Timeless Wisdom - Ultimate Issues Hour: Political Correctness

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Or not to be, that is the question.

Where was God?

Isn't God supposed to be good?

Isn't he supposed to love us? Does God want us to suffer? 10 years, you're not finished yet? Marty, why did you do this to me?

Who are you, Bruce? I'm God. Bingo!

Yatzee.

Is that your final answer?

Our service has got—

ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!

Well, it was nice to meet you, God.

Thank you for the Grand Canyon, and good luck with the apocalypse. Hi everybody, this is Dennis Prager, and this is the Ultimate Issues Hour. Every week, this hour is devoted to some great issue of life. I hope we have gathered them up into some CD or, or downloadable thing because it's a real course in life. And whether you agree with me or not on any given subject is truly secondary. These are great issues, whatever arena you come from. I am going to discuss today political correctness. What is it and why does it exist? The term is used regularly and it is an extremely important subject. Hence, it qualifies for the Ultimate Issues Hour. So, what is it? Political correctness is, and I'm giving my own understanding of it, if you have a different one you are certainly welcome to offer it, but it is essentially the inability to state certain things, certain truths, see that's the key thing here, certain truths. Because they may offend certain people or certain groups. Or there are two elements to political correctness.

They—

it might be deemed offensive by some members of some groups, and the other definition is it might be painful for some people to recognize. There are two separate categories. They may be related. One is hurtful, the other is— or offensive, if you will— and the other is just painful. I will give you examples. Please understand that political correctness must entirely be a matter of truth that can't be said. Lies that are offensive, lies that are painful can't be said, not because they're offensive, not because they're painful, but because they're lies. All right, that's the issue here, and that is instrumental to the whole discussion. Uh, it's, it's, it's going to be a difficult hour to do because by definition I am going to offend certain sensibilities. My intent and let me say at the outset, is zero to offend. Why would I want to do that? It's pointless. It just increases tension. I have no desire for it. It is not the way I conduct my life or my show. But it is inevitable to talk about political correctness that if you give examples, somebody who is politically correct will be offended. So let me tell you in advance, that is the last thing I wish to do. I gave an example. We talked about this once when I spoke about stereotypes. So the issue about— there were two issues about stereotypes, not whether they're offensive, whether they are true and whether you apply it to every member of that group. Right? That's the question. And number one, is it true? And number two, is the generalization true? But number two, do you apply it to every member of the group? That's totally wrong. That's totally wrong. That's the reason you can live with stereotypes and not be a bigot. You can say in general X or Y about a group, But that doesn't mean that every time I meet a member of that group that applies. That's— everyone is an individual. So I don't know if that applies. All right. So again, let me make something clear. Political correctness, the reason it is damaging is that it fights truth. It is meant or designed to stop people from being offended, but— and that is good. There is no good in needlessly offending people, of course not. But on the other hand, it is a world built on lies if you cannot say certain things just because somebody or someone will be offended. All right, so again, there were two. Let me begin with not the offensive part, but the hurt, the painful part. All right, as an example, the best example of painful truths that cannot be said and therefore become politically incorrect has to do with the differences between men and women. A, uh, in the 1960s, 1970s, a lid was put on truth-telling about the sexes. The only thing you could say about the sexes, you could say really two things. One, you could criticize men all you like, patriarchy, sexism, et cetera, et cetera, machismo, anything you like. The other is that you can say that there are, you had to say essentially there are no differences inherent between the sexes. The moment you spoke about inherent differences, then you were then entering a painful truth. When the president of Harvard, Lawrence Summers, who is now a major economic advisor to President Barack Obama, when Lawrence Summers at Harvard as president spoke about the question, which he did interestingly enough as one who wanted to advance women, why are there so many fewer women in the sciences and in math? And he offered as a theory, he said, well, It is, is, is we need to study whether or not there are certain inherent factors in the way the brains of a man and the brain, the brain of a man and the brain of a woman function that may be a part of the reason that accounts for fewer women in the sciences and especially in math and engineering. And I'm paraphrasing here. For that he was essentially removed. For that, essentially, he was removed from the presidency of Harvard University. The politically correct professors could not tolerate what he said. A woman, I'll never forget the MIT professor who was present in the room, who said she felt nauseous, she wanted to throw up. An MIT professor. She wanted to throw up when she heard that. Why is this political correctness? Because he was talking about a truth that was painful to hear, that perhaps the brain of women militated against their pursuing math and engineering or some of the sciences. I don't find it painful. It doesn't mean a thing to me. The question that I have is only, is it true or false? It has nothing to do with inferiority. It has nothing to do with superiority. I'm awful at math. I'm awful at science and engineering. I don't feel inferior. My brain is not registered in that arena. So what? So I didn't pursue it. But, uh, but The idea that it might be, we know that men's brains and women's brains are different. We know it. I mean, it's a physical fact. So why would it be odd? If somebody had said, if a Harvard president had gotten up and said, women are inherently more intuitive than men, would anybody have demanded, would men have demanded that he resign? Would a man say I wanted to throw up? You'd either say, well, he's either right or he's wrong. Fine. Now, of course, that's not provable because intuitive is a subjective term, and therefore it's not provable like the question about math, science, engineering. It's not as empirically establishable. But there are many, many truths, and there were many opinions that can't be cited because they are things that people don't want to hear. They're painful. Not offensive, painful. For example, if I were to go on a college campus and say, young women, women here, I just want to tell you that I strongly advise that if you find a wonderful guy while you're in your 20s, get married, even if you're not ready with your career that you anticipate having. Because it is easier to attract a man at 25 than at 55. I would be booted out of the college auditorium even though what I said was demonstrably true, okay, because it's painful to hear. So one aspect of political correctness is, is it painful? The other aspect is, is it offensive? I'll talk about that when we come back on the Ultimate Issues Hour. On The Dennis Prager Show.

