With all the ridiculous crap that has gone on in the last several years, I seriously wonder what has happened to America, land of the free. We’ve gone from a nation of rugged individuals to a bunch of whining, whimpy, self-absorbed cry-babies. Frankly, it’s embarrassing.
Once upon a time it was admirable to use good old American know-how to make things, manufacture modern conveniences, make people’s lives easier with innovative solutions. Now, it’s practically a crime to have a big business, offer a service or product much less expect the consumer to use the product with a modicum of common sense.
Political Correctness has all but destroyed free speech. It has spawned the thought police, cigarette police, fat police, speech police, drinking police, teaching police, holiday police, news police, voting police and self-appointed police for any other activity a free citizen in this country might want to consider doing, saying and thinking.
It has gone from a sarcastic phrase to the way people actually conduct themselves. Thanks to p.c. we have hate crimes. Now, am I crazy or are there actually crimes that don’t involve some sort of hatred? We have hate speech (which is a fall-back postion in case the hate crime label doesn’t cover it) which used to be called free speech. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t believe that people who spew racial slurs, insults, or obscentities are heroes or anything. But we do have free speech in this country. So if some ignorant ass wants to prove what an ignorant ass he is, he has the right. Can you say Don Imus?
Whole groups of Americans are no longer satisfied to be Americans, they prefer the hyphen: Afro-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Muslim-Americans, Soviet-Americans, Cuban-Americans, Gay-Americans, Bi-Americans, Transgendered-Americans. (Which by the way, have hyphenated in order to become lobbying blocs to acheive political aims – aka special interest groups.)When did the melting pot that America once proudly touted as her basis become multi-culturalism? When did we start being anti-American? (Now there’s a hyphen for you)
Aren’t we all just Americans? After all, I don’t call myself a Euro-American because my ancestors are from Ireland and Germany. I’m just a…well, I’m just an American. And proud of it too. Of course, that will soon be against the law too and the multi-cultural police will be coming for me.
I have to tell you, I’m sick of it. I’m sick of the fact that you can no longer say what you think. That you have to think before you speak lest you offend somebody. Lest they have the likes of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton in their rollodex. God forbid, I don’t feel sorry for the basketball team who are now scarred for life. Or the terrorist who is being held in prison (whilst getting prayer rugs, vegetarian meals, free dental and medical, care of my tax dollars) for being a terrorist. Or the murderer who killed people in cold blood and now that he’s on Death Row is repentant. Because if I say they are all full of shit and need to grow some balls then I’m a fucking ,insensitive, social pariah.
The irony to me is that possibly only 5% of the people I know and come into contact with are politically correct – the others are like me. They have opinions, try to be decent people but don’t go along to get along. Yet, that 5% seems to be running the show.
When the hell did that happen? When did we give these losers permission to force all of us into fear of speaking our minds, living our lives, having our vices and going about our business? Who the hell made them the boss of us? I really want to know.
My fantasy is to find a really big island which we can call the P.C. Nation and force all of those morons to live there. Then they can go crazy scolding one another and bossing each other around and telling each other how to live their lives. And leave us the hell alone.
We can do food drops, newspaper drops and maybe give them a couple of cable feeds. We will not, however, give them anything that is produced by big business, emits carbons, contains any trans-fats, nicotene, pornography, alcohol, religious symbols, holiday themes, chemicals, fertilizers, fossil fuels, endangered any white mice during the production, fiberglass, plastic, paper, nuclear power or any other modernly produced product that is not wholly and completely from the natural sources. Therefore they get dirt and their ideas. They will have to figure out how to feed themselves without killing anything, create compost heaps from their bodily waste, fuel their vehicles, light and warm their homes with wind and solar power, weave their own fabrics, ropes and hairdos. They will not have manicures, pedicures, facials, starbuck’s, Macey’s, Gap jeans, Sketchers, BMWs or any other evil product of the non-politically correct.
And we can force them to have Algore as their president. That way, at least one of them will get their dream and be happy. And they can be assured of having at least one film to show in their movie house.
They will simply have to live their lives by the code and creedo that they have dictated to us lo, these many years. It could be a great reality show. I’d give it about 2 years before it likened the Wild, Wild West.
What do you think? Are you with me? Should I call a realtor?
