One of the things that (a) sets progressives’ teeth on edge and (b) quickens the heartbeats of ignorant racists, bigots, misogynists, and sexists is the idea that “political correctness” is censorship. It is, of course, nothing of the sort. It’s actually an expression of our fundamental right to call someone out on their racism, bigotry, misogyny, and sexism. You’re free to be one of these closed minded people but you are decidedly NOT free to be immune from criticism for your shitty views.
A developer of a new extension for the Chrome browser has an answer for this. They developed PC2Respect, an extension that was inspired by this quote from author Neil Gaiman:
I started imagining a world in which we replaced the phrase “politically correct” wherever we could with “treating other people with respect”, and it made me smile.
PC2Respect replaces the phrase “political correctness” with the phrase “treating people with respect” and the phrase “politically correct” with “respectful” on webpages, effectively “making the web a slightly better place.”
So, when you read an article where Donald Trump says, “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct”, it will read, “I think the big problem this country has is being respectful.” When he says, “I’ve been challenged by so many people and I don’t, frankly, have time for total political correctness”, it will read “I’ve been challenged by so many people and I don’t, frankly, have time for treating other people with respect.”
When Jeb! Bush, speaking about the #BlackLvesMatter movement says, “We’re so uptight and so politically correct now that we apologize for saying ‘lives matter?'”, it will read, “We’re so uptight and so respectful now that we apologize for saying ‘lives matter?'”
When Ben Carson, talking about the offensive phrase “anchor babies” says, “What I called silly is political correctness going amuck, that’s what’s silly,” it will read, “What I called silly is treating people with respect going amuck, that’s what’s silly.”
Such a simple solution. LOL.
[CC image credit: Richard Layman | Flickr]
