It's become fashionable in some places to denounce President Trump and his supporters as "threats to democracy". Why? The President wants to enforce the borders and keep out illegal aliens. The President calls journalists enemies of the people. The President sought to ban temporarily entry into the USA from eight countries, six of which had Muslim majorities. I know that's hardly a "threat" to democracy, but the claim gets made over and over. We get told that Trump is a racist; except he isn't. We get told that Trump is a sexist; except he isn't. We get told that Trump hates gays and lesbians; except he doesn't. We get told that Trump is anti-Semitic; except he isn't. Then there's the charge that Trump hates Muslims; except that's not true either. In fact, the President is just an outspoken man who expresses his views loudly and often.
So are there really any threats to American democracy in our country today? The answer is a clear YES! We are seeing more and more censorship being imposed in the name of political correctness. Conversations that could have been held 20 years ago are now somehow forbidden as "hate speech". People's lives are ruined for saying something impolitic.
Consider Roseanne. She made a bad joke in a tweet about Valerie Jarrett which was taken to be a racist reference. In response, Roseanne was dumped from her hit show by ABC and shunned in "polite" society. Now I don't care much for Roseanne or her show, but it is just not right for her to lose her job because of a tweet. Especially since she quickly apologized and said that she did not mean the tweet the way it was taken by the mob. And how about Laura Ingraham? She said that one of the high school activists from Parkland had whined about not getting into the colleges to which he applied. For that, she faced a massive boycott organized by that same activist that nearly brought down her show. That wasn't even racist; it was just "insensitive".
Do we really want a society where speech is so restricted? I certainly don't. Think of All in the Family. In that show, Archie Bunker used all sorts of derogatory names for races or religions or ethnic categories. They were things that can't be said today under our politically correct censorship rules. Remember, Archie really did say racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic things. That, indeed, was the point. He wasn't censored. Instead, the silliness of his language was ridiculed. It was discussed and exposed for what it truly was. I bet many more people learned from that show than have ever learned anything from today's politically correct culture.
Right now, we are moving on from restricting what people say to what they think. That's ridiculous, of course, since there's no way to restrict thought. Instead, however, anyone who demonstrates aberrant thought is being shunned.
Not long ago, I was in Salem, Massachusetts at the Museum that chronicles the witch trials of the 17th century in that town. The public literally put to death a bunch of men and women for being witches, even though there was no real evidence against them. The museum likened the trials to the McCarthy era of the early 1950s when suspected Communists were hounded by the government and blacklisted as well. It seems that we are coming back to that era once again, however. "Hate speech" is the Communism and witchcraft of the moment. It's a threat to the ability to have rational and complete debates that are necessary for democracy to flourish. Debate is messy. People say the wrong thing sometimes. They need to be able to make mistakes without suffering the consequence of instant and permanent damnation.
So are there really any threats to American democracy in our country today? The answer is a clear YES! We are seeing more and more censorship being imposed in the name of political correctness. Conversations that could have been held 20 years ago are now somehow forbidden as "hate speech". People's lives are ruined for saying something impolitic.
Consider Roseanne. She made a bad joke in a tweet about Valerie Jarrett which was taken to be a racist reference. In response, Roseanne was dumped from her hit show by ABC and shunned in "polite" society. Now I don't care much for Roseanne or her show, but it is just not right for her to lose her job because of a tweet. Especially since she quickly apologized and said that she did not mean the tweet the way it was taken by the mob. And how about Laura Ingraham? She said that one of the high school activists from Parkland had whined about not getting into the colleges to which he applied. For that, she faced a massive boycott organized by that same activist that nearly brought down her show. That wasn't even racist; it was just "insensitive".
Do we really want a society where speech is so restricted? I certainly don't. Think of All in the Family. In that show, Archie Bunker used all sorts of derogatory names for races or religions or ethnic categories. They were things that can't be said today under our politically correct censorship rules. Remember, Archie really did say racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic things. That, indeed, was the point. He wasn't censored. Instead, the silliness of his language was ridiculed. It was discussed and exposed for what it truly was. I bet many more people learned from that show than have ever learned anything from today's politically correct culture.
Right now, we are moving on from restricting what people say to what they think. That's ridiculous, of course, since there's no way to restrict thought. Instead, however, anyone who demonstrates aberrant thought is being shunned.
Not long ago, I was in Salem, Massachusetts at the Museum that chronicles the witch trials of the 17th century in that town. The public literally put to death a bunch of men and women for being witches, even though there was no real evidence against them. The museum likened the trials to the McCarthy era of the early 1950s when suspected Communists were hounded by the government and blacklisted as well. It seems that we are coming back to that era once again, however. "Hate speech" is the Communism and witchcraft of the moment. It's a threat to the ability to have rational and complete debates that are necessary for democracy to flourish. Debate is messy. People say the wrong thing sometimes. They need to be able to make mistakes without suffering the consequence of instant and permanent damnation.
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