day, a student at Modesto Junior College was told to stop distributing copies of the Constitution until he had filled out the requisite forms for permission to use the college’s designated ‘free speech area.’” (Ref. 2)

     In Washington, ”the Metropolitan Area Transit Authority threatened Henry Docter with ‘arrest, fines and imprisonment’ for the crime of unregulated gardening. Docter had filled 176 empty planters at the Dupont Circle subway stop. The Transit Authority was briefly deterred by the public outcry against its threat to punish Docter for his uncompensated act of beautification. But then it had 1,000 and other plants ripped out.” (Ref. 2)

     To prove that America’s borders are secure, “Canadian relief supplies for Oklahoma tornado victims were stopped at the U.S. border until every item could be itemized in alphabetical order and its country of origin noted.” (Ref. 2)

     In order for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to avoid any hint of cultural insensitivity ”A video of its ‘cultural sensitivity training’ shows employees being instructed to call Pilgrims who created Thanksgiving ‘illegal aliens.’” (Ref. 2)

     In the state of Missouri, ”The Missouri State Fair has permanently banned a rodeo clown from performing just because he wore an Obama mask.” (Ref. 1)

     In the state of Washington, ”Government workers in Seattle have been told that they should no longer use the words ‘citizen’ and ‘brown bag’ because they are potentially offensive.” (Ref. 1)

     In Indiana, ”A professor at Ball State University was recently banned from even mentioning the concept of intelligent design because it would supposedly ‘violate the academic integrity’ of the course that he was teaching.” (Ref. 1)

     In California, ”The governor … has signed a bill into law which will allow transgendered students to use whatever bathrooms and gym facilities that they would like…” (Ref. 1)

     In addition, ”The state legislature of California has just passed a law that allows boys to shower with girls in the public schools if that is more 'consistent' with their gender identity.” (Ref. 3)

     To avoid any possibility of offending Mexican-American students, ”Administrators at a California high school sent five students home after they refused to remove their American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican Day of Independence.” (Ref. 4)

     In Maine, ”The Maine Human Rights Commission has proposed banning ANY gender divisions in public schools after ruling that, under the Maine Human Rights Act, a school discriminated against a 12-year-old transgender boy by denying him access to the girls’ bathroom.” (Ref. 4)

     In North Carolina, in order to avoid offending atheists, “an elementary school … ordered a little six-year-old girl to remove the word ‘God’ from a poem that she wrote to honor her two grandfathers that had served in the Vietnam War.” (Ref. 1)

     In a similar vein, ”A high school track team was disqualified earlier this year because one of the runners 'made a gesture thanking God' once he had crossed the finish line.” (Ref. 1)

     In New Jersey, ”A teacher … was fired for giving his own Bible to a student that did not own one.” (Ref. 1)

     In the state of Washington, ”A school in Seattle renamed its Easter eggs 'spring spheres' to avoid causing offence to people who did not celebrate Easter.” (Ref. 5)

     In order to avoid offending any jihadist terrorists, ”The Obama administration has banned all U.S. government agencies from producing any training materials that link Islam with terrorism. In fact, the FBI has gone back and purged references to Islam and terrorism from hundreds of old documents.” (Ref. 1)

     Heaven forbid that we offend any former slaves.”A survey of 10 major Washington, D.C.-area homebuilders found that six no longer use the term ‘master’ in their floor plans to describe the largest bedroom in the house. They have replaced it with ‘owner’s suite’ or ‘owner’s bedroom’ or, in one case, ‘mastre bedroom.’ Why? In large part for exactly the reason you would think: ‘Master’ has connotation problems, in gender (it skews toward male) and race (the slave-master).” (Ref. 6)

     Under the rules of Political Correctness, it is improper to differentiate between male and female. ”Throughout several US councils and organizations, any terms using the word 'man' as a prefix or suffix have been ruled as not being politically correct. 'Manhole' is now referred to as a 'utility' or 'maintenance' hole.” (Ref. 5)

     The snowballing impact of political correctness is exemplified by the examples below, which are extracted from Reference 7. These are but a few examples of where political correctness went a step too far.

In school, a "blackboard" is now a "chalkboard". However "Whiteboards" which many classrooms now have are OK.

Nursery schools stopped singing "Baa Baa Black Sheep" instead replacing it with "Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep".

