Political correctness: self-imposed mental slavery

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.