Let me begin by talking of my own personal experience. It does not pertain to what we generally call political correctness, but there is a clear parallel.
I was raised in a very religious home, and had become very religious myself. I decided at some point to hear what famous atheist Richard Dawkins had to say, but upon listening to him speak I became very uncomfortable. I started to realise that my religious beliefs might be wrong, for the first time, and as you might expect, I became defensive and tried to reassure myself that God simply must exist. I struggled with this for a few years before becoming an atheist.
Whenever I had doubts over this period, I would feel extremely guilty. For me, being a good person was wrapped up in being a good Christian, and acting according to God's will. So by thinking that maybe I was wrong in my beliefs, I was not being a good Christian, and thus not a good person. I was being blasphemous.
I eventually came to realise that a belief sustained only by not being honest with myself was not genuine, and thus I supposed that God would prefer for me to be honest with myself, even if that finally resulted in my not believing in him. After adopting this point of view, I soon became an atheist.
One of the first things I noticed was the lack of anybody watching over my shoulder, judging what I think and do. I was fundamentally accountable only to myself, and I found this very liberating. I was now able to embrace even more fully this idea, that it is always better to be honest with oneself. Whenever I had a thought that I felt guilty for thinking, whenever I had the sense that this is what a bad person would think, I remembered:
As long as you are being honest with yourself, you have nothing to be ashamed of.
The alternative, of being dishonest in order to avoid facing what you really believe deep down, is always worse.
This lesson that I learnt is why I must reject political correctness. We see that when people express certain thoughts or attitudes, or use certain words or phrases, they are scolded as racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist etc. etc.
There are, of course, good reasons not to think in certain ways, and good reasons to avoid insensitive language in certain contexts. And we should be willing to listen to such recommendations from other, so long as they treat us with respect, as sovereign individuals.
However, that is not the nature of political correctness. The PC police rarely even bother to explain to the person what's wrong with what they said. The accuser doesn't calmly and rationally explain to the accusee why they should re-consider their view, or why they shouldn't use that word or phrase. And the accusee certainly isn't allowed to disagree, not without being subject to a string of verbal abuse - or worse.
The accusation is simply proclaimed from a position of apparent moral authority, that thinking that way or using those words is bad.
Over time, many people have internalized this verbal abuse, and now do not even allow themselves to question it in their own minds. If you are one of those people, realize that there is no one watching over your thoughts, other than yourself. There is nothing stopping you from questioning everything, and doing so will never make you a worse person.
I encourage you to do what I did, and free yourself from your self-imposed mental slavery.
Let me give you a scenario.
It is politically not correct to make fun of disabled people in a wheelchair. You shouldn't shout at them "ha ha! I can walk, you can't"
In this case, this politically correct value, is important. So I disagree with your statement:
I think it would be fair to say, that the lesson should be this:
Political correctness does have some good qualities, in the right situations, at the right time. However, at the end of the day, we should govern ourselves on what we feel is right thought, or right behavior. The only caveat is that we also must be ready for the consequences, in the event we decide to shy away from the political correct stance on a particular topic. Not all politically correct things are wrong... however, some of them can be.. depending on the situation. Would you agree?
Yeah, sort of. It could be that in some cases the politically correct standard happens to be right, but the fact that something is politically incorrect doesn't in itself mean that it's wrong. I wouldn't accept that you shouldn't say something just because it's politically incorrect.
You say that we "must be ready for the consequences" of being politically incorrect, what do you mean by that?
If you go against the norm of political correctness where it isn't warranted, be ready for the consequences.
It is politically correct to allow extra time for a senior to walk through a door way.
It is politically incorrect to push them aside. Not suggesting you'd do either. But someone who "rejects" political correctness with a weird brain might think, "I'm tired of waiting for seniors. Pushing them out of my way is what I think is appropriate, and that's what I'll do". In that case, the consequence is getting charged with assault or beaten up by an onlooker for doing something politically and morally incorrect.
So what I'm saying, is that when you said "why I must reject political correctness" might be too simplistic of a statement. It's a very touchy subject, as you see, one of us just got blasted by @shekelemberg for even "talking" about politically incorrect examples when it was only used for illustrating a point.
P.S. There are some gang-bangers who think it's funny to watch a senior get flung aside and get thrown to the ground. So it happens.
I suppose it is true that societies over time develop normative standards for appropriate behaviour, and such standards are enforced through social disapproval towards those that don't follow the rules. The real reason for not pushing seniors out of the way is that it would be cruel and disrespectful, but social enforcement of such standards could well improve the behaviour of people who would be too self-absorbed to care. So maybe that's not such a bad thing.
I think what I'm really trying to stress is that we shouldn't substitute political correctness for actual reasons. Rather than teaching people "don't do that because we disapprove" we should try to teach them to actually have concern for others, if at all possible.
I can see your point though, my statement could be misleading.
do you see the disabled people as inferior? are you somekind of ableist?
I don't know who you're talking to, but you obviously COMPLETELY misunderstood the example.
I used that example to show how political correctness, holds some values that should be considered.
I'll write this up to a misunderstanding. No one believes disabled people are inferior. Please calm down, and the next time you accuse someone of being an ableist, be absolutely sure you know what you're talking about.
Stephen Hawking is a great example. You must have sped throught the original statement and freaked out before you finished reading it is my guess.
which christian denomination do you belong to?
I was raised in a UK Baptist Church, but I never attached myself strongly to any particular denomination
you need to look at the bible and read it carefully and take what
s good from it like dont be a degenerate and such, if there were degenerates welcomed in church, that is a failed churchand Jesus didnt came here for peace
There is a big difference between reading the bible and taking what's good from it, and treating the bible as though it has authority. There's nothing wrong with the former, but I think the latter would be a mistake