Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkScribe
Some people do have a way of polarising others - I do. I am often less than politically correct, in fact I find political correctness to be one the most negative influences on modern society. When you lose the ability to say exactly what you feel in an honest manner, you might as well keep silent.
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Polarizing people serve a valuable social role by challenging "accepted wisdom" groupthink.
Keeping folks silent is the *intended* purpose of Political Correctness; instead of countering uncomfortable ideas with logic and reason, it counters it with decibels and intimidation.
Of course, driving dissent underground *never* comes back to bite you...
Political correctness is a very dangerous game because by muting dissent it makes it easy to delude yourself into thinking your position is righteous and universal... until reality (or an angry author on the warpath) smacks you a good one. (Case in point, the subject of this thread.)
Edit: Heinlein said it pretty concisely:
Reason is poor propaganda when opposed by the yammering, unceasing lies of shrewd and evil and self-serving men. [Assignment in Eternity (1953)]
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein