Political Correctness
Cor, it’s been ages since I’ve posted on here. Hello again! I’m here to talk about the monstrosity known as political correctness.
I first really became aware of it in 2006, when two private nurseries in Oxfordshire changed the lyrics of the nursery rhyme “Baa Baa Black Sheep” to the ridiculous “Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep”. What the hell is a rainbow sheep?! Now this is a centuries-old nursery rhyme dating back 1744, why did it become a problem in 2006?
The hard truth is that it didn’t. It was merely people afraid to offend people who weren’t offended.
Similarly, we appear to be scared of offending these unoffended people during occasions such as the Royal Wedding and sporting World Cups. Outrageously, flying the English or Union flag was illegal up until 2006 unless it was on a vertical pole. Hung any other way and it would have been in breach of advertising laws. Really? Yes. Thankfully this law was scrapped. But it seems the fear remains; the issue comes up whenever we fly our national flags. Are we being racist? Will we offend “ethnic minorities”.
Of course we won’t. I was not offended when I went to America to see stars and stripes hanging off every other building. I wasn’t even offended when I saw the Niger flag flown here in England. Why should I be? We should all be able to show our national pride, at any point of the year.
Here’s some other examples of Political Correctness gone mad, as provided by the Telegraph online:
- Bumper cars changing names to Dodgems, with the point being to “dodge ‘em” rather than “bump ‘em”.
- Some Domino’s and KFC restaurants, to the annoyance of non-Muslim customers, have stopped serving non-Halal meat, and in the case of the Pizza chain, have stopped classic toppings such as pepperoni and ham.
- £190,000 of taxpayers money was spent on dormouse bridges and boxes to save mice from being run over by traffic in Wales.
- Much loved (bizarrely by my 17 year old friend) children’s cartoon character Peppa Pig had to be redrawn wearing a seatbelt in one episode.
- It’s now politically incorrect to call your pet a “pet”. The right way to refer to your pet is “animal companion”. What a waste of time.
- Whilst racism is wrong, the line is different depending on the situation. Sometimes it’s just banter, which is perfectly acceptable between friends. If your nickname for your black friend is “Sooty”, and they have no problem with it, then why is that anyone else’s business?
- A recruitment boss in Norfolk was criticised for discriminating against the unreliable by advertising a position for a “reliable person”.
I’ve taken more than I planned out of that article, but the whole concept of political correctness is stupid.
