Political Correctness and Social Justice Run Amok

The commitment to truth, and the ability to express one’s First Amendment rights, has come under attack on college campuses by professors. Free speech has come under attack because of efforts by professors to promote social justice and political correctness. According to Merriam Webster, political correctness is defined as “conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities should be eliminated.”  The key word here is could,  and this opens up the possibility for anything to be classified as politically correct in many situations. The invoking  of political correctness on college campus has prohibited student’s right to free speech, including many prominent speakers on colleges like Jordan Peterson. The individual’s ability to express themselves has been discouraged and in some cases prohibited.

In The Media

Social justice is a political and philosophical concept which holds that all people should have equal access to wealth, health, well-being, justice and opportunity.For justice to be served we must fully understand the problems individuals are facing. Political correctness can lead to the omission of facts. Reporters call this social justice, but it is really  limited and biased reporting. When journalists report on issues they should display all information in order to obtain a reasoned solution. If they are not reporting all of the facts they are not making any progress on solving the issue. journalist can’t report the facts for fear of offending individuals, it is a counterproductive measure to try and promote equality.

Journalists may  attempt to be politically correct to push their narratives. Most journalists would agree there should be an commitment to the truth. However, implicit biases still come through in our everyday lives. When journalists cover a story, they should be relying on the facts. When writing the story they provide a commentary to the facts they report on. Many journalists may be persuaded by the media outlet they work for to present the story a certain way.  Some readers may interpret the story at face value, and see it as the absolute truth. It has become much harder to weave through subjective narratives in the mainstream media to find the truth. The mainstream media should be put in check, if not there will be biased and false stories being produced.

In Academia

The pushing of narratives is not just happening in the media, but in academia as well. All college professors should be promoting free-thought and critical thinking.However, there are some that will shoot down their student’s beliefs they disagree with. For example, a professor failed one of his students when she challenged his negative views on Christianity. The typical college education was once a truly liberal education, with the free-flowing of a variety of ideas and perspective. Two professors at the University of Colorado Denver called for all Professors to make it their mission to teach their respective subjects with a rhetoric against President Trump rather than teaching the course curriculum.There should be no pushing of politically motivated narratives, it is the professor’s’ responsibility to the student to present the information in a objective manner.  Students should be given the right to freely express themselves without the fear of repercussion from their professors. The students also deserve to be taught the course in an objective manner without the infusion of rhetoric.

College administrators have done a poor job allowing the inflow of free-speech on campus. Earlier this year, Dr. Jordan Peterson was scheduled to speak at Linfield University. However, the Associated Students of Linfield College pulled his funding at the last second and his speech was canceled. Susan Agre-Kippenhan, the vice president of academic affairs and dean of faculty cited that the reason for cancellation was that that Young Americans for Liberty(YAL) had not met the requirements for the event. Furthermore, she stated that “anti-harassment policies are not intended to limit the free exchange of opinions or the vigorous debate over ideas…intimidation, harassment, exploitation, and the use or threat of force are incompatible with the preservation of this freedom.” However, she was not able to provide evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of Dr.Jordan Peterson. Parker Wells a YAL member of Linfield was extremely  disappointed with the outcome, “Students and faculty alike were excited about the opportunity to exchange ideas with Peterson. We in the ideological minority on campus are greatly disheartened to see that opportunity taken away”

Conclusion

Political correctness and social justice have both become counter productive. They have severely limited the progress of society, in institutions like the media and academia. It has produced biased and false reporting, as a result the public is at the whim of the mainstream media’s narrative. On college campuses college administrators and professors, have prevented the student’s ability to express themselves freely, and professors have started teaching their courses through subjective rhetoric. In order to end social justice and political correctness, both the media and college campuses have to be challenged to promote the values of free speech and objective facts. Political correctness and social justice has run amok; we need to re-evaluate the ways political correctness and social justice have negatively influenced the media and academia.