Baby Boomers and Political Correctness Don’t Mix

By Hugh Metbatt Is the average Baby Boomer politically correct? Probably not.  Fifteen years ago, nobody had ever heard the term.  Political correctness (PC) actually started as a joke from a comic strip. Now, we're expected to tow the PC line if we hope to avoid being called racist, sexist, homophobic, or just plain boneheaded and unaware of “cultural nuances.”   To those who push political correctness, it's no longer enough to be kindhearted, informed about the world, and accepting of others.  Political correctness requires that we fear saying the wrong thing, writing the wrong thing, thinking the wrong thing.  We’re supposed to instinctively know the latest PC term for any interest group or minority, no matter how often the preferred term changes, why it changed, or even if the group itself accepts it and uses the new moniker. Parents are supposed to judge which toys are okay for their kids based on what someone else says promotes violence (even though we Baby Boomers played with toy guns and army men and overall, we’re not a particularly violent generation) or enforces a gender roles (even though studies show that if left alone, girls usually gravitate towards dolls and boys toward trucks).  And according to some, it's bad to pass our religious values down to our children.  It does seem to be acceptable to the PC police to pass on our values if we totally reject religion, adopt an extremist eastern creed, or claim to be atheists.        Do We Have the Right Not to Get Hurt Feelings? A key aspect of being PC is never offending anyone.  When did Americans become so thin-skinned that they’ve come to act as if there is an actual Constitutional right-to-not-be-offended? Lawsuits are filed everyday for no more reason than because someone’s feelings got hurt.   Look at the political arena… hardly a week goes by that some politico isn’t on the news expressing outrage over something and demanding an apology.    Free Speech Steps Up Baby Boomers in their mid-fifties came of age during the late sixties, a time when some were drafted into the Vietnam War. And a time when others protested the war, the government, and big business, and concluded life was all about free love and free speech. Free speech, a right that must be used with responsibility, has always been treasured in America, but in the sixties, young people became less inhibited about using it.  Whatever category you fell into in the 1960s and 70s, no doubt you understood the irreplaceable, undeniable value of your free speech in one of the few countries where we can hold our leaders accountable.   Now those free-speakers are Baby Boomers. Have we Boomers surrendered our precious free speech to the PC police?  Maybe in a casual way.  But as a whole, Baby Boomers are understand that political correctness pits groups against each other, and that when you assign power to some, you make victims of others.  Some Baby Boomers may fall prey to the PC police. But as a generation, we seem to understand that a country that divides itself into victims and victimizers is just another third world country, the kind of country we generally pity. If only politicians had our common sense.   What is your PC quotient?  Do you know the correct terms?  Do you care? Just for the fun of it, here’s a PC quiz for Baby Boomers.  Click here to see how you do: Political Correctness Quiz Comments (0) >> Write comment Name Email Website Title Comment Write the displayed characters Add Comment

 

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