Today, we looked into the political correctness, which is the “avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against” (according to Oxford Dictionary).

In class, we listened to 2 speakers who were both against the policing of language, one coming from the standpoint of a comedian and one from the standpoint of polarisation of political groups (left and right). They both argue that political correctness retrains freedom of speech, which leads to people’s thought going underground (like maybe the deep web) and that people should control their own emotions and reactions to it instead of attempting to control and police others opinions.

When given the example of how universities are increasingly leaning to the left, it reminded me of an article about how speakers with opposing values were barred from speaking in the universities due to students’ values and inability to accept opinions which undermine their values. This aligned well with both speakers’ thoughts of how increasingly in society that there is binary opposition only, no grey area within subjects, as well as the natural human impulse of wanting to be right.

I agree with them. It is only further dividing people and creating tension. It is causing voices of the opposing side or those in the middle to be unheard. We need to assimilate these ideas and opinion, gain a middle ground to make progress which benefits most of us. By polarising values, we are neglecting the very thing that everybody has been arguing for: Freedom of Speech. If not, how different will the left be from the right?