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Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show, the Ultimate Issues Hour. The ultimate issue today is: what is political correctness? And it is so difficult because by nature, if I'm going to be honest, some people will be offended. It is the last thing I want to do, but it has to be grappled with. We have to try to understand it. If you differ with my understanding of it, then please do call 1-800-PRAGER-776. There are two aspects to review here. One is that it is a politically incorrect statement is something true that is painful. True that is painful is especially within a male-female context about the differences between men and women, and it drives a lot of people crazy who have a vested interest for whatever reason, and I don't know what that reason is, uh, for to believe that men and women are essentially the same. And so when you speak about certain truths, uh, that men are far more likely to see women as sex objects than men to see, uh, than women to see men as sex objects, as an example— not a man, but men, uh, uh— it's, uh, it's so obviously true Yet, for whatever reason, it is painful for some people to hear. I would think it would be painful for men to hear because it doesn't speak so well about men. And yet it is women who have been taught to find that objectionable. And so any mention of differences, that girls play with tea sets and dolls, more readily than boys do. That is a politically incorrect statement. Is it true? Of course it's true. But it runs against what is called political correctness, a way of seeing the world that people wish were true. It's wishful thinking. Political correctness is a form of immaturity. It is wishful thinking that a childlike person would have. An adult should grow up and realize that these, these differences, these truths are, are there. I mean, it's almost politically incorrect to say that people are not basically good because it shatters a childlike and childish view of humanity is basically good. So again, though, I have to emphasize it, it has to be true. If something is not true then of course it's going to be offensive. Of course. And even if it's true, some people may do it to offend, but that's a separate issue. The other is, so one is painful and the other is hurtful. It shouldn't be hurtful, but, or, and maybe the distinction between painful and hurtful is a subtle one. Maybe you can just combine them and that's fine. I'll give an example there. If one speaks about the greater rates of criminal violence among African Americans, all right? Now, the issue there becomes really whether or not it is offensive. It should be clear within context. If the purpose of a person is racist, meaning that somebody wants to make a charge that blacks are inherently more violent, that is offensive and it's a lie. So it's got a double whammy. So it's— and it's offensive because it is a lie. It means you just want to say something bad about blacks. But if one wants to make a better society for both black and white Americans, or any other national group that has blacks and whites in it, and where you have this particular problem, then acknowledging the greater rates of violence among Black males— and of course it's Black males, not Black females— then that shouldn't be offensive. Rather, a serious Black says, "That's true, and we gotta work on it," instead of calling such a person names like Uncle Tom. Look, it is to say truths that are painful is very hard because you get mauled for it. But nevertheless, yeah, my deepest belief is society crumbles under lies more than any other single bad thing. Lies make society disappear. And so we have to fight political correctness with all of our weapons, and our weapons are truth but truths that are stated with a noble purpose, not to offend. Get that? Truths stated with a noble purpose. The only purpose of pointing out the greater rates of violence among black males than among non-black males is to help society and to help blacks. That should be the only reason you point it out. If you point it out because you are just angry or you want to hurt blacks, well then that is offensive. There is such a thing as offensive. The fact that I find political correctness to be a lie and dangerous doesn't mean that there aren't offensive statements you could make. Even within jokes, there are ethnic jokes that are just funny and there are ethnic jokes that are cruel. It is not possible to tell a— in my opinion, you cannot tell a joke that's funny about lynching. Lynching is beyond the pale. There is no funny joke. There is no funny Holocaust joke. You can tell funny jokes about Jews, and by golly, I have in private. That's a separate issue. That's why you have to know, does the person wish to offend? And there are certain things that are gratuitously cruel. You don't mock suffering, human suffering. You can mock traits, but you can't mock suffering. With me? That's a big deal. That's where there is ethnic humor I can laugh at, and there is ethnic humor I cannot laugh at. The fact that there are— I mean, the political correctness, I mean, the most obvious one right now is you can't tell the truths about Islamic terror. You can't even use the word Islamic and terror. You can't. Yet, yet, are you more likely, if you are hit by a terrorist in the Western world today, or for that matter outside of Sri Lanka essentially, or outside of Colombia, I mean there are non-Muslim terrorist groups obviously, but internationally, the only international terror organizations are Muslim. I'm not saying they're mainstream, I'm not saying it's inherent to Islam, those are separate issues entirely. But you can't even say that, even though it's true. That's the— it's the war on truth about political correctness that is dangerous. All right, I will take your calls when we come back. This is a rather significant subject. Remember, the war against political incorrectness, the war on behalf of political correctness, is really a war against truth. And you can't make a good and decent society based on lies. It advocates lying. That's what political correctness in its essence is about. 1-800-PRAGER-776, the Ultimate Issues Hour on the Dennis Prager Show.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