😆 WC
Anita Rodgers Mystery Writer 
Amazing – How long since we’ve talked, and we’re on the exact same page! 🙂
I love the Island idea, and the best part is how none of the PC-ites could get back unless they rowed a boat…
No more of that transcontinental 747 flying crap.
You hit the nail on the head with the vocal 5%, WC – I have always wondered why we have so many laws in place to promote the causes of the gay/lesbian/transgendered population when they account for barely 6% of our population. It has been explained to me that they are a very well organized, vocal 6% with a very effective lobby.
When are the rest of us going to figure out that formula?
Great writing, as always…
Debi
Hey Debs! Gosh, long time no talk. I hope this is a sign that you’re back blogging again? I’ve missed your excellent commentary.
I don’t know when the rest of us will figure out that formula or if we will. More than anything, this rant was against the hypocrisy. The whole do as I say not as I do thing goes up my heiny the wrong way. Know what I mean?
Hey, I recycle as much as the next guy – I try not to do nasty stuff like litter and call people names based on their ethnicity or judge them by the neighborhood they are from. But the fact that I can’t say what I feel is obvious BECAUSE somebody has an ethnicity other than my own – or they have experienced some heartache in their lives then it’s too much. I too have been hurt, deeply – just like anyone else who tries to navigate their life. I too have been treated disrespectfully and humiliated. But I refuse to give those people the power to damage me. You want to solve racism in America, then it has to stop being a cottage industry which people manipulate and exploit to gain power. If I believed for a minute Jesse Jackson or Sharpton cared a whit about those girls I might feel differently – but they don’t. They simply want to jump on the train and get their power renewed by doing so. Algore is Mr. Green when it comes to me, but when it comes to him, not so much – he’s got the jet, doesn’t have a carbon nuetral home or practice at all what he preaches. That’s the thing that irks me. I’m being played for a fool, which I am not.
LOL – fun ranting with you again.
WC
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Al Gore as their President and no Starbucks that is cruel 😉
Hehe. 😆
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Hi WC,
This started with the Civil War. With the end of States Rights, the Federal Government had the power to homogenize the Country. They have been at it every since. Each year they pass a few more laws that move local decisions to the Federal level, or limit the choices available to local governments. It won’t be too many decades until there won’t be local government, only a local building full of Federal bureaucrats.
the Grit
Yes, you’re right Grit, and they’ve been chipping away at our rights ever since. The irony being of course, that most people are basically good and at least try to do the right thing. It’s the manipulators who must stick their noses in everybody’s beewax that have ruined things. It’s kind of like the annoying nasty aunt or uncle or cousin in the family, after a while they wear you down and you just lose your will to fight – so you go along to get along. Which is what the nation is doing. It sucks.
WC
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Who asked us what we think, right?
Here my thoughts:
I thought we got Political Correctness BECAUSE of hate crimes? (on a sidenote, I do agree that at times it’s being misused)
I wonder whether the only reason we don’t (have to) call ourselves a ‘Euro-American’ is because we didn’t have to find a better word for ‘white’ and people accept us as American (or Canadian etc), without even caring whether our ancestors came from Germany or Britain just because we are white.
Melting pot? Well, to me it never seemed as smoothly as that, years back the Irish had a terribly hard time claiming their rights over here.
I don’t think we were asked to feel sorry for the basketball team, all we were asked to do is if we had been as ok with his comments if there were our own daughters. Come on WC, wouldn’t you have punched the guy right in the nose? (and then toddled off to jail for assault? ) I might have.
Regarding the P.C. rant, I guess the one thing I can agree is that we have gotten completly caught up in a ‘Reizwort’ (word with passionate associations, a ‘teasing-word’), it’s not about the underlying problem anymore but more about the P.C. and what we associate with it.
Ooh, and if I am not with me, then…..
😉
Spaz,
I’m always interested in your opinions.
I don’t think we did get political correctness because of hate crimes. To me, hate crime is an oxymoron – crimes are based on hatred. It’s just an attempt to make something that isn’t a crime a crime – or to punish certain crimes extra hard because the p.c. crowd have deemed the victims of these crimes more special – truer victims. All crimes should be prosecuted, but the punishment should fit the crime. If someone murders a little old lady during a robbery is it really less hateful than killing someone who happens to be gay? Or black? Or latin? Or…(you fill in the blank). Murder is hateful, whether you kill because of your own twisted view of the world or from coveting another’s possessions is still hate. See what I mean?
