severoon's Journal: Political Discussion in America

Well, I've decided that political discussion is dead in America. And you know what killed it? Political correctness.

It's not that much of a leap, is it? Political correctness has had a chilling effect on intellectual debate and discourse in this country. At some point in the 90s, it became "incorrect" to say certain things or hold certain opinions. I remember hearing the two letters "PC" for the first time in my Junior year English course in high school, and it rubbed me the wrong way almost immediately. I'm only now beginning to crystallize why I felt such a twist in my gut...it squelched discussion of certain topics and placed high barriers to discussion of nearly all topics for fear of invoking the out-of-favor phrase du jour, marking oneself as an unenlightened ignoramus.

The other day I read that Americans are less engaged in discussing politics than ever before. Is it any wonder, when a simple verbal misstep has the ability to cast one as a racist, sexist, homophobe, etc? Already controversial topics went off-limits altogether over the last ten years or so, and the effect has been a slowdown in the free flow of ideas. The two sides have drifted farther apart, and the nation gets more divided. The sensible majority begins to feel more and more abandoned as the centers of the two major political parties drift ever further to the extremes.

And we're left in our present state, where one must express one's views about controversial issues with such caution it is often easier and safer to simply not say anything. The left is largely the perpetrators of this blight on our ability to communicate, and they have suffered the most damage because of it. How? Because critical analysis isn't required of one's opponent...it's enough to simply parse the person's language to form snap judgments about the quality of their ideas. (This kind of language fascism from the people who brought us the idea of "ebonics" at the height of the PC craze...oh, the irony.) Political correctness elevated knee-jerk reacting to the same level as critical thought in many ways. This, of course, means that over time, the knee-jerks will lose the debate.

And, oh, how they have lost. The White House is full of neo-cons, the Democratic Party is in disarray, and the far left are absolutely irate that news analysts like Bill O'Reilly have an audience. But it is you, far left person, that allowed all of this to happen, when you gave up convincing through rational argument and distanced yourself from the mainstream. And it is you who deserve to writhe in pain as you're forced to witness the reintroduction of thought derail your efforts to hijack the conversation.