Alrighty everybody, Dennis Prager here, and I hope you have been listening carefully. Is that right for a talk show host to say even? Because it's such an important subject and so rarely clearly defined, and that is political correctness. And the issue, remember, is ultimately not offense or painful, the ultimate issue is truth. It's a war against truths in the guise of not wanting to offend anybody. And even if the person really is politically correct because they're afraid of offending anybody, it's still a war against truth. Lies about groups are lies, and they are defamatory, and they're libels. That's a separate issue. That's a That's truly bad. Lakewood, New Jersey, and Mark. Hello, Mark. Dennis Prager. Hi, Dennis. Hi. What I wanted to say was I think that one element, besides the blocking out of truth, I think there's an element that's very negative for the victims, because they tend to— what happens is that they tend to start defining themselves in the terms of the people who offend them.

And they don't get a chance to develop their own self-positive self-definition.

That's a very intelligent point. Very intelligent point. That's such an important point. As if the person's truth about the group means it's about me, right? Right. Yes, very good. I'll get back to the example that I gave, and please forgive me, uh, if you, if, if you don't like this example, but If you want me to use a different one, I'll use a different one. But if one is talking about making a better America and about crime and one mentions that there is a disproportionate amount of violence committed by black males, then why would a black be offended? Now, if the person, as I said, if the person intends to hurt blacks, then it's offensive. If the person intends to help blacks and help America, it's not offensive. It's just a sad truth. But he, my caller, makes a very interesting point. He said maybe it's because the person hearing it internalizes it as if you're saying it about all of us. But of course not. Of course not. And by the way, I know he's right because so often I am misquoted as saying, oh, Prager said all. As for example, the men-women thing, you know, all women can't be good engineers. I happen to know a young woman who will probably be a brilliant engineer. She's brilliant, and she probably will make a spectacular engineer, but it doesn't negate the truism that most women don't, for whatever reasons, and I don't believe they're cultural, want to enter engineering? Why do so many women enter medicine? It was cultural to be only men went into medicine two generations ago. All right. 1-800-PRAGER-776, Tampa, Florida. David. Hello, David. Dennis Prager.

Yeah. Hey, Dennis. How's it going, man?

Okay. Thanks.

Hey, what is political correctness? To me, the ultimate definition of it is tyranny with manners.

Tyranny, tyranny with manners. What does that mean?

What I mean by that is people really don't believe in the niceties of political correctness. They're basically forced to be politically correct out of fear of lawsuits and being fired or being called a bad name.

That's right. Yes. Right.

Or even thrown in prison like in Europe.

So what is it? What are the manners? The manners are among the tyrants, or what? Is that what you're saying?

Right.

