Political Correctness Against Freedom of Speech

The supporters of political correctness argue that our understanding of others is influenced by the language we use. Therefore, they encourage using non-discriminatory language to refer to different identities such as ethnicities, genders, sexual preferences, cultural backgrounds, and nationalities.

The widespread intention to avoid the harmful undertone in the language has created alternative terms for many concepts and groups of identities. For instance, the terms with prejudicial denotation such as negro and chairman are being replaced by African-American and chairperson respectively. The basic idea behind political correctness is to avoid using the derogatory terms in the public domain.

On the contrary, political correctness is being criticised by many others as an “attempt to artificially manipulate language use for a social goal” (Hale & Basides, 2013, p. 77). The opponents of political correctness argue that political correctness has nothing to do with the reality of life and it is merely a tool at the hands of those seeking power. They argue that using alternative terms only euphemise the harsh realities and manipulate the use of language. Therefore, political correctness has utilised in favour of power rather than in avoiding discrimination.

The ex-Prime Minister Tony Abbott is slammed by Fairfax Media contributor, David Campbell, criticising Abbott’s double standard towards freedom of speech. Abbott has announced that if people like the freedom of speech and don not like political correctness, they should vote no to same-sex marriage. Campbell emphasises on the vagueness of political correctness and objects that in another case Abbot had ignored the freedom of speech of Yassmin Abdel-Magied. This shows that political correctness can be easily utilised as a tool to manipulate language in political domain against freedom of speech.   

References:

Campbell, D. (September 11, 2017). Confusion reigns on what is politically correct and what isn't. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/confusion-reigns-on-what-is-politically-correct-and-what-isnt-20170911-gyf0cr.html

Hale, A. & Basides, H. (2013). The keys to academic English. Melbourne: Palgrave Macmillan.