We are now seeing the End of the Politically Correct Era in the United States. I cannot say when the beginning of the end occurred. But it is clear that 2014 is turning into the swansong of the PC Era. It’s a shame, because, had it been done properly, the PC Era could have been the force of good it was supposed to be before humans hijacked the movement and turned it into a way of settling scores, or getting power.
Two recent sports headlines has shown how the PC Movement has been challenged in the eyes of the nation. The stories of efforts to change the name of the Washington Redskins and to remove Donald Sterling as owner of the LA Clippers would have, in the past, been no-brainers in the eyes of the PC movement. Heck, I believe that the Washington NFL Team needs to change its name and that Donald Sterling should have been removed as an NBA Owner long before he was recorded making derogatory statements. But surprisingly, a lot of people on social media threads disagreed. In many people’s eyes Sterling & Washington owner Dan Snyder are the latest heroes in standing up to the PC crowd. And it’s not because Snyder and Sterling are good people. They are not. Sterling has run the LA Clippers into the ground for most of his 30 years as an owner, while Snyder picks the pettiest of fights and acts like an a-hole most of the time. No, it's because people are getting tired of being run over by Political Correctness.
So, as we go through the post-mortem as to what has killed the PC movement, some interesting points emerge. And it’s something that all people need to understand as we transition into more of a post-PC world.
(1) THE RACE CARD WAS PLAYED TOO MANY TIMES: Politicians and activists like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton played the race card way too many times in order to get what they wanted or to belittle their adversaries. It now appears that the race card doesn’t have the same bite as it used to. The Duke Lacrosse Rape Case was a perfect example of using the race card where it shouldn’t have been. Al and Jesse were so eager to convict the Duke Lacrosse Team on a lie that they stirred up the local African-American community and the Duke Faculty against the players. And when the truth was exposed, the agitators slipped quietly away. Even when cornered by Anderson Cooper, Jesse denied being involved in stirring up the situation. And how did playing the race card help better society? Well, it gave Jesse and Al some clout, power, and money, and some politicians benefitted. But did we get better as a society? No, we didn’t. We just got more bitter towards one another.
(2) FEMALES AND NON-WHITE MALES AT THE TOP OF THEIR RESPECTIVE CAREERS IS SEEN AS A SCORE SETTLER IN MANY EYES: Yes, we elected and re-elected Barack Obama as President of the United States. We have non-Caucasians males and females as CEOs of companies, running sports franchises, and running governments across this land. Happy, PC era? Many people now are tired of being a part of breaking glass ceilings, and now a backlash is starting to emerge. It will never go back to the Don Draper world of yesterday, but the shiny new idea of women and non-white males running our lives has lost a lot of its luster.
(3) FAILURE TO APPLY PC DOCTRINE ACROSS THE BOARD HAS PRODUCED A BACKLASH: In the Ideal PC World, everyone would be treated fairly. But some people are using the PC to mock and ridicule whites, conservatives, males, and Christians in some of the nastiest and meanest ways possible. In other words: hypocrisy or double-standards. So you can mock me, but I can’t mock you? How fair is that? It isn’t and it shouldn’t be.
(4) BELITTLING PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO LIVE A GOOD LIFE IS NOT PRODUCTIVE: When you try to make enemies of law abiders by ridiculing their lifestyles, trying to take away their guns (even if it is the right idea), mock their religious views, or just being mean to people who don’t think like you, how in the world can you get those people to listen to your passions? Making enemies of people who could help you in the long run is never a good idea. Once you burn a bridge, it’s hard to re-build it. And some people don’t have the ability to ever reconcile for burning those bridges in the first place.
Look, I know I am not a perfect person. I know there are faults in my life. I still try to live a good Christian life, and try to teach my kids to be better than I am. I tend to listen more than I speak these days (except when it comes to sports, of course, and then you have to deal with my Twitter rants). I don’t mind being wrong. I am human after all—just like you are.
But today, I want to leave you with a thought: in this modern world, you’re going to deal with people from all walks of life and you’re going to meet people who differ from what you think and believe. You have to treat everyone fairly and put aside your prejudices. And when you see mocking and ridiculing of a person who is trying to do the right thing, speak up for that person even if you don’t agree with their philosophy (I’m talking to you progressives and moderates out there more than the conservatives, by the way). You might be surprised how much support you will get when you need it the most.
If people treated each other better and tried less to mock those that they differ with, we might actually have a better world. The pessimist in me doesn’t see that happening in my lifetime, if ever. The optimist in me? I want to be proven wrong. But it’s clear that using Political Correctness to try and make this world a better place is dead—because all it did was make a few people more powerful at the expense of society as a whole. Mistrust and fear of losing what little perks in life has replaced the relationships we have and left those bridges in ruins. We need to build and maintain relationships with people again. Come on, everyone. It’s time for re-building.
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