What do you think Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

What do you think - Essay Example In the United States, political correctness in linguistics is founded on the intention to promote equality for everyone. However this intention has been lost, as I will detail in the following arguments: Our societys over-abidance with political correctness seems to hamper, even reverse the social progress that we have achieved. Our uptightness causes tensions within communities where there need not be any. To encourage politically correct language is to encourage censorship. Trying to hide the truth under the guise of politeness prevents people from getting personal for fear of offending others’ sensibilities. Therefore it does more harm than good. If one chooses to do something that dos more harm than good, it is considered unreasonable or unintelligent. Therefore politically correct language is unreasonable and unintelligent. Politically correct language emphasizes discrimination, rather than lessens it. In some cases it could even become a case of self-fulfilling prophecy, where an otherwise harmless expression, when deemed â€Å"offensive† by the powers that be becomes offensive simply because they say it’s politically incorrect. For example, the children’s rhyme â€Å"eenie meenie miney moe†¦Ã¢â‚¬  is considered politically incorrect because it was at one time and in some areas in the United States associated with racist sentiments (â€Å"catch a nigger by his toe†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Political correctness supposedly promotes equality for everyone, but in this case, it promotes the discriminative element, rather than just let the phrase lose the â€Å"offensive† meaning. If it does not fulfill the goals that it intends to achieve, it does not make sense to follow it. Therefore politically correct language is pointless. People who try so hard to say the right thing in the name of political correctness they end up just looking foolish. For example, not using the term African-American for black people