They use these niceties as manners, as good manners, pass it off as good manners, when actually it's like you said, a war against truth. But it's more than that, because the only victims of political correctness are the white males. It's basically a war against the white male.

Oh, that's an interesting subject, and I think there's a lot of truth to that. Since you can say anything about the white male, and for whatever reason, there are no politically correct problems with regard to him. That is correct. You can say he's racist, you could say he's imperialist, you could say he's macho, you could say he loves violence, you could say he's patriarchal, and you're fine. That's right. That is true. So there is a lot of political correctness. The very doctrine has an agenda. Of course it is. But my biggest anger is not its agenda. My biggest anger is the war on truth. That you are held back from it. A reminder, by the way, that you can get all of my shows in pristine clarity through Prager Utopia. Back in a moment. You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show. This is the Ultimate Issues Hour. Every week at this time, I discuss some great issue of life. I wish I had the list in front of me, give you examples of what we've done. They're all available, by the way, if you subscribe to Prager Topia, you get all my shows downloaded beautifully, commercial-free, highest fidelity. Just go to DennisPrager.com, PragerTopia.com, or PragerRadio.com. That's pretty easy, no? All right, let me take some more of your calls. I'm talking about political correctness, and this is so important. It is truths that cannot be said. That is, that is in, in, in, in a nutshell what what it is. If it's a lie, then of course it shouldn't be said. Whether it's offensive or not, lies shouldn't be said. But if it's offensive, first of all, we should really do a show on when people take offense. Maybe that's a happiness hour, I don't know, but maybe it's just any hour. But we should put that down. People take offense too easily. And it is a real problem. And it depends on what you want to do with what you're saying. Do you want to hurt the group, or do you want to help the group, or do you want to just make a truth? These are all factors in what we say. Let me take some examples here from your calls. In Long Island, New York, it's Rachel. Hi, Rachel. Dennis Prager.

Hi, how are you?

I'm well, thank you.

I just wanted to say that I agree 100% with everything that you say about politically correct, uh, and, uh, it being the truth and people being afraid to hear it. My question is, when I have intellectual friends on who are on the left, and they would say, when, when you say that it's— you have to enoble— you have to— when you say something, it has to be for a noble reason. How could you know that? I think that's what they would counter. They would say, how do you know if someone is being noble? And I'm wondering how you would suggest answering that.

Well, you know it the same way you would know it— first of all, you don't always know it, but you know it a lot of the time. You ask the person, why are you making the point? I'll give you an example. There are people who have called up my show knowing I'm Jewish, and they have said, you know, Jews are disproportionately represented in the media. To which I immediately answer, you're right, what is the point? And they then, they have no answer because in most cases though, the people who make that point are angry at Jews for whatever reason. So that's not a point to ennoble, that's because I'm just angry and I want to lash out. Of course it means nothing, it has no effect. Do any of them use it to further Jewish causes? I wish. I mean, you know, it's the last thing that they care about is to promote Judaism or help Israel. That's the last thing that most Jews in the media care about. So that's an example, or a whole host of examples. But if somebody says— but by the way, it remains a truth, Jews are disproportionately represented in the media. The question is, why is the point being made? Just as if somebody would call up and say, you know, Dennis, blacks are disproportionately represented, black males, in violent crime, I'll say, that is true, what is your point? Now if they have no point, they're just lashing out, but if they have a point, therefore, what we need to do is X, Y, and Z to work within the black community to, I don't know, to further fatherhood there, to bring good values into the inner city, then that's a good reason. So that's— so you, you know the answer, Rachel, to answer your friends by asking the question, why are you making the point?

Well, they would say, why is the person who's politically incorrect making them?

Yes, that's right. So the person making the politically incorrect point needs an answer. Here is why I'm making the point, right? If they're just doing it to lash out at some group, then it is just anger.

Right, but if there's an ulterior— a positive ulterior motive—

Yes, that's exactly right. Yes, that's right. Okay?

Because that's always their claim, is that there's no way of knowing.

Well, well, but so ask. That's all. There is a way of knowing. Ask. Why'd you make the point? It's as simple as that. Great question, and I hope it was a great answer. Let's go to Ron in Oceanside, New York. Hello, Ron. Dennis Prager.