I agree, the Irish did have it hard when they first migrated to this country, as did the Italians, the Greeks, the Spanish, the Polish, the Jews – every group has. Why is it, certain groups get special privileges too. I’m not asking for reparations from the British government because my Irish ancestors were murdered, made indentured servants, raped, robbed and abused. Was it horrible that it happened, of course. Does it make any sense to ask Joe Blow to pay for it because his great, great, great grandfather raped my great, great, great, great aunt? No, it doesn’t. Not to me anyway.
I don’t really know what we were being asked by the basketball players and/or their family. But when I was a kid and somebody hurt me, my dad would say they can’t hurt you if you don’t let them. They only have the power you give them. I always believed that. And I don’t think I would punch him in the nose – I’d say he was an ignorant ass and that I didn’t give a rat’s ass what he thought. Imus is going to choke on his own venom anyway. I don’t need to do anything to make that happen and neither does anyone else. He lost his job, which is fine with me. He’s always been a ass so none of this is news to me. It’s just incredibly blown out of proportion if you ask me. And too – this is the thing that truly bothers me – it diminishes real racism when it occurs. I grew up in an area where racism truly exist and it’s an ugly and awful thing. It can literally make you sick. The cruelty that some can display is utterly and hopelessly shocking. So, when I hear that someone is making statements like a few stupid words are going to ruin their life, it astounds me.
And you nailed it when you said it’s not really about the underlying problem anymore. You’re quite right, it isn’t. And that’s just wrong.
WC
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I love PC people. They are so easy to piss off.
Oh darlin’ and you do it so well. 😆
WC
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Over here there is a footy player who has made an official complaint against the police because they demanded to see ID on the basis that because they were of middle east descent it was pure racism. Like the police have come out and said, they were sitting on a bench, late at night in a place where there were no shops open and there had been problems in that area, the rest of australia would like to know that the police are doing their job. No such outcry would be happening if it had been me. No-one would listen to me if I said “hey the police were picking on me cos I’m a white chick!”
It’s all bullshit, total bullshit. Political correctness is just all bullshit thats happened because of a few tangible laws that were put in place to protect those that are being treated unfairly, people now twist it to their own ends..
Great post WC!
Kelly
So, do you think it’s all just bullshit? I’m saying….
You’re right, Kel – it is the act of twisting tangible laws into something that is self-serving. Like so many things, they start out okay and then turn into a means to an end that is wrong.
WC
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I’ve been searching online as follows “contact Don Imus” but he seems to be out of contact. I want to tell him to stop apologizing. My question is what happened to free speech? I want him to know that he should just keep on saying what he thinks. I’m disappointed in the way the way that he caved. I was hoping he was a tough guy. Maybe age creeps in, I hope not.
Hi LH, I’m sorry, I haven’t any idea how to contact Imus. You might trying to find out who his agent is. If you can, I’m sure you can send an email care of their office. Good luck.
WC
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I love it when I read a post that allows me to see that brain of yours spinning…
You’ve touched on so many brilliant topics here that I’m not choosing to boil it down to a select few.
And your responses were exactly as I thought they would be– well thought out and quintessential Annie.
I’ll leave this comment saying, “Oooh, sometimes the truth really does hurt.”
Just another casualty of living in a dreaded P.C. Nation
ttfn,
~m
Yes, my mind is noisey when it spins. Hopefully it hasn’t cracked any eardrums yet. 😉 Yeah, I guess the truth can hurt – but really, you have to say what you think is true – even if no one agrees with you. When I started thinking about doing this post, I realized I might piss a few people off and being the opinionated person I am, I have indeed, experienced that. But, if you can’t speak your mind, regardless of agreement, then things are worse than I’m saying in this post, yes?
I’m actually okay with people disagreeing with me about this – I welcome all points of view about it. I like the dialogue. When we stop saying things that encourage response we’re done for.
Glad you dug the post. 😉
WC
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Your dad was a very wise man.
This single statement should be the only material P.C. Nation is allowed to read. Once they “get it” they can be allowed to join the rest of us.
Oooh, you’re tough! I like it!
