POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
Hello there.
I know exactly what you're thinking;
"Who better to talk about this subject, than me?"
One of the most
politically incorrect people you will probably meet.
I am also willingly and knowingly politically incorrect for a reason,
which you'll find out about later.
But what is political incorrectness?
Political incorrectness is language, actions or policies
that are intended or designed
specifically to offend or disadvantaged a particular group of people in society.
Political correctness on the other hand,
is language actions and policies intended and designed
to not offend
or disadvantage any particular group of people in society.
We've seen it in politics,
candidates endlessly dancing around the truth of how they really feel
and what they really think so that they can get the vote.
But are we so much different than corrupt politicians?
Not when we're concerned with people seeing us in a certain light.
Not when our main focus
is to express ourselves in a way
that we are going to be completely received by somebody and accepted.
We cannot discuss political correctness
without also discussing stereotypes and prejudices.
After all, a person who's politically correct or PC,
is someone who seeks to set right the injustices done in the past
by prejudice and stereotyping.
Specifically by changing or avoiding language
that may offend those people.
Reality check moment:
We are all prejudiced.
We all have stereotypes,
whether or not we censor those stereotypes
or cover that up or admit to them or not.
Here's an example:
You're stereotyping when you say:
"Black people are good dancers."
It just so happens that this doesn't offend most black people,
so it isn't politically incorrect to say it.
You're also stereotyping when you say:
"White people can't dance."
It just so happens
that even if it does offend white people to say it,
isn't politically incorrect to do so,
because whites are still expected to pay for the offenses of slavery.
Now, if you said anything negative about black people, such as:
"Black people can't swim."
That would be politically incorrect
because it's a social expectation
that we redress the social injustice of slavery
by never saying anything to offend black people.
In today's world,
speaking can be a little bit like walking on broken glass.
And of course,
what is politically correct vs. incorrect,
is highly dependent on the opinion
of the social group that you grew up in.
And you can bet
that those social groups don't always agree.
The more importance social groups place
on appropriateness and social standards,
the more dedicated they are to political correctness.
But in case you haven't noticed,
it is damn near impossible to express how you genuinely feel,
without offending someone.
Look, the desire and intention
to speak in a way that doesn't hurt other people,
that's a noble enough cause.
I even did a video on it myself.
If you want to, you can go take a look at it
It's called:
Authenticity vs. Just Being an Asshole
But let's be honest,
a genuine bigot is not going to be wasting their time
watching a video on YouTube about political correctness.
So this particular video, is not designed for them.
This video
is not about the people
who don't really care about offending people and thus looking bad,
this video is for the rest of you.
Those of you who can't stand the idea
of saying what you really think and feel in case it offends someone,
and you come out looking like a bad guy.
So what is the problem with political correctness?
Well, to start with,
you're not doing it to decrease suffering.
You're not being honest.
What you're doing is being careful.
Careful to look good.
Being politically correct does nothing to address the real issues
that political correctness is supposed to redress.
It allows everyone to be covertly prejudiced and covertly stereotyped,
while condemning everyone else who does.
I'm about to offend a bunch of people with what I'm about to say right now;
Stereotypes,
they wouldn't exist in the first place,
if there wasn't something backing them up.
We can either become offended that the stereotype exists
and demand to be dis included from it,
or we can live our lives out of accordance with the stereotype,
and simply allow people's stereotyping to be disproven.
For example: "I'm a spiritual person",
Did you know that it's a stereotype that spiritual people are irresponsible?
That may be offensive,
I may feel like I don't fit the stereotype,
but do you want to know the reality check?
I know a lot of spiritual people who are damn irresponsible.
So I can either get upset at the stereotype
and demand it isn't true, based on me.
Or a demand to be dis included from it,
or continue to live in a responsible way
and allow people to form a different opinion about spiritual people,
based on me.
Political correctness has fueled taboo.
It has made certain subjects completely "off-limits".
That's a major problem.
Off-limits subjects,
wooo... you know what happens when stuff gets driven underground,
it just starts to fester.
So we're not allowed to express the sometimes painful and unsavory truths
that are hidden deep within our being.
Obviously,
if we can't expose these truths
directly enough to get anywhere with our communication
or solve problems relating to those truths,
we can't get anywhere within society in general.
