Imagine a world where everything you say is judged by someone. Imagine living in a world where everything you say is gender neutral. Imagine a world where you are denied freedom of speech.

Unfortunately, this could become a reality if we let political correctness get even worse. But what exactly is political correctness? Some people say that political correctness is being nice and treating others with respect, that this movement is essentially meant to acknowledge differences in race, age, religion, sex, appearance and ability. But isn’t this just manners?

Political correctness has been undermining our everyday lives. It has affected our freedom of speech, common sense and strong social institutions such as our government and education. This concept is intended to stifle our free speech. It has been infiltrating our community and culture over many years and is often difficult to distinguish what damage it has caused. There are many examples of political correctness going to extremes. To list a few examples; Santa being banned from saying ‘Ho, ho, ho’ as it could offend to women, replacing the phrase ‘brainstorming’ to ‘thought showers’ as it could offend people with epilepsy, changing the term ‘Easter Eggs’ to ‘Spring Spheres’ in case it offended anyone who didn’t celebrate Easter and finally not being allowed to put the words ‘reliable’ or ‘hard-working’ in a job advert as it could be offensive to unreliable and lazy people. And the list goes on…

A recent letter to the editor from the Australian stated “There are three kinds of people in our society, a small and driven group that seek to pull down and destroy, the complacent majority who are disengaged and another small group who protect and build.” This is a problem as the majority of people are disengaged due to circumstances such as family or work, meaning they are happy just to “go with the flow”. This could leave to a corrupt government as good families build up a good government. But due to political correctness, our society is being threatened by the PC brigade. Governments are forced to think that any type of family can raise a kid equally well. So, are you saying that a gay family can raise a child better than a traditional family of a mother and father?

Furthermore, people who talk about traditional values such as marriage and family, result in immediate backlash from social engineers. But those very people who claim to respect everyone’s point of view do not allow different ones if they don’t agree with it. And if you do disagree, this often leads you into being intimidated, ridiculed or discriminated.

Political correctness dictates everything we say based on the ‘offensiveness’ of the word or phrase. Straight away, this poses a problem. Who gets the massive power of deciding what we say is ‘offensive’? Isn’t ‘feeling offended’ is in the hands of the receiver? After all words are just words and it is the receiver’s choice to either ignore, respond or react to the comment. We are all in control of our emotions and we shouldn’t blame someone else due to how we feel. It is our responsibility to keep our state of consciousness in check.

Though we do need to take care of what we say and who we say it to, political correctness has taken it to another level. Modern political correctness and social engineering has affected our everyday lives. In today’s world, Middle Class values are incorrect according to the PC movement. So, are we saying that we shouldn’t tell children that taking drugs and skipping school is bad? Furthermore, it is starting to affect our education systems. Primary schools aren’t allowed to say ‘Christmas’ and ‘Easter’ and kindergartens are changing traditional nursery rhymes, such as ‘Baa baa Black Sheep’ to politically correct versions such as ‘Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep’.

In summary, political correctness has gone too far and affected our everyday lives. Our freedom of speech and education systems are all under the wrath of the PC brigade. The values that have built up our culture are being neglected and forgotten all because of PC and symbolism. It is our responsibility as young Australians to stand