Objecting to PC Narratives

Disarming the Left
ROC Op/Ed

Terms Meant to Mold the Public's Opinions

Norman Thomas, the six time Socialist Party candidate for the US President said in 1944:
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened...I no longer need to run as the Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democrat Party has adopted our platform."

What's in a name?

A large segment of the population very likely understands that there is something all wrong with what passes as acceptable these days, as well as what does not.  If it seems surreal to many of us to have our government sue a state for enforcing federal immigration laws, or for officials to combat racial or sexual discrimination by actually discriminating against certain other classifications of people, or for them to bend over backwards to pretend that the terrorists would not be doing what they do if it wasn't our own fault somehow.

Why is Christmas now called "winter holiday" by so many retailers and most government agencies?

The people pushing their views of what "ought to be" never cease trying to manipulate the perceptions of the public.  They want the public to believe that it is government's obligation to take control and the responsibility for whatever the individual might struggle with.

We witness the deployment of "political correctness" now in every important issue. Recognizing its use as a weapon against personal liberty is necessary if we hope to retain freedom in the long term. Controlling the social language is very important for those using political correctness to achieve their agendas.
For decades there has been a slow but steady process of eroding Americans personal freedoms by the ruling class taking power from us because they believe they should have more control, and that we should have less.

Many of the social changes they have managed to implement would never have garnered enough public support had they attempted to impose them quickly.  Those who believe that they can change the public perception of their ideas about the way things should be run have been very shrewd in how they accomplish this.  They do it slowly, in very small steps, much in the way a ratchet works.
This is how we came to have the massive entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, and how we ended up with income tax withholding. Eventually a series of small changes are accepted by the populous as "just the way things are now."  An informative read on how they do this by raising transition costs is found in Charlotte A Twight's Dependence on DC: The Rise of Federal Control Over the Lives of Ordinary Americans. Her excellent book also talks about their use of language manipulation.

Political correctness, or PC, has now evolved into a major strategic weapon seemingly with a life of its own for this ongoing process for getting the citizens to accept incremental changes that are alien to us, that are often not even constitutional, but believed to be by many people due to the influence our media and other social information outlets.

Like a massive accumulator of pressure, this tends to constantly push people toward an "acceptable belief system." So now, in America today, what is said, or even what is thought, is subjected to this pressure.

One aspect of this are the terms used by policy makers for public consumption. New phrases and terms have cropped up, seemingly out of nowhere, and have been repeated until they become popularly understood and used by most of us. But these are not mere accidental terms, these terms are out there for our consumption by design.  This "framing" is even tested for effectiveness in changing peoples minds and attitudes on certain subjects. The left conducts workshops to teach others how to change the public conversation on social issues. The Marxists and progressives in particular, pride themselves in deceiving us with their invented terms. These "word plays" are an essential element for those using political correctness to help secure their agendas.

Oh! what a tangled web we weave

When first we practise to deceive!
Sir Walter Scott

Our young people are being indoctrinated early and often through the public education system with these terminology twisting methods. The ultimate goal is to convince the young to accept the state's position, and discourage independent thought. Unfortunately the elitist of both parties have participated in this deception to achieve their own goals.

 A term like "crony capitalism" for example has come to be used by even conservatives as part of our everyday vernacular.  Crony capitalism is understood to be a negative and to connote that it is primarily business that is prone to cheating, not government.  All corporations are demonized as potential and or actual participants with this term. "Capitalism" was most likely included in this term purposely by its inventors, though it has nothing to do with real capitalism.

Capitalism is free trade, and fair competition, but this term gives it a "guilt by association" connotation. The practice of cronyism is by definition unfair, is enabled by, and promoted by elitists in our government, and usually with a false "cover" presented to the public for justification.
We who believe in capitalism should really stop feeding their PC beast and using their term. Read this excellent blog piece - Cronyism Knows No Boundaries. The author does an excellent job making the case we are counterproductive and enabling when we are repeating these terms.
Our president practices cronyism as a statist while he notoriously lectures about "special interests" in public.  Behind the scenes he constantly invites these "special interests" to come make a deal with him! The arm twisting and sweetheart deals with health care and insurance industries for his Obamacare socialism is a case in point. We mere citizens are supposed to believe he is "Mr. Protector", and those who practice cronyism are greedy capitalists, not him. The public's perception is being manipulated.

This is reality today in America.  To paraphrase from Twight about the quest for "government money" -
Businesses, schools, non-profits all shamelessly scramble for their share of the government largess in grants, subsidies, subsidized loans, and market restrictions.

The misnomer term "hate crimes" is another such example of terminology by political design. It has resulted in actual law that makes it an additional crime for only certain classes of people (non-minorities) to even think about other classes of people (any minority) as they see fit.  Unless their thinking conforms to the PC view,  it allows for "discrimination by governments" to impose unequal justice on those it deems out of conformance, based on what they judge to be the thinking of the person in question. "Thinking crimes" or "attitude crimes" are more apt descriptions.

This is but one example of the dangerous entity that political correctness has become. Exacting legal deterrence via real punishment for non conformance to "official thinking" is every power mongers dream.
The left has also used political correctness as a shield to prevent counter attacks against them.  They hide behind it, and use their positions and allies to quickly condemn or discredit those who question their social edicts upon the people as small, petty, inferior, unintelligent, racists, or selfish.  They mass their "talking head" forces to attack and suppress quickly if a slight crack forms in their PC armor. The illusion that they are on the side of what is socially acceptable must be maintained.

When confronted with the mass numbers of the tea party movement these tactics were exposed, and nearly worthless because the numbers of targets were far too great to discredit everyone. This was a "wake-up call" however, as they still tried it.

With the media, the entertainment sectors, and academia,  helping the left nurture their politically correct view of the world, and the shared agenda of control over the people, seems to be their highest priority.  Conservatives and others fighting to preserve our free society really need to counter this harmful, opinion shaping weapon lest we lose lose our freedom to make up our own minds.  Becoming more aware of the methods being used to substitute our consent for their minority opinion is an important step to maintaining a moral and responsible society.

How does the the average citizen fight against such a pervasive entity?  This is a problem, because most people realize that their individual activism is no match against this formidable force. Yet our actions as individuals working together are what will stop it.

Recognition of the ways and means PC is being deployed against us may be the first part of that defense process. This is the left's weapon of choice. We cannot underestimate its power to destroy who we are. Therefore we need to stop unwittingly participating in their political correctness, and raise our awareness of the seemingly innocuous terminology and what they are trying to accomplish with its use.

We also must object, loudly and often.

There is a legal term: Acquiescence, which means acceptance or agreement by keeping quiet or by not making objections.  Those who wish to increase state power (with the corresponding decline in our social power) rely on a lack of visible public objection to their plans.  Pelosi/Reid/Obama's lust to quickly increase their power was a very big mistake. Trying to enact major social changes too fast, exposed them.  Our collective objection, the tea party movement, was the result.

"Political correctness" is much like a bad sci-fi creation like in the movie "The Blob."  It is hard to think of an analogy that fits PC better. It is meant to advance, assimilate us, and grow in order to smother our free thought, and our individuality. It relies on our passivity to advance and to homogenize us into an unthinking mass with no common sense nor will of our own.  This entity was created by a few, trying to mold the opinions of the many. Enough people knowing its nature and refusing to participate in the grand charade by standing for and expressing our own beliefs, is what ultimately will starve it.