Probably the single biggest reason Donald Trump got this far is because of his perceived opposition to political correctness.
Why is political correctness so hated by so many? What makes it a “cancer,” as some rightfully call it?
Political correctness (PC) is deeper than any association with any political point-of-view. Yes, PC is closely associated with leftist, progressive policies such as Obamacare, refusing to criticize Islam, and gun control. But it’s not the policy positions of PC which are infuriating so much as the methods. While government can wreak havoc on the body or the pocketbooks of those who produce, PC aims its toxicity at the mind.
When someone says, “Islam is peace,” or “health care is a right,” they don’t make a rational case for it. They dare you to disagree. And if you do disagree, then you’re shamed and even intimidated into not maintaining your position. This is how Joe Biden got away with calling opponents of Obamacare economic “terrorists” and it’s how Obama gets away with ordering his Attorney General to silence critics of Islam or climate change; using the FBI to place Hillary Clinton above the law; and sending a lawless, unchecked IRS against Tea Party organizations who challenge his policies.
PC could just as easily exist in a right-wing Republican media-government-academic Establishment as in a left-wing one. In all honestly, it probably would, because “right-wing Republican” is often less about liberty and individual rights than it is about seizing power just as the left has successfully and already done for decades. [Look at the conventional Republicans — Mitt Romney, John Boehner, Paul Ryan — and you’ll get the picture.]
At the core of America’s crisis is not a “left-right” struggle. If it were, the battle would already be over; the left has obviously won. (If Hillary Clinton’s scot-free release by an obviously reluctant, yet overtly politicized, FBI does not prove this to you, then nothing will).
The core of America’s crisis is the battle between liberty versus statism; between the value of the individual versus the value of the group or collective.
PC ultimately relies on group-think. The more you diminish the individual, both psychologically and politically, the more PC matters. PC is a substitute for where the individual brain and mind, relying on facts, reason and objective logic, might and should have been.
When people rebel against PC, they’re not asserting any particular ideological position so much as a fight for their own minds and souls. Donald Trump’s candidacy is not about any ideological position. It’s much more psychological than that. Psychologically, I see Trump’s candidacy as an attempt — perhaps one last, rousing attempt — for Americans who detest PC and all it implies to at least go down with a fight.
Millions of people are sick of being told what to do, but — much deeper and significant than that — told what to think. Even for those who agree with progressives about matters such as, say, gay marriage, or the evils of racism rationally defined (as it rarely is these days), it’s still the underlying mentality of “Think this because I say so,” which causes people to rebel.
Political correctness is less about what you can say or do than about what you may think. The unspoken command of any PC mentality is, “Now do as I say. Why? Because I said so.” Don’t think. Thinking leads to questioning, and progressives (who at the core are totalitarians) do not want questions. Why do you think they have a government law, regulation or bureaucracy for virtually everything? Control freak is too mild a phrase.
America is not (yet) a totalitarian state. But we’re getting there, and PC is the means for getting there. How? By training people to be afraid of their own minds and thoughts. If enough people are afraid to question authority — merely because it’s authority — then the psychological atmosphere for political correctness is already in place. The rest will follow, and more quickly than you assume … even in America.
Donald Trump’s quest for the presidency is an uphill struggle. The Clinton and Democratic machine does operate in a crooked, rigged system. Everything Trump says about Crooked Hillary is true. And if Donald Trump does win, it’s hard to predict how he will govern, without any particular ideology to guide him. But one thing’s for sure. A vote against Hillary is a vote against political correctness. She is the ultimate embodiment not only of corruption and the status quo, but of the anti-individual, anti-human mentality of a nasty, cruel old schoolmarm armed with nuclear weapons.
PC is killing us. Those who rebel against it, whatever their failings, wish to go down with a fight.
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