Back in November I bookmarked an article entitled “10 Random Politically Incorrect Thoughts,” thinking I would blog about it. I promptly forgot about it until my friend emailed me a link to a documentary on youtube called Indoctrinate U.

Indoctrinate U seeks to explore and denounce what the filmmaker views as obsessive and excessive liberalism and political correctness on college campuses. In the interest of full disclosure, I only watched the first half hour of the documentary.

So I won’t evaluate his claims on liberalism and political correctness, today. Maybe, some other time.
I do want to talk about this idea of being “politically correct.” Princeton’s word-net defines political correctness as “avoidance of expressions or actions that can be perceived to exclude or marginalize or insult people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.”

In theory, being politically correct is supposed to help us all come together as one group of people, signing "Kumbaya" in a peace circle.

Nothing holds us back from achieving this than political correctness. We can never have a real conversation about race, class, gender, or whatever else, if we’re all walking on eggshells all the time, scared of offending someone or being labeled a bigot.

I’m not calling for hatred or intolerance. I’m calling for the opposite. But we can only get to that ideal if we start actually talking about things instead of talking around them.

Progress only comes by addressing reality head-on and taking risks. So try it. Say something politically incorrect. If you’re really brave, leave a politically incorrect comment and see what responses you get.