Political Correctness or Freedom of Expression.

“Of the abundance of a man’s thought, he speaketh”

One of the many advantages of the internet is how easily it widens our audience range. One can reach out to a lot more people just by typing (like I’m doing). By tapping into the grace of the internet, we have been able to tell, hear, gather and share stories and information we would otherwise not have access to. In summary, we’ve been given a hub to listen and talk, which is nice because, freedom of speech

But you know what is even more important than freedom of speech? Freedom of thought.

The internet has opened our eyes and minds to a lot of philosophies and we are grateful for that. Recently however, there has been an uprising in the cyberworld. An uprising geared towards censoring our freedom to speak. Telling us what we should or shouldn't think. They call it Political Correctness. Like Hitler, it started with good intentions, but has overtime become a sort of opinion police, calling out anyone who dares defy the growing consensus as insensitive.

WHAT IS POLITICAL CORRECTNESS?

I want to answer this question not for the sake of those who don’t understand the concept (because we have Wikipedia duh), but to show that I understand it well enough to talk about it. In summary, being Politically Correct is conforming to the sociopolitical ideology that tolerates and avoids offense in matters of sex, gender, race, class or any other sociopolitical orientation. So basically, we’re talking about being sensitive to people of colour, the LGBTQ community, women and other minorities.

A few days ago, I made a thread on unpopular opinions on twitter. I knew that a lot of these things, many people wouldn’t agree with (obviously as they are unpopular opinions). As expected, a lot of these social justice warriors came for me. They did little to convince me, but very much tried to troll me into deleting the tweets. Unfortunately, that’s what has become of Political Correctness. It’s silencing opinions not changing them. So I hereby define political Correctness thus:

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: achieving social justice by telling others with contrary opinions to shut the hell up.

Remember the Pepsi ad that was released earlier this year? I daresay it was the most controversial advert this year. Why? They (the offendees) claim it appropriated protest, police brutality, gender and racial discrimination and whatnot. It was so controversial that anyone who didn’t see anything wrong with it was tagged a bigot. So controversial that Pepsi had to pull the ad.

A more silly example is the SheaMoisture ad which apparently offended a lot of black. The offence: They claim SheaMoisture used them as bait to appeal to other races. They went further to say it appropriated hair hate.

Political Correctness is doing a lot to stifle free speech. One can’t voice his/her perspective on certain issues lest he/she be labeled a bigot or a troll. Don’t get me wrong, you can talk, but do not say anything controversial or outside the consensus.

Here’s how speech works:

We think from a particular viewpoint, then we relay our thoughts.

PERSPECTIVE > THOUGHT > SPEECH.

If you silence everyone who speaks against racial equality, you create a false utopia where everyone who speaks, speaks for racial equality, but not everyone is for racial equality. Kind of like a secret society where people don’t talk because the society spits on them for it, but they still uphold their views in their thoughts and actions.

But does this mean that it’s wrong to censor content that presents apologetic or unapologetic rationalisations based on insane ideological stances???

YES.

Mill’s harm principle discourages censoring dissent. Here’s why:

• He (J.S. Mill) argues that the validity of an argument does not depend on how many people agree with it. E.g. Racism is wrong even while it was widely accepted.
• He also claims that dissent preserves​ truth, and since truth can easily be hidden in sources of prejudice and dead dogma, insane ideology is needed.

In short, the harm principle is telling us that without dissenting opinions, ideologies cannot be tested, and if our beliefs are not tested, we cannot rationalise what we believe to be true. If these ideologies are not questioned, we can’t check our beliefs, rationalise and improve them.

How then do we make our society socially and politically correct without stifling free speech?

• Before you even move to correct him/her, you surely must have figured out what you believe to be true.
• Be polite. Every man has the right to think whatever he wills. No one should be made to feel inferior for having an opinion.
• Instead of silencing them, make them see it from your perspective. If your argument is solid enough, it would make him/her question his opinion.
• Avoid logical fallacies.
• Be ready to unlearn.
• Don't force it. If he/she isn’t not buying it, let it slide.

Remember: You are not in it to win it.

And who knows? You might actually be the one in the wrong.