Politically Correct or Just Evolved?
There’s a lot of disdain these days for acting, speaking, and writing in a way as to avoid offending people. It’s called being politically correct or PC. A lot of this disdain comes from people who want to say whatever is on their minds, regardless of the consequences. Some of it comes from comedians (especially those that made their names on being rude) who believe people should just “chill out”. The responses are either “shut up snowflake, here’s your participation trophy” or “can’t you take a fucking joke?” or “stop being so sensitive”.
When seriously measured, it’s my theory that we’re leaving out two important factors. Some of us have evolved and we now have social networking and always-on global media.
I equate political correctness to a form of complexity. Were we to maintain simple communications and simple-mindedness within the scope of our own immediacy, it’s less likely anyone would be offended or hurt (though still going to happen). But with the advent of social media and global media, our comments reach an audience outside of our immediate social network (our friends, family, and neighbors).
Given this reach, many of us have adapted to a vastly diverse audience for our commentary. I started conversing with people over the Internet in the early-90’s over Usenet (now mostly maintained by Google Groups). In 1997, I joined an online community originally for fans of text-based games or Interactive Fiction. It didn’t take long for our platform to evolve to discuss pretty much everything from pets to politics and religion to roller coasters. It’s been 21 years and we have over 3300 public channels (and probably hundreds of private channels). We also have users from across the globe.
This community had its fits and starts. I can attest that my own initial interactions were less than optimal. I was a bumpkin from Milwaukee with more than a few rough edges. I pissed off the community more than a few times. But their response was to message me privately that I had acted inappropriately and upon reflection, I changed, as did everyone else. Over time, our community came to adhere to a fairly solid politically correct standard of conversation. This doesn’t mean we don’t swear or rant, but it does mean we never attack each other and we generally know where the line is when it comes to healthy discourse.
Granted, we all fall into a rational spectrum of politics (mostly progressive, though we do have a few non-Trump conservatives), but when fiscal or social issues arise, we handle it politely.
The lesson though is that being politically correct isn’t the downswing of humanity that many make it out to be. It’s the natural evolution of people wanting to commune and not offend, discuss our differences but politely and positively.
I actually think we need to bring civics and ethics back to our school systems, especially because of social media. We should be engaged with communication skills from an early age, how it impacts those around us as well as those in social media. We might actually learn to get along with each other.
