it suits their purposes. Much like negative ads in a political campaign, appeals to politically correct thinking are proven weapons in modern history. Activist groups and news outlets have rows of scalps from public figures guilty of having made politically incorrect “comments” to remind us all of this. My scalp is among them, after being claimed by NPR. Political correctness is indiscriminate. That is perhaps the most insidious thing about it.
As noted, ABC got Bill Maher’s scalp a few years back, but he’s not done fighting for political incorrectness. He now hosts a lively, uncensored show on HBO and continues to rail against our fear of speaking out. The week after I was fired from NPR, Maher noted on his show that the most popular name for babies born in the United Kingdom last year was “Mohammed” and said he was “alarmed” because he did not want the Western world to be taken over by Islam. “Am I a racist to feel alarmed by that, because I am. And it is not because of the race, it’s because of the religion. I don’t have to apologize, do I?”
Like George Carlin and Richard Pryor before them, comedians like Maher are uniquely positioned to challenge the PC culture when it’s used by the Left and the Right to cut off debates they don’t want others to hear. Many examples of PC are ripe to be skewered with ridicule. While some of the send-ups of PC behavior are funny, it’s important to recognize that it’s really gallows humor. The substance is very serious, and the injury to people’s reputations and livelihoods can be very real. As someone who was at the center of one of thesePC media feeding frenzies, I can assure you there was nothing funny about it at the time.
At its core, political correctness relies on tribalism, an “us versus them” mentality. It is about cultivating identity groups and placing people into convenient boxes where they think and act and speak in predictable ways. In recent years, people and groups from all points on the political spectrum have used this fragmentation to their advantage. They use it to attain and expand their political power, whether it’s by generating media attention or raising money. They use it to insulate and protect their constituents so that whenever a controversy comes along, they can go to the appropriate box and produce victims who will echo their sense of outrage.
The tremendous growth of media, with cable TV and the Internet offering niche outlets to fit any specific political taste—thereby atomizing the idea of a big-tent, mainstream media where everyone can tell their story and hear the other side—and decades of greater class divisions and political polarization have brought us to this point. There is no clear incentive for anyone involved to change the tone and the nature of the conversation. Politicians who utilize PC tactics regularly win at the ballot box. Lobbyists and special-interest advocacy groups are more influential and better funded than ever before. Their favorite weapon is to charge any opposing camp with being insensitive and even offensive—in other words, politically incorrect. Television ratings and Web traffic numbers are shattering records and soaring with any report about politically insensitive statements, such as the burst of online hits after Ann Coulter labeled the 9/11 widows “witches” and “harpies” or Tucker Carlson pronounced himself a Christianwho nonetheless thought football player Michael Vick should have been “executed” for staging dogfights. This problem did not happen overnight, and it will not be fixed overnight.
The goal of these political tactics is changing America to fit one’s preferred vision—making sure one’s ideas come out on top. The genius of America is that reactionary groups rarely achieve progress. But good arguments, persistence, and appeals to conscience that challenge the majority at critical junctures—see the civil rights movement and particularly Dr. Martin
As noted, ABC got Bill Maher’s scalp a few years back, but he’s not done fighting for political incorrectness. He now hosts a lively, uncensored show on HBO and continues to rail against our fear of speaking out. The week after I was fired from NPR, Maher noted on his show that the most popular name for babies born in the United Kingdom last year was “Mohammed” and said he was “alarmed” because he did not want the Western world to be taken over by Islam. “Am I a racist to feel alarmed by that, because I am. And it is not because of the race, it’s because of the religion. I don’t have to apologize, do I?”
Like George Carlin and Richard Pryor before them, comedians like Maher are uniquely positioned to challenge the PC culture when it’s used by the Left and the Right to cut off debates they don’t want others to hear. Many examples of PC are ripe to be skewered with ridicule. While some of the send-ups of PC behavior are funny, it’s important to recognize that it’s really gallows humor. The substance is very serious, and the injury to people’s reputations and livelihoods can be very real. As someone who was at the center of one of thesePC media feeding frenzies, I can assure you there was nothing funny about it at the time.
At its core, political correctness relies on tribalism, an “us versus them” mentality. It is about cultivating identity groups and placing people into convenient boxes where they think and act and speak in predictable ways. In recent years, people and groups from all points on the political spectrum have used this fragmentation to their advantage. They use it to attain and expand their political power, whether it’s by generating media attention or raising money. They use it to insulate and protect their constituents so that whenever a controversy comes along, they can go to the appropriate box and produce victims who will echo their sense of outrage.
The tremendous growth of media, with cable TV and the Internet offering niche outlets to fit any specific political taste—thereby atomizing the idea of a big-tent, mainstream media where everyone can tell their story and hear the other side—and decades of greater class divisions and political polarization have brought us to this point. There is no clear incentive for anyone involved to change the tone and the nature of the conversation. Politicians who utilize PC tactics regularly win at the ballot box. Lobbyists and special-interest advocacy groups are more influential and better funded than ever before. Their favorite weapon is to charge any opposing camp with being insensitive and even offensive—in other words, politically incorrect. Television ratings and Web traffic numbers are shattering records and soaring with any report about politically insensitive statements, such as the burst of online hits after Ann Coulter labeled the 9/11 widows “witches” and “harpies” or Tucker Carlson pronounced himself a Christianwho nonetheless thought football player Michael Vick should have been “executed” for staging dogfights. This problem did not happen overnight, and it will not be fixed overnight.
The goal of these political tactics is changing America to fit one’s preferred vision—making sure one’s ideas come out on top. The genius of America is that reactionary groups rarely achieve progress. But good arguments, persistence, and appeals to conscience that challenge the majority at critical junctures—see the civil rights movement and particularly Dr. Martin
Similar Books
