Thoughts on Free Speech

Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred.

Political correctness is the enemy of freedom of speech. What began as a crusade for civility has ended in a situation where one is never quite sure of the politically correct buzzword of the moment. I've found in my brief life that politically correctness seems to hover most closely around pressure groups and political organizing. There are demands and counter-demands by the politically sensitive that have devolved into a situation where almost everyone (irrespective of what their orientation is in the politically correct world) is a racist, a bigot, experiences some degree of Islamophobia, is a sexist, uninformed (stupid) and so forth.

The US Military exists to kill people and break things when Congress or the President (sometimes both) decide that it's time to do that. It's not a tool for social engineering. Don't ask, don't tell (DADT) is poised to make sexual preference an entitlement and "protected class" of people, the same as race, religion, physical disability, etc. Arguments over politically correct language in this regard devolved and soured into arguments over what is “offensive” and, even worse, censorship. 

I discussed World War 2 with my daughters recently and mentioned America's enemy, the Empire of Japan. In discussing a tactical move made by that enemy, I called them, "the Japs". My daughters collectively sucked in their breath and informed me that calling Japanese people "Japs" reached a new low in political insensitivity. I never knew that. Nobody ever told me. I'm glad they never told my father, who was wounded in combat at Okinawa when a kamikazi aircraft, piloted by a "Japanese pilot" (my dad would have said, "a Jap") crashed into the USS Hazelwood and all but sank it.

At times I use insensitive language toward America's enemies - in that I don't take their feelings into account when I discuss them. If they were present, they'd likely try to kill me not because I called them names they didn't like - they'd try to kill me because of my nationality. And this is my point. Political correctness always seems to go in ONE direction and never in both directions. It doesn't create a situation that changes anything - and usually mocks tolerance.