Saying "political correctness has gone too far" has gone too far – SBS (satire)

For a while, we put up with it. We graciously tolerated as a an accepted fact of life the constant outrage of right-wing people decrying every minor step of social change as political correctness gone too far. But this nonsense has gone on too long. How much longer do we have to put up with conservatives being outraged every time they perceive any progressive response to an issue as outrage? Its time we took a stand: people saying political correctness has gone too far has gone too far.

The term political correctness originated among left-wingers in the 1970s as a way of describing people whose speech and actions in regard to their politics didnt necessarily match up, but it was quickly co-opted by the right as a pejorative way of referring to any perceived policing of language or behaviour that they viewed to be simply for show and not necessarily reflective of a persons actual values. This is now what they refer to as virtue signalling a way of dismissing anyones feelings on an issue as being performative, because they themselves cant fathom actually feeling those emotions.

Traditionally, political correctness was ascribed to either exaggerated or completely fabricated stories about schools banning Baa Baa Black Sheep because it was racist (the first story about this was actually due to Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep being more stimulating for kids to sing). Now, however, pretty much everything is thanks to political correctness, according to the outraged outragists who sit on their computers all day waiting for some outrage to be outraged at.

There's a lot of this going around

Over the weekend, a burger restaurant in Brisbane came into the news cycle because someone pointed out that having a restaurant called Master Toms and having a burger on your menu called the Uncle Tom is probably not a hugely great idea. Master Toms were unfamiliar with the racially charged history of the term, so they issued an apology and ran a fun competition for a replacement name. It even turns out that they already had plans to change the dinner menu in the coming weeks, so there would be no additional cost involved in updating the menus how lucky! The issue was settled quickly and politely, because were all grown adults who understand that a burger restaurant probably didnt mean to make a slavery-themed burger on purpose.

But, of course, this was too much for the political correctness has gone too far crowd. An amicable disagreement addressed with very little inconvenience? What an outrage! They whipped themselves up into a frenzy about how the left are fascist totalitarians hell-bent on forcing their strict worldview on small business owners by pointing out that the name of one of their burgers is a term that has been pretty racist for nearly 170 years. Arent these humourless outrage-police tired of being outraged by every outrage they see? Political correctness has gone too far has gone too far.

To these people, political correctness is an organised, sinister agenda. A concerted effort to ensure that freedom of expression, a diversity of views, and fun are all illegal and punishable by death by social media posts. The reality is, though, that theres nothing organised or unified about it. Whos organising it and enforcing it? Its not the government, who are right now trying to make it easier to say the n-word on TV. Its not the media, who represent a diversity of opinions that varies from It should be legal to microchip Muslims to It should be illegal to make fun of my dog for being vegan.

"LOOK AT HOW HAPPY HE IS WITHOUT FOOD THAT DOGS ACTUALLY EAT!"

You know what political correctness actually is? It is the sum of a bunch of peoples personal opinions. It is individual expression viewed at a long distance for it to be mistaken as collective action. When a bunch of people boycott Coopers because of their interesting decision to posit that homophobia and not-homophobia are equally valid opinions, its not because a shadowy cabal of opinion enforcers passed down a mandate, its because a whole group of individuals individually decided that drinking that beer or selling that beer didnt gel with their values.

If the right really values freedom of expression and the right for individuals to have beliefs and act accordingly to those beliefs, they need to acknowledge that political correctness isnt some intangible force trying to control their lives, its just that a whole lot of people made up their own minds that that shit you said is mad racist.

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Saying "political correctness has gone too far" has gone too far - SBS (satire)