Consideration or Separation

When some think about political correctness, they think of certain oppressed and marginalized people trying to get more respect. Others think of Big Brother and the p.c. police trying to stifle their free speech. Personally, I fall somewhere in the middle. I do think those trying to promote political correctness do so out of genuinely good intentions, but I think trying to shield a group of people from jokes, criticism or hurtful words too much separates them and puts them into another class entirely: the untouchables: those people who you must constantly worry about offending for fear of hurting them or breaking them into little pieces. Where did this fear of offending come from? I personally think it began in the late 80's and early 90's with people like Tipper Gore and Janet Reno. Their wars against violent and offensive content on television created such a backlash that now it's considered the "in thing" to constantly flip off the p.c. police in an attempt to say, "Screw you. I can do what I want." As the old expression goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Morgan 1, Jones 0

Recently, I watched an interview between Piers Morgan and right wing conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones. Morgan had Jones on his show because Jones had started a petition calling for Morgan's deportation simply because of his views on gun control. A synopsis of the interview went like this: Morgan tried to have a civilized debate and Jones ranted like an idiotic madman. I don't know about you, but if I were a pro-gun enthusiast, I would not want Jones speaking for me. He only enforces for many Americans the stereotype of the right-wing gun nut.

However, I think Piers is also somewhat in the wrong here. I think he only had Jones on because Jones made him angry, and he knew he could make Jones look foolish (although Jones didn't exactly need help with that one. This is, after all, a man who said that the government was behind 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing, and was putting chemicals in juice boxes to make children gay and control the population...). Though I am not pro-gun myself, I know many gun owners who would never talk about 1776 rising again if the government "tried to take their guns." But, I have to say, I believe Piers Morgan is one of the bravest men I have ever seen, because, to put it simply, there are gun owners and supporters out there who would burn you at the stake for talking about gun control in any form, if they could legally do it.

Finally, I think it exposed Jones as the fraud that he is: Jones claims to be a pro-Constitutionalist, but he wants to deport a law abiding citizen simply because he does not like his views. Frankly, that sounds more like a tactic of Soviet Russia than the United States of America.