Rightists Are Not Culturally Significant
From
Rudy Canoza@21:1/5 to
All on Wed May 6 21:32:14 2020
XPost: uk.politics.misc, talk.politics.misc
Rightwing Culture Does Not Exist
Lately, there has been a great deal of debate amongst liberals
on the sudden return of political correctness to academia. The
Atlantic has published multiple pieces — such as “The Coddling
of the American Mind,” and “That’s Not Funny” — discussing what
seems to be a kind of infantilization of millennials in
college. Some students are even having trouble reading literary
classics, as described in this Columbia Spectator piece (don’t
even try to assign “Naked Lunch”), and laughing at jokes
(warning, George Carlin and Richard Pryor are full of
triggers).
The comedy world has been very critical of political
correctness, and it sometimes seems as though certain
hyper-sensitive liberals (a small but loud minority, I would
say) simply cannot deal with anything that they may deem
offensive. Although it was rather comical to hear Jerry
Seinfeld call out political correctness, as possibly one of the
most politically correct comedians in history, comics like
Chris Rock, who has called colleges “too conservative,” Bill
Maher, who has criticized for his comments about Islam, and
many others, have been equally critical.
When debate and speech is stifled because a certain few deem
that speech offensive or hurtful, especially within the walls
of academia, that can be a real problem. When an evangelical
Christian takes a class in evolutionary biology, for example,
the idea that human beings evolved from an ape-like species
could certainly seem offensive and upset them; and if they
cannot handle it, they should probably drop out of the class —
not try to censor it. (Unless, of course, the class is
promoting some kind of hate agenda. But this is not what PC is
really about.)
That being said, as a millennial myself, just a few years out
of college, the current political correctness scare does seem
to be exaggerated. From my own, yes, anecdotal experience, most
young people can take jokes and read controversial novels
without causing a scene.
What does seem curious, however, is how “political
correctness,” which more or less means censorship, is sold as
an entirely liberal problem. Maybe this is because those on the
left are held to a higher standard — but the idea that liberals
are all out to censor speech seems to be a wonderful piece of
ammunition for right wing demagogues like Donald Trump. When
asked about calling women names like “fat pigs” and “dogs” at
the first GOP debate, Trump responded with the clever dodge
that he doesn’t have time “for total political correctness.”
The crowd roared excitedly, sick of all those liberals trying
to shut them up.
But what about those roaring conservatives? Historically,
censorship is not a problem on the left, but the right. It was
not right wingers but socialists and communists who were barred
from speaking freely throughout the 20th century, starting with
the Sedition Act of 1918, which made it illegal to “willfully
utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane,
scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of the
Government of the United States,” and landed certain leading
socialists and anti-war activists, such as Eugene V. Debs, in
prison. It was not some P.C. liberal, but Ted Cruz’s spiritual
ancestor Joe McCarthy, who attacked countless individuals for
Soviet treason — some of whom were maybe slightly to the left
of Dwight Eisenhower — without a shred of evidence.
Today, censorship and whitewashing in public schools is a major
problem on the right. In various states, including Tennessee,
Louisiana and Texas — all red states — public school teachers
are allowed to teach pseudo-science “alternatives” like
creationism over evolution. In other red states like Arizona,
Ohio, Indiana and Florida, taxpayer dollars go to private
schools that teach creationism, falsely promoting it as
scientific. And what about the new history textbooks in Texas,
which downplay issues like slavery and Jim Crow? History
teacher Samantha Manchac told NPR that it is “an attempt in
many instances to whitewash our history, as opposed to exposing
students to the reality of things and letting them make
decisions for themselves.” This “conservative correctness”
seems to take infantilization to a whole new level — afraid
that their children will grow up to be atheists if they learn
science, or become critical of America if they learn of the
dark history of Jim Crow.
As for censorship of things deemed “offensive,” the real threat
to free speech comes from conservative organizations like the
Parents Television Council, which last year went after the
TV-MA rated show “Sons of Anarchy” for its sexual content
(although they never seem to be concerned about graphic
violence). America is, of course, notorious for its prudery,
and religious conservatives have always attempted to censor the
apparent offensiveness of two people having intercourse. Any
kind of speech or expression that they find offensive in their
prudish minds, whether it be porn or high art delving into the
darker reality of human existence, is attacked as if it were
witchcraft in 17th-century Salem.
But when it comes to censoring language and speech, Rick
Scott’s ban of the term “climate change” in state agencies
earlier this year takes the cake. And how about manufactured
terms and euphemisms like “The War on Christianity,” “death
tax,” and “welfare queen,” just to name a few? Scientific
phenomena are barred from one’s vocabulary, while terms
manufactured to rile up emotions and shut down debate are
promoted ad nauseam on programs like “The O’Reilly Factor.”
Right-wing Internet trolls seem to believe that American
conservatism has long guarded free speech from liberals, but
the opposite is true. Conservatives have always been the ones
attempting to censor speech and expression, whether it was
criticizing the U.S. government and capitalism, writing a novel
with graphic sexuality, or attempting to teach objective
science. This is not to say that “political correctness” on the
left does not exist and was wholly created by the right. It
obviously does exist. However, political correctness is greatly
exaggerated by conservatives, because it allows them to make
the claim that they are protectors of speech.
But history, no matter how sugarcoated it may be, reveals that
conservatives are anything but protectors of speech.
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