Written by Frank Li
For my business as well as for fun, I publish twice a week:
Tuesday funny: It is often a tasteful joke contributed by a reader, typically a scale man somewhere in America. This is no longer much work for me: just selecting one from the numerous submissions and emailing it out.
Thursday serious: It’s my weekly publication at Global Economic Intersection. I make special efforts to write well on various subjects, from business to politics.
Occasionally, the Tuesday funny is also a platform for me to collect some ideas, which, on a day in September 2012, was political correctness.
1. The joke
Here is my joke back on a day in September 2012:
Old Chinese proverb: “give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”
New American proverb: “give a man a welfare check, a cell phone, cash for his clunker, food stamps, section 8 housing, Medicaid, 100 weeks of unemployment checks, a 40-ounce malt liquor, needles, drugs, contraceptives, and designer Air Jordan sneakers, he will vote for Democrats for a lifetime.”
2. The responses
Here are the three responses I received that day:
“This would be funnier if it wasn’t true!”
“Sounds like a winning strategy to me, unfortunately.”
“I’m surprised that a guy with your intelligence would pass along such inane and racist statements.”
Why so different in responses to the same joke? Here is my response:
It’s true, although it may not be funny to some!
Racist? No! Politically incorrect? Yes!
What, then, is political correctness?
3. Definition: political correctness
According to Wikipedia,
Political correctness (adjectivally, politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts, and, as purported by the term, doing so to an excessive extent. In current usage, the term is primarily pejorative,[1][2] while the term politically incorrect has been used as an implicitly positive self-description. Examples of the latter include the conservative The Politically Incorrect Guide published by Regnery Publishing and the television talk show Politically Incorrect. In these cases, the term politically incorrect connotes language, ideas, and behavior unconstrained by a perceived orthodoxy or by concerns about offending or expressing bias regarding various groups of people.
4. Discussion
In a previous post (Solution II for America: Term-Limits and More!), I stated: “democracy is a luxury we, as a country, can no longer afford“. In other words, democracy must be changed, at least, to have a chance to survive.
One of the first areas of change is political correctness, or PC. Here is why:
PC emboldens falsehoods, from the very top (American Democracy: Massive Falsehoods at The Top!) to the bottom (Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio to Appeal Judge’s Finding His Department Engaged in Racing Profiling).
PC has cost us dearly. For example, profiling is a common scheme used in CSI and at Israeli airports, but we pretend it’s not necessary and we don’t allow it in our airport screening, resulting in massive inconvenience to tens of thousands of people on daily basis! As a matter of fact, every time I am at the airport, I can’t help but think Osama Bin Laden might have actually won the terror war against America …
PC may have cost me a bit too … Here is my book: Saving America, Chinese Style. It’s politically incorrectly titled!
Need some proof? Here is a conversation I had with a friend recently:
Frank: I just published a book.
Friend: Good! What’s the title?
Frank: Saving America, Chinese Style.
Friend: I like the first part, but not the second.
Frank: Will you read it?
Friend: No!
Frank: Why not?
Friend: You want to make us like China?
Now, add your own examples and thoughts on political correctness …
5. Closing
We have gone way too far on political correctness! Change back and have some more commonsense!
Here is a must-watch video: Dr. Benjamin Carson’s Amazing Speech at the National Prayer Breakfast with Obama Present.
