“politically correct,”

People often joke about being “politically correct,” but if political correctness is taken to the extreme, it can lead to tyranny, which is no joking matter.

Political correctness refers to being conformed to the thought and speech of a culture or group and sometimes this conformity suppresses the truth of a given situation. People may say one thing to appease the group, and in reality, believe, think or know what they are saying is only a euphemism or that they are using doublespea, and yet they do it because they fear repercussions for thinking or speaking different from the group perception. In extreme situations, a person may face death for simply expressing ideas with their words that are contrary to perceived protocol.

Galileo, for example, was not ‘politically correct” when he made the observation that the Earth revolved around the sun and told the world. He was tried and found guilty of heresy against papal wisdom because he refused to treat the Copernican system of his times as hypothesis. However, in 1984 Pope John Paul, in a formal declaration decided to "rehabilitate Galileo" which means basically that the official church position is that Galileo was right. Galileo spoke what he knew to be true, what he believed and it went against the perceived norm; what he said was not politically correct.

In all the world, America is supposed to be the country where free speech is acceptable, but more and more, Americans are being told they have to be silent on certain issues, particularly religious beliefs. It's a little like Galileo's day where you are not encouraged to rock the status quo. However, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." We in America are to have freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly... etc. And yet, in American schools teachers and even students are commonly told they cannot talk about their religious views?

The framers of the American Constitution would have taken issue with the nonsense of such things, and they would have fainted in their socks to hear that America's schools removed the ten commandments from the walls too. It was the faith they had in the Bible and in the God of the Bible that taught men what it mean to be free. The framers knew what freedom meant, and in their minds freedom of speech was to be considered “politically correct,” as well as an honorable expression of simply being human.