In a country where one of the primary principals is free speech, I often feel silenced by my peers. It is due to the over-saturation of political correctness within our culture that generates fear and stifles discussion. We are experiencing a revolutionary time of activism and positive change, but people mindlessly throw out accusatory terms like “sexist,” “racist,” and “bigot” without truly knowing their meaning, or repercussions. While PC (political correctness) may have started as a movement concerned with tactfulness towards those of another race, religion, or gender in hopes of being more inclusive of marginalize groups, its’ spread to liberal academia has corrupted it.

If you do not adhere to demands of the “PC Police” in their ivory towers, you are not only uneducated, you are ignorant. If you are not aware of every small matter that may offend another individual, you are uncultured and undeserving of participation in public discourse. I have been so torn of my own personal autonomy, I feel I have lost pieces of myself that do not fit into this PC Culture.

In what should be a market place of ideas, I am unable to voice my opinions in some classes in fear someone may find unintentional offense. I have been stripped of the ability to speak freely with friends and acquaintances who I may encounter without first sifting through my thoughts, picking out only those that might not be found inexplicably “hurtful” or “harmful.” I’m losing the ability to intimately and authentically connect with another person. This era of political correctness is causing us to lose authenticity.

Political correctness has turned into a game of "who's the most offended in the room." A culture of coddled, over-protected individuals is springing right before our eyes and they are incessant about their sensitivities being catered to. No one honestly expects to go through life never getting their feelings hurt, and yet, it’s demanded. Karen Prior, writer for The Atlantic, recently wrote that there has been a shift in the nature of “political correctness” to that of “empathetic correctness”. She states that:

“While political correctness seeks to cultivate sensitivity outwardly on behalf of those historically marginalized and oppressed groups, empathetic correctness focuses inwardly toward the protection of individual sensitivities.”

While it is good to be courteous of others feelings, there is a balance between being tactful and genuine. Each time you have to filter what you want to say, with what political correctness deems you “should” say, you lose some authenticity. The line between what is politically correct and incorrect has gone so astray that someone can cross it without any form of malicious intent. And we live in a society of thought police anxious to point the first finger.

This culture of “finger wavers” wants to be the first to point out “inequities” in political policies, public figures, literature, pop culture, award ceremonies, education, music, news, social media, conversation, and relationships. They enjoy the higher altitude when they can hold their head that much taller knowing they were more observant, educated, cultured than the rest of us who didn’t notice "how offensive it was". You see, there is a difference between intent and impact, even if none of us found it off-putting or insensitive, it’s worth a waving of that righteous finger.

“Appropriate Speech” is hindering free speech, but no one is being hauled off to prison quite yet; we are just being publicly shamed by our peers or exiled from the discussion. Not only is it changing public policy, it’s changing discourse. The way you and I relate and speak to each other. In fear of offending someone, discourse is no longer open and free. Mary Ann Evans has a great poem about relationships where she says:

“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.”

Those hands are not faithful anymore, they are too busy pointing fingers. There is no longer a safe feeling in discussion where individuals will look at your intent rather than what lines of political correctness you fall under. Each thought must be weighed and they are not poured, but merely sprinkled. This state of conversational numbness, where we mindlessly say what we “should” say, is not authentic or genuine, it’s unnatural, controlled, and contorted. Original thought has been replaced by restructured and recrafted thought. We are a country unapologetically losing its authenticity.