- Is PC culture destroying freedom of speech?
Nope!
From YouTube comments to presidential candidates,
it seems a lot of people think
freedom of speech is "under attack"
and who might I ask is to blame?
The god (bleep) PC culture!
If you've ever called out
racism, sexism, ableism,
or any other oppressive -ism,
you've probably been accused of being
"too PC".
PC is, of course, short for politically correct.
Political correctness is avoiding words or behaviors
that exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people
who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.
Basically, treating people with respect.
Now if you ask me,
that doesn't sound like a bad thing.
But a recent poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University,
found that 68% of Americans
and 81% of Republicans
agreed that a big problem this country has
is being politically correct.
Even 62% of Democrats polled,
agreed that being PC was getting out of hand.
For these folks,
political correctness is synonymous with weakness,
or being overly sensitive.
Similar to the new term,
"social justice warrior",
calling someone PC is a way to derail
and dismiss conversations about inequality.
Okay, PC police!
You're just offended by everything.
The term PC is almost always used as an insult.
While it's been around for a while,
it gained popularity in the 80's
when it caught on with conservatives,
not liberals.
So why is being "PC" used as an insult?
And what, if anything, does it have to do with free speech?
Here's the thing,
it's not just about hurt feelings,
it's about calling out oppressive power structures
and that's where the misunderstanding comes in.
What's perceived as being "too sensitive"
is usually someone speaking out against
lazy, offensive language
that doesn't usually get challenged.
That's because the group of people
that those words hurt,
historically, haven't had the opportunities
to have their voices heard.
And the people who call that being too "PC"
are often in privileged positions and don't want to,
or haven't had to think about what they're saying,
or the consequences that come with it.
"You can't take away my freedom of speech
just because you're offended!"
Well, yeah.
In America, freedom of speech simply means
the government can't prohibit you
from expressing yourself.
It's why you can criticize Obama
without being thrown in jail.
But on the interpersonal level,
freedom of speech does not mean
freedom from consequences.
Technically, no subject on Earth is off limits.
You can say whatever you want.
But in turn, people are allowed to respond
however they want.
The fact that you can comment
means you're not being censored.
If you tell a crappy, sexist joke,
and someone says,
"hey, that was a crappy, sexist joke!",
that's freedom of speech.
And if you post some racist bull (bleep) on Facebook
and your boss decides she doesn't wanna employ
people who spew racist bull (bleep) on Facebook.
You still have freedom of speech
and you're free to take that racist
bull (bleep) somewhere else.
America.
PC culture, treating others with respect,
social justice warriors, whatever you call it,
isn't prohibiting anyone's freedom of speech.
It's mainly about people standing up for themselves
and asking to be spoken to and spoken about
in a respectful way.
In fact, political correctness is expanding free speech.
We're adding words to the dictionary every year.
In an effort to promote
more inclusive and respectful speech.
Last year alone,
the OED added
microaggressions, mansplain,
and a whole host of gender terms,
like cisgender, agender, and genderfluid
to the dictionary.
That seems like giving more speech to more people.
Not less.
So if you've ever been accused of being too "PC"
or maybe you've been thrown in jail for saying the "N" word.
How do you still have internet access?
Tell us about it in the comments below
and we'll see you next week
right here on Decoded.
In our last vlog,
we asked,
"why does 'privileged' make people so angry?"
Here's what you had to say.
You're right, TheDorkyDorcas.
Most of those dorks didn't watch the video
and if it wasn't copyright infringement,
I would start singing
"The Story of my Life" right now.
Ugh, I'm sorry, Peter.
You liked it?
So he put a ring on it.
Aleksandra, this is a great comment.
It's so awesome that you understand "privileged"
and I wanna make sure everyone reads it
so I'm gonna sit here and celebrate
while you read the comment.
(whispers) Yes, yes, yes!
In our last sketch,
we talked about why you can't sound white.
Here's what you had to say.
Key Vlogs, I'm so sorry to hear that that's happened to you.
It seems like reading from the comments,
this is an experience lots of people had.
Hopefully this video shed some light
in the conversation so this insult can stop.
April, that is terrible,
and for everyone else,
it's also an example of
institutional racism.
You know what, J Corbett, you are petty as hell
and so is your mama
but I like you for it.