Hey Spencer,

Thanks for writing this — it definitely points out some weaknesses in my piece and specifies where I need to improve in my writing.

My core problem with “political correctness” isn’t that I don’t want to change my ways of talking and addressing other people. It goes back to the core belief of free speech and free thought. I believe that in order to be able to think and speak, we have to risk being offensive.

Now this does not mean that I advocate the notion that anyone should be able to hurl out any kind of obscene or intentionally offensive words. I’d like to live in a society where no one has to face assholes and stubborn, blatant ignorance. However, with freedom comes consequences.

We will face people who will abuse the freedom that they have and say hurtful things that display their ignorance and unwillingness to adapt. But it does not mean that we should police them through laws, publicly shame them, and punish them either for thinking what they want to think. In fact, the best way to spot them out is to allow them to show their ignorance and malice by themselves. When these bad ideas come out into the open, they can be scrutinized and criticized. Just because we try ridding them from the surface does not mean it goes away — it simply builds up within and grows stronger.

Government should never be able to mandate what an individual is allowed to think and say in their lives. This is what George Orwell warned us about in his book 1984. With every word that is removed or changed from public consciousness, we limit our ability to think and create connections between different ideas. Unacceptable words can and will be naturally filtered out of society without threat of lawful punishment. We do not want to go down the road of Thoughtcrime. It pushes our society into conformity and, in our attempts to curb the bad parts of humanity, we will inevitably suppress the goodness and creativity that exists within us.

“We can share even the most extremely opposing views to almost any audience without fear of attack so long as we show that we can understand at least some of their context, and express ourselves in a respectful manner.”

You’re right Spencer. I completely agree with this, and maybe the anonymity of the Internet disallows genuine understanding and empathy between individuals. I don’t want anyone to be attacking each other just because they disagree on certain political beliefs or philosophies of life. I wish we could all be just a bit more respectful to one another too. But wishing does not get us anywhere, and I am doing my part in this world by focusing on what I alone can do in my conversations and in my writing.

I believe that I can only help change the world by changing myself and making the things around me better. If I work on improving myself and not everything about other people and society, maybe indirectly, I can help make the world a better place.

If I take personal responsibility and focus on what I can do for myself and the people around me, maybe they will be positively influenced and be willing to change their own lives, which may affect their friends and family members positively, etc…

I don’t see my writing as divisive. Of course, we live and interact with different groups in our lives and it is impossible to just live as an individual. I simply wanted to push for free-thinkers, because I believe free thinkers are the movers of culture and create ingenious things when they are given the freedom to exercise their creativity and innate talents.

I just want a diversity of voices and ideas, and I’m sure you do too. Our perspective of how we want to get there might be different, but I believe we share similar values of respect and empathy.

I really want to thank you again for taking the time to read my article and critique some problems that may lie within it. I know I’m not the best writer and certainly not a great thinker, but I enjoy discussing my ideas with people like you and I certainly enjoy the challenge.

Let me know what you think about this! I know it’s kind of long but I hope I can learn more about you and your beliefs.