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Free Speech At Home — Aaron Miller
Political correctness has stifled more speech than laws ever could.
The worst part might be that it can strike anywhere at any time. Friends and family can become its enforcers. Even children get in on the act sometimes. Nowhere is safe.
How free is your speech at home and in casual conversations? How often does political correctness intrude where you would most like to speak without reservation?
Published in General
First step: really figuring out why we’re conservative and what that actually means. Leanings and inclinations are good, but unless it can be coherently articulated then unprepared engagement might actually hurt (especially if your interlocutor is somewhat prepared). It is a myth that all leftists are some form of uninformed ahistorical out of control empaths and that all conservatives are clear-thinking principled logicians.
Second step: aim for truth in conversation (or understanding at the very least); be prepared to acknowledge truth in what your “opponent” has to say. Point scoring will get you nowhere.
…things are much less PC here [in the UK] (not just with politics).
You mean like the arrest–in mid speech, yet–of Paul Weston for the non-PCness of decrying Islam? We haven’t stooped that low, yet.
Eric Hines
How are you going to change minds if you don’t engage? How are you going to defend yourself if you go along with it?
I suspect that the reason none of my Nice Liberal Lady Friends will engage in political discussion is that they’re afraid they will get conservative cooties just from talking to me. And what if they accidentally agreed with one of my incorrect ideas? They might be drummed out of the Nice Circle themselves.
Unfortunately I think the business of evaluating people morally by their political beliefs is built into modern Leftism. Good intentions are what matter; good results are irrelevant. It has to be that way because once you start looking at the results, it’s really hard to justify most leftist policies. They insist on driving down the road that’s paved with good intentions, and apparently nobody ever told them where it leads.
To each his own, but I think it’s very important to make sure as many people as possible get a chance to hear a side of the argument not theirs. I try not to volunteer my opinion, but if someone else brings up a subject, it’s fair game, and I think I am obliged to balance the playing field. (And, I’ve occasionally been blessed to meet people from the “other side” who were patient and curious.)
apparently nobody ever told them where it leads.
And that’s it in a nutshell. They have no initiative to look for themselves. They all wait to be told what to do, what to think, by their own Betters.
Eric Hines