This country needs a substantial dollop of diaper cream
The butt-hurt is too pervasive, and truth is its victim
He who dares not offend cannot be honest. - Thomas Paine
Political correctness, in all its forms, under whatever other names, has contributed significantly to the decline of America. When I was a kid, no one had ever heard the phrase, “politically correct.” I recall people pretty much just speaking their minds, especially kids. Did people sometimes get their feelings hurt? Sure…especially kids. Words may at times sting, but back then, people seemed to have thicker skin. Insults didn’t result in school shootings, being cancelled, or getting doxxed.
Then along came political correctness. It began as a term used by politicians to mock far left-wing lunacy, but it eventually worked its way into common language and took on new meaning. The general usage was a way of describing the idea that it wasn’t “correct” to use certain words or phrases, usually in reference to other people, because it could be offensive. Avoiding uncomfortable terminology allows people to abdicate responsibility for their actions; it provides an escape from guilt and callouses the conscience. As such, society increasingly accepted this as the norm. Political correctness grew like an undetected cancerous tumor, eating away the healthy tissue of our culture as it gained prominence.
As speaking truth grew more socially unacceptable, true offenses flourished with people standing silently by, or worse, found euphemisms to soften the perception of heinous acts. Instead of “committing adultery,” cheating on one’s spouse became known as “having an affair.” Fornication came to be known as “casual sex” or “one night stand.” Murdering a child in the womb became known as abortion, then “choice,” and now “reproductive care.” Honesty, once valued over almost all things, lost its luster and itself is now an offense. While some tout the virtue of “political correctness” as a method of protecting otherwise oppressed groups of people, the actual result has been the normalization of behaviors and conditions that once were considered reprehensible.
The tumor that began as political correctness is no longer hiding under the skin. People’s sins are not just laid bare, they are celebrated. What once was confined to the privacy of ones own home or the purview of a psychiatrist’s couch is now flaunted in public and foisted upon the population. The concept has gone so far that the inverse of political correctness has arisen. Anyone who would seek to speak truth must now be accosted with terms that both are lies in and of themselves, and that political correctness would not have permitted. If one says homosexuality is a sin, that person is labeled a “homophobe.” If someone believes radical muslims are a threat to society, he or she is decried as an “islamophobe.” If an individual believes a man is a man and a woman is a woman, that individual is castigated as a “transphobe.” These words are themselves nonsensical. The suffix “phobe” or “phobia” indicates fear. No one speaking these truths is afraid of such things. Worse, however, is that people are instilled with real fear, fear of speaking the truth.
As this cancer spread, new categories developed for classifying offenses. Overt “macro-aggressions” no longer rule the day. Inadvertent or unintentional “micro-aggressions” run roughshod over people’s emotions. Reveling in sin is now a virtue, and calling out sin anathema. While bringing a child into a bar or strip club is still prohibited, taking a child to a drag show where men dressed as women dance suggestively is lauded as good parenting. It’s considered a tragedy and human rights violation for muslims to genitally mutilate girls, but it is rectitude to do so if the girl believes herself to be a boy.
While people often truncate a quote from John Adams to point out that our Constitution was suitable to govern only a “moral and religious People,” the rest of the quote explains why:
While our Country remains untainted with the Principles and manners, which are now producing desolation in so many Parts of the World: while she continues Sincere and incapable of insidious and impious Policy: We shall have the Strongest Reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned Us by Providence. But should the People of America, once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another and towards foreign nations, which assumes the Language of Justice and moderation while it is practicing Iniquity and Extravagance; and displays in the most captivating manner the charming Pictures of Candour frankness & sincerity while it is rioting in rapine and Insolence: this Country will be the most miserable Habitation in the World. Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
From John Adams to Massachusetts Militia, 11 October 1798 - emphases mine
Our country has traveled a long way down the road Adams lamented. True “Candour frankness & sincerity” are all but gone. People use the language of “justice” as they themselves commit injustices. Iniquity abounds. Many praise actual rioting. While America was once a “moral and religious People,” through political correctness it has become immoral and irreligious. Though the values of faith and morality were revered by our founding fathers, and a new country built upon them, those who would express such values now are considered dangerous extremists threatening the soul of the nation.
While I would love to believe a boatload of Boudreaux’s Butt Cream could return us to some semblance of sanity, I fear we are well beyond the soothing such a salve could supply. We must excise the tumor thoroughly and completely. We must regain our thirst for truth and a hunger for honesty. This can only begin if our skin once again grows thick enough to deflect the aspersions cast at us for speaking sincerely. We must return to being “a moral and religious People.” Those willing to stand up against the moral decline must once again embrace that childhood saying that, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me.” If we refuse this responsibility, this country will soon be, as Adams posited, “the most miserable Habitation in the World.”
Another one of your writings that captures the sentiment of the thoughts and beliefs I've had for many years.
There are too many in this country that screamed for freedom FROM religion so much that as a nation our trusted "leaders" have turned us away from and shut God out of our decision making. And I was taught that God will not go where He is not wanted. We as a country have shunned God to the point that He has left us to writhe in our own misery. And our misery is of our own making!
God has not abandoned ALL of us here. Those of us that have remained faithful to Him are still under His protection. I believe that with all of my being. I pray that we find the courage and fortitude to stand strong against the faithless of this country so we can bring God BACK to the center of our core principles and we get this country back to the greatness we once had under God.