Yeah, uh, Dennis, this is Oceanside, California, but, uh, but, uh, right idea. Listen, I'm the Oceanside Gangbuster. I run a site on YouTube, and I have been involved in neighborhood watch, reducing the ethnic gang terrorism we're subjected to. And for many years, the police would show up, and if the person calling them was a white person, the police would shrug it off like, you know, you need to be more reasonable and cooperative, you need to stay inside or you might get hurt. and then they would leave. Well, I confronted the chief of police about that. He had me give a presentation. I said, look, you don't give a break to people because of their skin color. And I said, what you do is you deal with the people causing the problems regardless of their skin color.

And crime is down 42% in the last 4 years because people are prepared to be more honest.

Well, I go to the city hall meetings, I raise my hand up, I said, raise your hand if you've been terrorized because you're white. And a lot of people look at me, some people raise their hands, people come up to me later, go, look, I'm glad someone's bringing this up because I can't. I got kids in the school, my wife works for the city.

Yeah, all right, well, that's so— that's, that's what I'm saying. You're saying because people have been able to say— people need to be free to say things without at the same time wanting to hurt. If your point is to hurt, then yes, it's a— it's, it's not worth making. But if your point is to say what appears to you to be true, it may not be true. Let's find out. When Jesse Jackson said that if somebody's walking behind him in certain parts of big cities, he hears footsteps and he turns around, he sees it's a white man, he's relieved. Was he being anti-black? Was he being— what was he being? He's being honest. It's a sad honesty, but it's not anti-black. It's anti-black if somebody ridiculously infers that black means violent. That is idiocy, not to mention bigotry and everything else. But to say that there is that specific problem, it's a good thing. It's a good thing. If Muslim leaders said, yes, we do have a problem, God, the world would reach out to them and embrace them with respect. Respect and love. We'll be back in a moment.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom. If you have a friend on whom you think you can rely, you are a lucky man. If you found the reason to live on and not to die, you are a lucky man. Preachers and poets and scholars don't know it. Temples and statues and steeples won't show it.

All right, everybody, you're listening to The Dennis Prager Show. This has been the Ultimate Issues Hour, defining political correctness. And the whole notion is a war against truth in the guise of a war against offending anybody. We shouldn't offend gratuitously, and people should not take offense easily, although of course there are offensive comments that can be made, uh, that are made. Elgin, Texas. Tommy. Hello, Tommy. Dennis Prager.

Hello, Dennis. How you doing?

Hi.

They, uh, I want to tell you a little story. Before I do, I want to preface by, uh, asking you to go to chick.com and get a chance. It's like a baby chicken. Chick.com, and they'll tell you the truth about about the Roman Catholic institution and how the Muslim religion actually is an offshoot of it.

All right, all right, all right. Don't sneak in other points when you had another one to make. Go ahead.

Hey, listen, I'm from the north. I'm from the Chicago area, and I moved to the south here, and I noticed the people down here don't have a good sense of humor. They get offended real easy. Uh, northerners that kind of like to cut up and crack jokes and stuff. And I had a guy at work, a Puerto Rican from New York, and We hit it off, I thought, and we would tell— we'd tease each other when we came on duty. And, you know, he would tease me and I'd tease him right back. And I, you know, I made a fake joke. It was a lighthearted joke about Puerto Ricans being closet homosexuals, which I was just— didn't mean it, you know, it was just a joke. That's all it was.

Okay. And he got offended. Let me just quickly, because of the time factor, we just have 1 minute to go here. On these jokes, here is my view. Generally speaking, it is not worth telling people of other groups jokes about their group. Okay, we can tell A, in private, that's fine. It's like, you know, it's my view of like using swear words. I'm against it in public. I'm also against it primarily generally in private. However, You talk to your wife, you know, pillow talk, and you use an expletive, I don't think it's a particularly big deal when you're just emoting about something. Likewise with these jokes, it doesn't make you a bigot if you confine it to your home table, all right? Where I remember there was a time when they told schoolchildren, report to class if your parent told an ethnic joke. That doesn't make anybody a bigot, but it is not a wise thing to tell people at the workplace jokes about their own group. Okay, if they invite it, it's one thing. If you swap jokes, it's quite another. But, you know, look, there's wisdom too in life, but political correctness and jokes are separate issues. I'm talking about truths about male-female differences as an example, where it's a very bad thing for kids to grow up thinking it's the same thing to be a male and to be a female. This has been the Ultimate Issues Hour. By the way, I mentioned that I'm teaching Bible starting tomorrow night. It's actually starting tonight, American Jewish University, and it is up at prageradio.com. Thank you for listening.

This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis' lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.