We no longer have "Manholes" in our roads they are now "Utility Holes" so as not to be gender specific.

We no longer have "Criminals" but "Behaviorally Challenged Individuals" in our Jails.

Schools no longer have "Lunch Ladies" but have replaced them with "Midday Assistants" as if the middle of the day needs to be looked after.

The "War Department" became the "Defense Department" so that we weren't thought to be the ones starting wars.

We don't have "Poor People living in the Ghetto" they are "Economically Challenged people in the Ethnically Homogeneous Area.”

Those of you that live in areas that have "Homeless People" actually they are "Residentially Flexible Individuals."

In bedtime stories to small children, we are asked to replace "Fairy" with "Petite airborne humanoid with mystical powers."

Santa Clauses are being told to stop using the phrase "Ho-Ho-Ho" in case it was mistaken for the slang term for whore.

     In 2013, Washington State completed the final piece of a 6-year effort to rewrite all state laws using a gender-neutral vocabulary. The PC crusade will replace terms such as "fisherman", “freshman” and “journeyman plumber” with “fisher”, “first-year-student' and 'journey-level plumber”. The rewriting of the state’s laws and statutes marks an end to hundreds of years of accepted language and heralds the replacement thousands of words and phrases at the tax-payers’ expense – all for political correctness. What we have is the Utopian dream of saying and doing nothing that offends anybody, but which, in reality, renders a multitude of words, phrases and actions totally devoid of real meaning or intent. It fulfills the socialist dream where all differences are obliterated in the name of total social, economic, educational and religious equality – a world in which everyone and everything is reduced to the lowest common denominator – for then, and only then, is everyone and everything equal.

      In the name of political correctness ,we have allowed ourselves to be victimized by the tyranny of the minority. Bowing to the PC police or the fear of them we have allowed a public school to cancel a Christmas toy drive for needy children after an atheist group threatened to sue; a school to ban Christmas carols, even without words. The University of Missouri issued a new student handbook with dates for all holidays to be celebrated during the year. Among the holidays to be observed are Wicca and pagan holidays. Obviously there must be a huge number of Wicca and pagans attending the University of Missouri and heaven forbid that we ignore their holidays. Ninety five percent of Americans are happy to celebrate the Christmas holidays, including many Jews, Muslims and atheists, but we cave in to a vocal minority that insists that there be no acknowledgement of the holiday lest they be offended – the heck with offending the majority! In the name of political correctness, should we now replace "Indian Summer" with “Native American Summer”? What about forcing our professional sports teams to change their team names if there is even the slightest chance of hurting the feelings of anyone, i.e., Washington Redskins, Chicago Blackhawks, New England Patriots, New York Giants, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, and perhaps the most egregious of all, the Vancouver Canucks? What about the hundreds or thousands of college, high school, and other amateur sports teams that are named after some group of humanoids?

     “Political correctness is really not about speech at all; it’s actually about controlling people’s thoughts, ideas and expression, defining acceptable behavior according to some nebulous and variable standard that is laid down by various special interest groups for everyone else to follow and manipulated for political purposes.
     “In the final analysis, PC is whatever certain vocal individuals, minorities or special interest groups say it is from time to time. It’s about using the power of censorship to stifle dissent for political advantage and monetary gain through the power of government. The oft-quoted statement ‘follow the money’ applies here as well.” (Ref. 8)

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References:

1. 19 Shocking Examples Of How Political Correctness Is Destroying America, Michael Snyder, infowars.com,
   14 August 2013.
2. Grateful for … strange days, ways?, George F. Will, Boston Herald, Page 21, 28 November 2013.
3. 20 Examples Of How America Is Rapidly Going Down The Toilet, Michael Snyder, infowars.com, 14 June 2013.
4. 10 Ridiculous Cases of Political Correctness, Jay Karlson, listverse.com, 26 October 2010.
5. 11 Examples Of Political Correctness Gone Mad, Rhian Hughes, hereisthecity.com, Accessed 29 November 2013.
6. “Political Correctness” – No Longer a Joke, but a Menace . . . and an Assault on Free Speech, alexdrinkh2o.hubpages.com, Accessed 29 November 2013.
7. Political Correctness gone too far, smackins1974hubpages.com, Accessed 29 November 2013.
8. Harris Sherline: Political Correctness Has Gone Too Far, Harris Sherline, Noozhawh, 16 March 2013.