The Presidential campaign is heating up and it seems like politics and politicians have reached a new low. I’m not sure how much being “politically correct” means anymore — at least not with politicians. But I was thinking about how things I used to say and hear all my life have recently become politically incorrect and now everyone (except the politicians) has to be very careful not to offend anyone.
Blind people are now visually challenged, deaf people are aurally challenged, ugly people are aesthetically challenged, fat or heavy-set people are now people of mass. Psychopaths are socially misaligned, crooks are ethically challenged, short people are statured differently.
Minority groups are numerically challenged groups, females are persons of gender and I’m pretty sure a drooling drunk idiot would be referred to as a person on the floor. Janitors go by sanitation engineers, dish washers are utensil sanitizers, farming is exploiting mother earth and a paper bag is a processed tree carcass.
And of course even the politically correct are only politically correct for a period of time….
Deaf became hearing impaired before becoming aurally challenged and blind was sight impaired prior to being visually challenged. Retarded is not acceptable at all, while mentally handicapped has been replaced with mentally challenged. Fat isn’t acceptable — big boned was ok for a while, but the correct terminology is now alternative body image.
So — has our politically correct culture gone too far? It is never proper to use any language when talking to, or about, another human being that would purposely hurt or offend them. However, if these changes in terminology are meant to censor the person’s right to free speech, that censorship undermines American values. I’m not saying it’s happened, but political correctness has gone too far when people become afraid to speak the truth or their own minds for fear of becoming labeled a racist or sexist or upsetting some individual or group. Like any “movement,” political correctness needs to be exercised with a bit of common sense….
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