Inconvenient Truths and the Word Police

    Originally Posted: February 6, 2010

 I got to thinking the other day about how political correctness has gone to extremes to pit different segments of society against one another. Mainly, what’s happened is that a system has been set up where two equal parties are split into two categories; victims and offenders. In some cases a person may be offended because someone has truly said something offensive, with the intent to injure; that’s true victimization. But what’s been happening more often lately is the “Injury by default” mentality, where a person gets upset and offended by something; simply because they can. Being injured by cause, and being injured out of convenience are completely different scenarios entirely.

     Now lets run this out to it’s logical conclusion. Let’s say I’m a pharmaceutical manufacturer and I’ve developed the cure for something incurable; lets pick AIDS. Now I’ve painstakingly poured hours, months and years into developing  just the right combination of ingredients and chemicals, put my knowledge to work for the betterment of man, and put on the market a pill that will cure AIDS. Great! Everybody wants it, I’ve priced it at a rate that’s affordable to most, make it available to doctors and patients, and all is looking up. All of the media outlets are clamoring to have me on the air to praise my efforts, and world leaders invite me to come speak at various gatherings. Fantastic.

     But there’s a problem. I’m getting hate mail and protesters are outside my door; because of the name I chose for the drug. I had initially landed on three possible choices for the name (Fagocil, Homicin, and Queerox); I chose Fagocil, and now I’m being protested by irate homosexual men, congress is being lobbied by NAMBLA, and the ACLU is threatening a lawsuit if I don’t change the name. What was once fawning media in the beginning has now turned into vitriolic OpEd pieces, crucifying me as a homophobic, sexist, bigot. What to do, what to do.

     So what should I do? Should I change the name? Would the drug work any differently? Would it be any more or less effective with a different name? Should I hold my ground with my intellectual property rights? I mean after all, no one else has the knowledge to create this drug. Who does the government think they are that they can come to me and try to impose it’s will with regards to my business anyway? What if I simply stopped making the drug? Would people intentionally deny themselves a cure because they’re offended by the simple ‘name’ of the product available to save their lives? Chew on that for a little bit while I move on.

     Say I owned a business; a bakery. A niche bakery that catered to Conservative Americans. Our creations had patriotic slogans on the icing, American flags, pictures of the founding fathers, etc. Business is booming and  I need to hire more help to keep up with demand. I place an ad in the local newspaper, and start setting up interviews. I end up hiring a young woman and a young man based on their specific skills and capabilities, as they’ll be able to hit the ground running, and keep up with the demand. We’ve agreed on a per hour wage, gone over the duties and all is well. Now, at the end of the first week the woman comes to me and informs me that she’s somewhat offended by the slogans on our ‘victory’ cake, because it has a rebel flag on it and her ancestors were black; so she views the design as racially charged and in fact ‘racist’. We go round and round on the issue, and she ends up quitting because she finds it too ‘offensive’ to work in that environment. Later that month I get a notice in the mail that I’m being sued for harassment in a ‘hostile’ work environment. I either need to change my best selling cake design, or face legal action. So what should be done?

     This is another example of ‘convenient victimization’, she knew what the designs and conditions were before she accepted the employment offered, prior to accepting the job; but once hired, developed a ‘problem’. There’s no doubt that people can make crude, hurtful remarks intentionally; and that’s wrong, and should be dealt with on a situational basis. But, if someone is simply being a goof and not intending any malice; it should be left alone. It’s time to grow up and put your righteous indignation back on the shelf; and set about getting things done instead of finding a scapegoat for your self imposed inferiority.