Political correctness in its original sense is a notion used in the early 20th century by totalitarian regimes in order to describe what was in tune with the party line. Ironically, it nowadays appears to be returning to its roots.
The term once used by Communists and Nazis resurfaced in the 1980s in an attempt to protect underprivileged groups of people from insult. And in the beginning of the 21st century, before the charge of the LGBTQ cult and before the onslaught of the woke movement, PC actually seemed reasonable.
However during the last decade things got out of control. Political correctness, which began as a suggestion and then moved on to become a new form of censorship, has now turned into a legal obligation.
An incident that took place just a few days ago is telling of the new folly we are faced with. In Germany, the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt – BKA) launched an investigation to criminally charge an internet user who called the Greens leader Ricarda Lang “fat.”
Lang is indeed obese. And yes, a user of the social media and microblogging platform Gab did mock the German politician with an insulting reference to her weight after her party’s resounding failure in the recent elections in Saxony and Thuringia.
Was that nice of him? Not at all. Is politeness something we nowadays generally miss? Absolutely. Should we encourage and endorse tactless or rude behaviour? By no means. Manners maketh man.
But can we criminalise impolite yet factual and descriptive speech? No, we cannot. Such a thing could cause a chain reaction that would lead to the abolition of free speech. Since we live in an era when taking offense over everything is very much à la mode, we could end up unable to talk about anything.
Of course, we could only ban offending particular groups, as it already happens more or less nowadays. It is unacceptable if you “body shame” someone on the grounds of weight, but you may call somebody short, or bald. You may not insult Muslims, but you can make a fool out of a Christian six days a week and twice on Sunday.
After all, the German authorities asked social media operator Gab for the user’s cell phone, email, IP address, payment method, past and present usernames, full name, date of birth, postal address and personal ID documents so as to protect a progressive female. It is highly doubtful that they would do the same for an insulted conservative male.
Germany has been on the forefront of internet policing, having passed the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) in 2017. Since then the EU as a whole has imposed legislation that strong-arms social media companies with regard to hate speech, defamation and alleged fake news.
For the record, being a US social media company Gab did not comply with German demands. As a matter of fact, its official statement is worth reading in full:
“We stand firmly by our commitment to free speech principles and will not compromise the privacy or civil liberties of our users. We categorically reject any requests from governments, including the German government, that seek to stifle free speech or violate the privacy rights of our users for speech which is protected by US law. In this instance, we will not be providing any user data related to the alleged offense against a German politician. Accordingly: you can get bent,” Gab said.
And while all this may even sound somewhat amusing, let us return to the nitty gritty of the case. If discovered by the BKA and prosecuted, the Gab user could face up to one year in prison. For calling a fat person fat. This is seriously alarming.
A few decades ago we set out to end hostility based on ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. As heads are now rolling in the name of equality and inclusiveness, what has become of this effort is something that Robespierre would be proud of.
Blame German politicians and their EU elite friends for open border policies in Europe