By Colin Louis | USA

As Christmas approaches us an annoying caution comes up. Saying “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Hanukkah.” Today people are more cautious than ever not to offend anyone so they say “Happy Holidays.” This is our new exception of Americans, that we’ll get offended by “Merry Christmas!” By saying “Merry Christmas” you’re not excluding anyone or being racist. Instead, you’re saying a nice seasonal greeting that makes people smile and say thanks. Don’t fear the toxic culture created by political correctness. Also, if you are offended when someone says “Merry Christmas” just smile back and say “Merry Christmas.”

This type of culture is dangerous. It leads to an oppression of intellectual discussion and thought. When we as a society decide what is and is not acceptable to say and think people’s ideas are going to be smashed. Ideas, ideology, and people that are a general danger to freedom in the west should be called out on it. If we’re afraid to challenge someone or something because of the labels it will earn us we have failed as a society of thought. Currently in Europe, politicians fail to recognize the mass immigration problem that is destroying their nations. That’s what happens when your society disregards or even bans criticism of certain ideas. A society where we’re slaves to not offending anyone is not one that will thrive.

“Facts don’t care about your feelings.”

-Ben Shapiro

If a fact offends you then you should reconsider your argument. We’re taught that an argument is based on facts, unless you have opposing facts then you should consider the opposing argument. Pointing out a fact is not hate speech. Depending on context then what you say could actually be offensive. (This still does not merit an argument worthy of censorship.) For example, what if I point out that current issues like Black Lives Matter are actually about Government power and not race. This is because of the hard crackdown on urban towns by the war on drugs that has put low income communities which are typically of a minority population more at risk of police violence. Using this to make the point I just made isn’t racist. Yes, we could have a reasonable debate about the idea and if it’s true or not using facts and data without labels like “racist” being used. Should it be used in a white supremacist context than yes it would be considered racist. Facts aren’t racist, pointing them out isn’t racist. The way they can be used could be racist.

Political correctness is not only anti-fact it is also dangerous. Some ideas have flaws, every ideology should be debated and receive skepticism. As a Christian I welcome productive discussion and debate about my beliefs, principles, and ideas. As should every religion or ideology. Unfortunately political correctness has made it harder to even be skeptical of some possibly bad ideas. A good example would be the recent travel ban imposed by US President Donald Trump. The ban made it illegal for refugees to come from certain nations, if you support the ban or not it is possible to have a reasonable debate about it without attempting to label the ban as Islamophobic when it bans all people from those countries. Not to mention the ban didn’t include Indonesia the most Islamic nation on the planet. The ban was an issue of national security, not religious supremacy. You may think the ban isn’t necessary or not support it for another reason but please don’t assume that everyone who supports it is racist. Obviously all Muslims aren’t terrorists and anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong, but when someone supports a security measure because they aren’t scared of PC culture calling them racist is wrong. No longer will you be able to cite facts and evidence to back a claim for fear that you will be labeled. When we fail to recognize various failures or problems for fear of PC culture we are in a very dangerous place.

The corner foundation of tyranny is censorship. Society will silence opposition. Rather than debate someone who disagrees with you it’s much easier to call them racist. Political correctness attempts to do just that, if you don’t follow a long and constantly changing set of guidelines for what is acceptable to say you will be labeled extreme. PC culture forces others and in some cases ourselves to write off ideas that are developed by facts and evidence because they may offend someone. Some in the US will tell you that it isn’t about censorship. It’s hard to believe this when in countries where they’ve gotten the chance leftists have banned free speech they call “hate speech.” Leftists haven’t just banned extreme terms like the N word they’ve also gone far enough in Ontario to allow the government to possibly take children from their families if the parents don’t accept the young child’s gender identity.

So, political correctness is a disease in modern society that disregards reasonable, and factual thought. Don’t fear if you may offend someone because you told the truth. PC culture is denting us, it has infiltrated our thoughts, even our holidays! We can’t surrender the truth. We can’t allow a ruling body to dictate what we can say. We can’t let PC culture destroy the truth.