As the title indicates, the two main problems of “political correctness” is that A) it is a political tool and B) it focuses on “correctness” rather than on truthfulness.

The term is political as opposed to ethical, moral, cultural or even legal. And we all know how political things work – replete with cronyism, lies, and calculations based on how to gain votes and how to rule people.

One of the fundamentals strategies in ruling is to divide and conquer. Nothing reflects this strategy more fully than political correctness which pits men against women, blacks against whites, gays against the religious, Christians against Muslims etc. Of course, one may argue that these problems exist already … and that would be correct. However, political correctness, in its current form, is a cure that is worse than the disease.

Looking at political correctness, the phrase focuses on correctness – whatever that means – and not on truthfulness. Being correct sounds good, but it’s very different from being truthful. And there are numerous problems with correctness.

The first problem is who determines what is correct? It is highly subjective and there is no authority to clarify or strike down the rules. It is what it is. If you refuse to follow the rules, the consequences can be anywhere from mild retribution (say, social ostracism) to serious consequences (losing a job or being sued).

The second problem with correctness is it can hide the truth, fudge a little, or flatly lie. Everything is justified by a sense of social justice or by a desire to amend social injustice. For example, sexual assaults by refugees in Europe were hidden and are still being censored by the media, the police and the government. In the U.S., crimes in African American communities are almost completely ignored by the mainstream media. In both cases, the minorities actually end up worse off in the long run by this misguided consideration. Another example is how nobody will bat an eye if you say white people have all the power in America, but try saying that Jewish people have a lot of power in the U.S., you will be compared to Hitler or, like Rick Sanchez, the CNN journalist, will get promptly fired. Statistics be damned, truth be damned.

The third problem is the arbitrary classification and ranking of people into “victim groups.” For example, American media love to endlessly talk about rapes in India, but will be silent about rapes in Europe committed by refugees and immigrants. Suddenly, the victims of rapes in Europe become invisible. Similarly, Israel can discriminate against Arab Israelis, bomb Muslims in Gaza and steal their lands in Palestine, but Israel will never be called Islamophobic. It’s as if there is a ranking of victims, and crimes will be recognized only under the right circumstances. At the Oscars tonight, there were quite a few stereotypical jokes about Asians – one involving Chris Rock parading three Asian kids who were stereotyped as nerdy as well as child laborers who assembled iPhones; then Sacha Baron-Cohen played his Ali G character and gratuitously called Asians yellow and being “small.” It’s all good according to the complex victim rules of political correctness.

Fourth, in a politically correct world, everything is viewed through a prism of race, gender, sexual preferences etc. This is a very weird way to create a world that is color-blind, gender-blind etc. For example, the Grammy Awards committee is racist if they don’t include some black artists every year. So the only way for the Oscar committee to prove they are color-blind is to be color-aware and nominate a person purely based on that person’s skin color.

Finally, political correctness is an Orwellian assault on free speech and expression. Everyone is expected to think alike, express only certain pre-approved opinions, use only certain phrases and words, avoid certain topics, be fearful of expressing oneself, and willfully ignore obvious and in-your-face truths. Such a ridiculous environment actually creates more misunderstanding, anger and rancor. And it will make people like Donald Trump very popular.

Related Blogs: Trump – Reaction to Political Correctness  and  Questioning Political Correctness