It has made it so we can't get comfortable with each other.
We're always in performance mode,
manipulating people's opinions of us, while hiding our genuine selves.
It is critical that we understand
that we cannot have any meaningful conversation or discussion,
if we can't talk about taboo subjects,
or if we can't reveal our true thoughts
and feelings relative to any subject.
We are fueling negative diversity and separation
by prohibiting open communication
in this way.
When we are so careful about certain groups of people,
we acknowledge and treat them as a separate group.
Also, we are fueling shame.
If we think or feeling a certain way,
that we have been taught is unacceptable
to think and feel,
we begin to condemn ourselves.
The fact that we shouldn't think or feel that certain way,
does not change anything.
It doesn't change the fact that we feel that way,
so we're convinced something's wrong with us or bad about us.
You want a harsh truth?
The harsh truth is:
"There are many harsh truths
that we don't want to face."
It doesn't feel good to look at them, it may offend us to look at them,
but unless we do,
we're literally up the creek without a paddle.
There's a lot of deep truths that will offend people and piss them off.
There's a lot of deep truths within you
that may not cast you in the greatest light.
But it is important for the sake of authenticity
to expose those truths so they can be meaningfully addressed.
It is absolutely critical,
that you say what you mean and that you mean what you say.
As a spiritual teacher,
I am really really feeling frustrated about the fact
that I run into so many people
on this earth
who would rather hear a direct lie,
than somebody say something that is politically incorrect.
If we constantly censor ourselves
relative to anything that might be controversial or offensive or taboo,
we will end up in a prison of restricted expression
and self-righteous moral indignation.
Do you know how many of us are content
to have an elephant in the room?
Not just one elephant in the room,
a whole damn herd of them.
Now, I'm gonna tell you that part of your spiritual practice
is to expose these elephants.
Look, if we can't talk about taboo subjects,
if we can't talk about our prejudices and stereotyping,
if we can't talk about the differences that puzzle us
in the things we're genuinely curious about,
without fear of giving offence,
how can we ever come up with actual solutions to problems?
How can we overcome our internal pain
or even our ignorance about one another?
I'm calling for an end to this restrictive gag order
that has been placed over mankind.
I'm challenging you to be open about your prejudices,
open about your stereotyping,
open about the unsavory truths you're scared of revealing.
I'm challenging you to be authentic.
Now,
you can look at political candidates
and think you're a lot different than them.
The reality is,
we're doing the same damn thing they do every day
just with our particular social group.
They may be trying to win over an entire country,
you may be trying to win over a room.
The entire point is,
you probably got voted into office
based on something you aren't.
Wouldn't you rather be voted into office,
based on something that you are?
If you get voted into any social group
by not meaning what you say and saying what you don't mean,
you didn't win the vote anyway.
Your carefully crafted socially acceptable facade did.
Here's an exercise:
Next time you feel yourself
trying to carefully craft the things you say,
specifically so they'll be received in a way
where no one's offended so you can maintain
looking good,
I want you to uncork the bottle,
and just say whatever it is you mean,
in a raw unfiltered way.
Be is brave enough to verbalize truth as you see it,
as you are brave enough to see a different truth
or to have that truth proven wrong.
Tiptoe talk is hollow, it lacks substance
because there is none of you in it.
It's like frosting with no cake underneath.
And you're never gonna be able to be careful enough
to avoid offending everyone.
Besides, wouldn't you rather
be able to directly converse about something you actually think or feel,
even if it is offensive, rather than pretend
you don't think you feel that way?
Wouldn't you rather vote or not vote for a political candidate,
based on the solid foundation of how they truly felt or thought?
I urge you as part of your spiritual practice,
to care more about your raw unfiltered truth,
about your authenticity,
then you care about looking good.
I challenge you to expose the elephant in the room.
I challenge you to say things
even if they're going to offend people.
Not for the sake of hurting them,
but for the sake of actually getting to the core of how you really think and feel.
I urge you to expose the taboo.
Openly converse about everything even if the subject is sensitive.
Only then, will you see any genuine and lasting positive change.
Only then can we come together, instead of fuel our differences.
To sum it all up,
what I urge you to do,
is to take your political correctness
and set it on fire.
See what it feels like to be free.
Have a good week.
Subtitles by: Tanya Duarte www.tanyaduarte.com