The anti-PC brigade are at it again. It turns out we’re still oppressing them by objecting to their hatefulness.
Whoever created this is clearly a childish cretin.
Don’t you just love how the oppressors angle to make themselves the oppressed?
I love the idea that political correctness is actually a bad thing – the good old ‘political correctness gone mad’ argument that rolls, to quote ABBA, ‘on and on and on’. This would actually be funny if it wasn’t current.
Aside from wondering exactly what a ‘snub nose do-gooder’ actually is (although I suspect it’s actually someone who just wants you to, y’know, maybe stop needlessly talking trash about people), I’m particularly amused by ‘enforce the removal of ones right to opinion’.
Oh yes, it’s that same old, tired argument – it boils down to a child crying in the corner after a parent has told them off for saying something offensive, and just like a child, these people respond with tantrums. Yes, this is what the anti-PC brigade have been reduced to. There is nothing about political correctness that says you can’t have an opinion; it’s actually about encouraging you to have a little respect for people when you express your opinion. It beggars belief that there are people out there who have so little self-awareness that they don’t realise that the way they act hurts others.
And that’s what this boils down to. It’s not about the right to an opinion, it’s about the right to hurt people. Scratch below the surface of all this lofty talk of ‘freedom of speech’ or the ‘right to an opinion’ and what you find is actually very ugly – more often than not bigots who get offended because someone’s told them that their sexist, racism, homophobic or transphobic jokes probably hurt others. And we excuse them for doing this because they cowardly stamp their feet and shout ‘freedom of speech’.
Oh yes, it’s that same old, tired argument – it boils down to a child crying in the corner after a parent has told them off for saying something offensive, and just like a child, these people respond with tantrums.
Leaving that particular ugliness aside, there’s something even more insidious about this meme – ‘the right to object to something you don’t believe in’.
Say what?
‘The right to object to something you don’t believe in.’
No, you’re not Alice falling through the looking-glass. Let’s just take a moment to think about exactly what they’re talking about here. They’re not taking about political ideology, they’re actually talking about ways in which we’ve attempted to make our society more liberal and less oppressive.
It’s not about the right to an opinion, it’s about the right to hurt people. Scratch below the surface of all this lofty talk of ‘freedom of speech’ or the ‘right to an opinion’ and what you find is actually very ugly – more often than not bigots who get offended because someone’s told them that their sexist, racism, homophobic or transphobic jokes probably hurt others.
By ‘the right to object to something you don’t believe in’ we’re talking about the type of people who object to being told that they’re bigots for being racists, or the type of people who hate being told that they’re out of step with the rest of society because they hate equal marriage. We’re talking about the type of people who feel that their ‘right to an opinion’ is being circumvented because people object to them calling someone else disgusting, or because they want a group of people to have fewer rights.
How lovely.
But there’s more. I’d do a drum roll at this point, but I’d want to do it with gay drums and this would offend the anti-PC brigade because my gay drums probably represent ‘political correctness gone mad’ because they can’t object to my f*ggot drums anymore… Sorry, I digress, but get this – political correctness results in ‘most of all the removal of common sense, decency and morals.’ I mean, where do you start? Now, of course everything in life needs a good old-fashioned dose of common sense, but what we’re talking about here is the UKIP definition of common sense. You know, the sort of common sense that says that it’s ok to talk about how risky it is for a family of Romanians to move in next door to you.
By ‘the right to object to something you don’t believe in’ we’re talking about the type of people who object to being told that they’re bigots for being racists, or the type of people who hate being told that they’re out of step with the rest of society because they hate equal marriage.
But then it gets better – apparently political correctness results in the removal of ‘decency and morals’.
Decency actually means being respectful of people, being mindful of the fact that sometimes words and actions hurt others, or realising that the way people behave in society sometimes oppresses others and putting it right. Having morals means… well, do I really need to do on? Please say no, because this is getting really tiresome.
In the world of the person who created this meme, having decency and morals means that those who decry political correctness are the ones who have the right to define decency and morality and it’s our attempts to challenge that which is what they don’t like.
It’s the ultimate irony when the oppressors make themselves out to be the oppressed in response to the marginalised standing up and questioning them.
This isn’t about people wanting to safeguard the right to free speech or the right to have an opinion. It’s purely and simply about them having the right to say what they like about others, regardless of the consequences. It’s the people who believe that they should be able to say that gay people are disgusting, trans people are mentally ill and that bisexuals are sluts, and who don’t feel as if anyone has the right to tell them they’re wrong because to do that would be ‘oppressing’ them.
By vigorously defending the right to talk about others in hateful terms, they’re also contributing to violence against marginalised groups but, hey, you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.
Let me line up the f*ggots and the tr*nnies for you right now, because clearly your right to ridicule is more important than our right to basic dignity.
Follow Jon on Twitter (@lepus_octavian)
Image courtesy of Alex E. Proimos
The Queerness 
