Political Correctness in Extremis

The initial concept of Political Correctness was to preclude the use of gratuitous generalisations regarding races, religions, sexes and politics that contained a negative connotation. The use of these words is generally demeaning of that race or grouping and often unfairly categorises all members of such a group with the same degrading or humiliating appellation. With the principles now being extended into all facets of life, has the concept thwarted free speech or, as shown in the examples below, prevented the enjoyment of one’s own culture and way of life.

In tracking down feel-good stories for a blog, adjacent to one of these stories in the British Telegraph was an article on Town Councils in the UK which had banned the word Christmas as being too indicative of one religion and hence offensive to Muslims in their Communities. Their staffs were instructed to replace it with the words Happy Festive Season.

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