WC
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“when I was a kid and somebody hurt me, my dad would say they can’t hurt you if you don’t let them. They only have the power you give them. ”
(Hmm, the statement I was refering to didn’t post too)
Well, you can always post another comment, if your thought was incomplete. There are no limits to the amount of comments you can leave. 😉
WC
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WC,
Actually, I have another take to your island approach.
This country was founded by hardened frontiersmen, explorers, sturdy wives, and entrepenurial spirits yearning to expand and claim a place of their own far aware from the hue and cry of oppressive city life. They ran from the corrupt cities, where everyone tried to take what was your to claim as their own.
I’d rather move to that island myself. To tame the land, make it my own through hard work and sweat. To be far away from simpering actors and posturing radio announcers. I’m done with psuedo-activists grasping for the cause du jour as they themselves utter racist innuendo and reach into the publics pocket with stubby fat fingers and greasy palms.
I’d want like minded neighbors, but only if they were content to live far enough away to give me my space. Neighbors who would kill to protect my land as they would kill to protect their own.
I want to be a cowboy or cattleman, like the old times; don’t take shit from city folk, but be honest, hard working and God fearing.
These people don’t deserve the rugged beauty of island nature, because they’ll destroy it through self-serving social programs, political correctness and lofty (but flawed) redistribution of wealth.
Ham,
I take it your prescribe to the Atlas Shrugged approach? It does have a certain appeal to me as well, I must admit. The idea that you could, as your forefathers had before you, come to a new land and mold and shape it into the reality of your dreams, is quite appealing.
Not to mention the idea of no longer having droning talking heads and advertising demons yammering at you at every turn and from every direction. The peace and quiet, the commune with the land, growing your own food, building your own home – are all things that I could dream about too.
But, for me, giving up to such a small percentage of greedy, covetous and icky (I’m sure there’s a better word) people the rest of the world, is not a solution. Because, honestly, how long would it be before they found your/our island and trashed that as well? I think that sometimes you have to stand up and fight back, even if you don’t win. Because the harder you make it for them, the less likely they are going to assume they can keep doing what they are doing.
We, have been driven into a sort of apathy, that I find alarming. We put on our blinders each day and sit down to our cup of coffee and Ipod. We have learned instinctively to shut the world out in order to have some peace. Who needs to go to an island, we have already created them in our homes, our cars, our heads. Meanwhile, as we are sticking our heads in the sand, the opportunists are grabbing more and more of our lives, our possessions and our livlihoods. For me, the answer is to pull our collective noggins out of the beach and just say no. As Churchill once said, “I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees.”
As to the deserving of the beauty of island life – all islands are not created equal – some are quite barren and have little resources to offer. I’d probably pick one like that. 😉
Thanks for your great and thoughtful response. And maybe if the world really does go to hell in a handbasket, I may be in the boat next to yours, heading for your island. Hopefully, I’ll be welcome.
Annie
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Like minded (but independant thinkers) are always welcome.
I’m very familiar with Ayn Rand http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ari and link to this site:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/
Aw, thanks, Ham. Good links.
WC
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I’ll help you with the PC-evictions. Always wanted to be a bouncer. Nick found an article by Kinky Friedman. He put it exactly how I would have said it. Except with a few more cowboy-isms.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04152007/news/columnists/cowards_kick_away_another_piece_of_americas_soul_columnists_kinky_friedman.htm
Lass, I have no doubts you could kick some serious p.c. butt. Thanks for the link, I’ll check it out.
WC
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Love the island idea. ^%&$ all them ^%&$ers, I say. And throw away the key. They are a key ingredient of the stew we find ourselves cooking in today.
Hey Duckie! I’ll go you one better – we won’t even have a key. That way nobody can pick the lock. 😉
WC
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I think you know where I stand in the middle of all of this. I shall spare you my podium speech. Save me a seat on the plane will ya, and bring the margarita mix. Here’s lookin’ at you kid. Anabel
A seat? Hell, I expected you to fly the plane! 😉
WC
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damn, I had thoughts…I really did, but all the way down this comment list, they have been sucked outta me.
a bloody good read though, and … yeah like the rest of ya
Thanks, Ev- yeah, we definitely had some comments flying on this one. I think it’s a subject we all feel strongly about.
WC
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