by John Stevenson
A recent article by
Alexander Zubalov on “political correctness” caught my interest. The thesis was that the appearance of
widespread agreement with political correctness is false---that actual polling
belies the appearance of agreement. And
Zubalov thinks he knows why: “…political correctness is succeeding in its
objective…shutting people up. (It) bullies, shames, and silences those who have
dissenting views…even if those dissenting views represent a majority.”
With all the effort in
our society to sanitize our language so as not to offend, one would think most
folks buy into the need to be more sensitive.
But Pew found just the opposite: “59 percent of Americans believe too
many people are easily offended these days over the language that others use,
while 39 percent think people need to be more careful about the language they
use to avoid offending people with different backgrounds.”
With the Supreme Court
(Fisher v. University of Texas) agreeing to permit race-based admissions, one
might assume most people (and especially most minorities) would agree. Wrong.
Gallup found that “…70 percent of Americans believe college admissions
should be based solely on merit.”
Furthermore, the use of merit-only criteria was shared by 76 percent of
whites, 50 percent of blacks, and 61 percent of Hispanics.
Well, surely most
people think “we ought to accentuate our vibrant racial and ethnic identities,
focusing on what makes us unique.” Wrong
again. Pew reported: “Among whites, more
than twice as many say that in order to improve race relations, it’s more
important to focus on what different racial and ethnic groups have in common
(57 percent) as say the focus should be on what makes each group unique (26
percent).” And among blacks, a plurality
agrees it is better to stress commonalities rather than differences.
So if Pew and Gallup
are to be believed, Americans in general---regardless of race or ethnicity---do
not buy into the politically correct positions on the need to use inoffensive
language, or on the consideration of race in college admissions, or that America
should be a salad bowl rather than a melting pot. But few Americans publicly admit to
disagreeing with the politically correct orthodoxy.
Small wonder. As Zubalov said, political correctness shuts
people up.
Consider for example:
the Silicon Valley executive who lost his job for supporting the now-overturned
gay marriage ban in California; or the attempted boycott of Chick-fil-a because
its chief operating officer had donated to organizations disapproved by the
LGBT movement; or the smack-down of a candidate for the Democrat presidential
nomination when he dared to say “all lives matter.” Consider also the stifling of diversity of
opinion on campus, including “speech codes” and “safe spaces,” and the disinvitation
or disruption of speakers with non-conforming viewpoints. Consider the ridicule of those who dispute the
“settled science” of global warming. And
consider the labeling as “Islamophobic” those who dare to suggest that Islamic
terrorism is Islamic terrorism. There
are plenty more examples, but you get the idea.
All in all, a hostile
environment in which to express a politically incorrect view---even if, as Pew
and Gallup tell us---the dissenting and politically incorrect view is held by
the majority.
