About a month or so ago, I took apart the fundamental aspects of all leftist thought, whereby leftist is defined as anything rooted in Marx-based thought. I added a specific note wherein I specifically exempted the American left from my critique because if I hadn't, my attack would've had no validity. However, I will not exempt myself from such attacks on various aspects of the American left today (note that this argument still applies to non-American leftists). On the contrary, I will be discussing the importance of free speech, a free press, and how political correctness is not only retarded and erroneous, but how it also compromises censorship.
I'll start off by discussing political correctness. The idea of political correctness is the basic idea that certain things shouldn't be said because those aforementioned things can be perceived to hurt a certain group or people who may fell marginalized or socially disadvantaged in a certain way. Simply put: political correctness is the idea that nothing should be said or written if it makes someone, or some group of people, feel bad in whatever way anyone may deem it so. In other words, political correctness is inherently stupid. Why is political correctness inherently stupid?
There's lots of reasons why, but the first basic reason it's stupid is because if you actually care about how someone, somewhere said something that made you feel bad, you need a reality check. The idea that there should be strong negative consequences, and even bans, because someone disagrees with you and has done no action to harm anyone else while claiming you "feel bad", imagine the kind of actions we're allowing because someone "feels bad".
Another reason why political correctness is retarded is because we don't have free speech to make people "feel good" (or some variation that usually amounts to the same thing). We have free speech because healthy debate is necessary for sound decision making. The basic point of free speech isn't to make people feel good that they can say certain things. One of the most important reasons for free speech is to allow for the dissemination of information. When taking most decisions in anything half-way complex, we don't actually know what will happen or what all of the possibilities are. We have free speech as a way for people to get access to different sources of information from different points of view. It's virtually inevitable that some of those views or sources of information will piss someone off somewhere, even if the point of view or source of information is robust. Do we ban such behavior simply because someone "feels bad" (or some equivalent)? If we do, then we're not only jeopardizing a particular action being taken by a certain individual, but we're interfering with the entire decision making process by preventing necessary debate. Unless you think that someone can be right all the time about everything (only a sucker would think this way), political correctness cannot end well.
Secondly, we have free speech and a free press to prevent certain people from ruling with a firm hand. We have free speech and a free press to place checks on those in authority and on rulers in general. Using the argument that someone may "feel bad" or that someone may be "marginalized" or some other equivalent nonsense allows figures in authority to stomp out anything simply because they don't like it while claiming someone somewhere "feels bad" because someone said or wrote something they didn't like. In other words, political correctness distorts incentive structures.
Thirdly, political correctness relies on the basic ideas that a certain opinion or view that marginalizes a certain person or group of people leads to a certain action so that opinion or view must be ruthlessly crushed. In other words, it's just another way of saying that opinions of a certain kind lead to a certain action so anything that comes close to showing that opinion must be crushed because of various actions that result.
In other words, political correctness presupposes that:
1. We know what's correct beforehand and we know what the correct decisions are before we make them
2. Opinions are never changing
3. Opinions lead to actions
4. Thus, preventing certain actions means preventing certain opinions from being voiced
Of course, opinions are changing and one of the key aspects of free speech is that dissenting opinions or views must necessarily be tolerated because we don't know what's gonna happen or what's actually correct. Similarly, a free press and free speech is necessary for a sound decision-making process. Anyone who always thinks we have 100% accurate information all the time and that opinions are always constant is necessarily an idiot.
We actually know very little and our information or our process for converting information into knowledge is always muddled. In other words, our opinions must necessarily be constantly changing for them to be correct at some point because of our lack of knowledge. Unless we want to limit our knowledge, political correctness isn't a good option.
Also, opinions don't usually lead to certain actions because our opinions themselves are changing. We don't take actions based on opinions if we think our opinions could be wrong. However, there are many cases where people do one thing while saying the exact opposite or having a different "opinion". In other words, not only does hypocrisy exist among human beings, but the idea of opinions leading to actions is inherently wrong. PEOPLE SHOULD BE JUDGED ON ACTIONS!!!
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS CENSORSHIP!!!!!!
I'll start off by discussing political correctness. The idea of political correctness is the basic idea that certain things shouldn't be said because those aforementioned things can be perceived to hurt a certain group or people who may fell marginalized or socially disadvantaged in a certain way. Simply put: political correctness is the idea that nothing should be said or written if it makes someone, or some group of people, feel bad in whatever way anyone may deem it so. In other words, political correctness is inherently stupid. Why is political correctness inherently stupid?
There's lots of reasons why, but the first basic reason it's stupid is because if you actually care about how someone, somewhere said something that made you feel bad, you need a reality check. The idea that there should be strong negative consequences, and even bans, because someone disagrees with you and has done no action to harm anyone else while claiming you "feel bad", imagine the kind of actions we're allowing because someone "feels bad".
Another reason why political correctness is retarded is because we don't have free speech to make people "feel good" (or some variation that usually amounts to the same thing). We have free speech because healthy debate is necessary for sound decision making. The basic point of free speech isn't to make people feel good that they can say certain things. One of the most important reasons for free speech is to allow for the dissemination of information. When taking most decisions in anything half-way complex, we don't actually know what will happen or what all of the possibilities are. We have free speech as a way for people to get access to different sources of information from different points of view. It's virtually inevitable that some of those views or sources of information will piss someone off somewhere, even if the point of view or source of information is robust. Do we ban such behavior simply because someone "feels bad" (or some equivalent)? If we do, then we're not only jeopardizing a particular action being taken by a certain individual, but we're interfering with the entire decision making process by preventing necessary debate. Unless you think that someone can be right all the time about everything (only a sucker would think this way), political correctness cannot end well.
Secondly, we have free speech and a free press to prevent certain people from ruling with a firm hand. We have free speech and a free press to place checks on those in authority and on rulers in general. Using the argument that someone may "feel bad" or that someone may be "marginalized" or some other equivalent nonsense allows figures in authority to stomp out anything simply because they don't like it while claiming someone somewhere "feels bad" because someone said or wrote something they didn't like. In other words, political correctness distorts incentive structures.
Thirdly, political correctness relies on the basic ideas that a certain opinion or view that marginalizes a certain person or group of people leads to a certain action so that opinion or view must be ruthlessly crushed. In other words, it's just another way of saying that opinions of a certain kind lead to a certain action so anything that comes close to showing that opinion must be crushed because of various actions that result.
In other words, political correctness presupposes that:
1. We know what's correct beforehand and we know what the correct decisions are before we make them
2. Opinions are never changing
3. Opinions lead to actions
4. Thus, preventing certain actions means preventing certain opinions from being voiced
Of course, opinions are changing and one of the key aspects of free speech is that dissenting opinions or views must necessarily be tolerated because we don't know what's gonna happen or what's actually correct. Similarly, a free press and free speech is necessary for a sound decision-making process. Anyone who always thinks we have 100% accurate information all the time and that opinions are always constant is necessarily an idiot.
We actually know very little and our information or our process for converting information into knowledge is always muddled. In other words, our opinions must necessarily be constantly changing for them to be correct at some point because of our lack of knowledge. Unless we want to limit our knowledge, political correctness isn't a good option.
Also, opinions don't usually lead to certain actions because our opinions themselves are changing. We don't take actions based on opinions if we think our opinions could be wrong. However, there are many cases where people do one thing while saying the exact opposite or having a different "opinion". In other words, not only does hypocrisy exist among human beings, but the idea of opinions leading to actions is inherently wrong. PEOPLE SHOULD BE JUDGED ON ACTIONS!!!
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS CENSORSHIP!!!!!!