Please and thank you. Asking permission. Respecting wishes, boundaries (Oxford comma) and one’s space. Not bullying someone with your opinions whilst respecting theirs even though quite possibly disagreeing with them. These are the essence, the embodiment of the basic concept of politeness. At least that’s how my parents raised me to understand it. They were surprisingly progressive in their thinking for their generation.

A group of us who are literally joined at the hip with a mutual passion for writing instruments and ephemera were recently having our usual Saturday Pen Luncheon. As is typical, a tangential discussion ensued, this time on the politeness of Canadians on the world stage to wit one member of the group spoke up to say how Canadians were most definitely not polite. He happens to be an American Ex Pat. Even though, I like him… I said that when it came to common politeness I was exceedingly polite, but when it came to being politically correct, I was one of the most politically incorrect Canadians out there and if that fact or my opinions might offend anyone, so be it. His response was that I am most definitely not polite. Ok ya I still like him… I cannot be offended by simple opinions. I do love good debate though.

I found this interpretation of what it is to be polite quite interesting and it really got me thinking. When did it become impolite to be politically incorrect? I have never equated the two. To me the comparison is as obscure as to whether it is grammatically correct to place either one or two spaces after a sentence when keyboarding or even the use of the Oxford comma. When did being politically incorrect come to be considered as being rude? Impolite to have an opinion that just might offend someone who has a differing one? To refer to white as white and black as black, male as male or female as female? Or betwixt and between? (The former in general, not referring to the latter.)

Yet somehow in modern society it has become just that. Because, and I very politely say this with the utmost and emphatic of political incorrectness, the current and widely accepted but purely leftist definition of political correctness is to hold your offensively differing views and opinions to yourself such that you avoid hurting someone’s feelings by simply, even politely expressing them. Gone are the days of constructive conversation, discussion and simple agreement to disagree on impass. Now it’s hurt feelings and tears. Today if you don’t tow the line on popular leftist opinion, you are an outsider. A heretic. And in Canada by Liberal political definition, a dissenter, a traitor. And if you dare voice those opinions, you are voicing hate speech. Want to talk about an escalation!

Facebook, a clearly prejudicially leftist social platform (to plant my politically incorrect foot firmly into it) refers to it as “Proper Speak” and even has a policy in place for it. If you attempt to put forward a differing opinion on a post, especially if those opinions go against left-leaning views, you become the target of abuse and even risk being banned. If your statements are seen as being politically incorrect by Facebook’s leftist-oriented Proper Speak algorithm, you may find your own posts and comments unilaterally deleted, with no course of action, simply by politely expressing an alternative perspective.

And what is really scary is the idea that political leaders, specifically Canada’s very own Justin Trudeau has even attempted to influence Facebook to delete posts that may be negative to his image (not that he hasn’t been wonderfully adept at doing that himself on a daily basis), or anything that is not his truth as being politically incorrect and therefore defined as hate speech. Hate speech subsequently defined as being anything that goes against the left and their views. This now starts to get into the realm of fascism, but I will save that for another day…

And it doesn’t stop! The word “race” is now considered to be racist. Genetic and therefore physical differences occur naturally on our planet. It’s nothing more than an environmental adaptive characteristic of humans, and all life forms. Learn to deal with it! Yet we are striving to conceptually eliminate what is normal and natural. Towards that end, even if you eliminate the term race from use, it’s primal concept and issues will still remain in society, and that is simply a part of the human condition. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. So now the next step underway is unmitigated mass migration to genetically meld us to be all the same.

The terms him, her, his (Oxford comma if you insist) and hers are gender specific and now considered to be slights of gender identity. University campuses across Canada have insisted on replacing them with zim, zer, zis and zers. How are these terms any different? They still clearly delineate gender differences. But somehow they are accepted and politically correct? Clearly this in my politically incorrect opinion is nothing short of leftist absurdity!  Maybe they should just use the term “zit”.

Despite even widely differing opinions, ideals and perspectives, I truly do feel that people can get along quite well and even be great friends when they come together on even just one thread of common ground. And that has absolutely nothing to do with political correctness. It has everything to do with common politeness. And that is my own personal definition of    “A-C-C-E-P-T-A-N-C-E”.

At any time during this dissertation have I been anything other than exceedingly polite? I don’t think so. I am, after all, Canadian. Although I will admit to an exceedingly politically incorrect demeanor. And if anyone who reads this disagrees, they are clearly a part of the problem. Ok so that last comment is just rude – Busted!

Be Free! – Be Politically Incorrect!