Miscommunication

Wyatt O'Brien and Andrew Zambernardi, Publisher

Andrew and I chose the topic of political correctness and how we think that it has gone too far in this new age. In our opinion, we believe that it is important to be politically correct, but to an extent. People should be entitled to their constitutional rights, and one of those rights is the freedom of speech. We are not trying to say that it is okay to not be politically correct, but we do believe that some of the new aspects of political correctness have been taken too far.  We got the chance to interview our adjustment counselor, Christine Ryan.We asked her about her thoughts on political correctness and how it affects high school students and other aspects.

The first question we asked Mrs.Ryan was, “How important do you think it is to be politically correct in this new age?” She said, “I think it’s really important. We live in an age where we expect people to take us for who we are but if we aren’t being accepting through our jokes and words, then we aren’t really being as open as we expect others to be for us. “

The second question we asked was, “Do you think political correctness has been taken too far?” She said, “I think it depends on who you’re talking to. If there’s someone who is at the end of a joke, they probably don’t think the joker is being politically correct.” This answer goes a long way. Many people make jokes that could be offensive to anyone. The third question was, “Would you consider yourself someone who is politically correct?” Mrs.Ryan said, “I hope so!” Mrs.Ryan is one of the kindest, most genuine people we know. We definitely think she is politically correct.

The fourth question we got to ask was, “Do you think that high school students nowadays are politically correct?” Her response was, “I see students in a limited capacity…mainly in my office, in passing in the halls, and at the occasional lunch duty. From what I see, they are but also know I’m an adult and they probably act very differently around their friends.” As high school students, we believe this is very true. Most students act very differently outside of school with their friends compared to how they act in school and around teachers. The fifth and final question we asked Mrs.Ryan was, “How do you think being politically correct has influenced bullying?” She responded with, “I’m not sure whether or not being politically correct has or hasn’t influenced bullying. I’d hope that the more correct we are, the less bullying, but I don’t think this is the case. I think that bullying has become more subtle and secretive, especially with social media these days.” Andrew and I definitely can attest to this. Bullying has slowly dwindled over the years. It still happens, but high schools around the world are doing a great job at limiting the amount of bullying that goes on between their students.

Andrew and I are very glad that we got the chance to ask Christine Ryan these questions. I don’t think we could have picked a better person in the school to ask. The twenty first century has brought many positive things upon the people of this Earth, but also many negative things as well. Andrew and I stand strong on our view of political correctness. Being politically correct is important, but it should have its limits.

Andrew also had the chance to interview a student at IHS. The student decided to remain anonymous. This is the interview:

1.  What’s your view on political correctness?

I believe political correctness is something you shouldn’t purposefully go out of your way to avoid being, but a lot of people take it way too far with enforcing it getting mad at the smallest mistake.

2.  In what ways do people take being politically correct too far, or too seriously?

Some people will get so mad at someone for making a simple mistake, whether it’s misgendering someone, or simply not understanding what their sexual orientation means, people just get so hurt about it even if you quickly fix your mistake it doesn’t matter, they act as if you did it on purpose and are quote on quote “targeting” them.

3.  What do you think caused political correctness to be like this?

I think it’s because of things like participation medals and how everyone has to be treated the same way. In other words, society has become “soft”; there is almost no individuality anymore. If someone gets a trophy, everyone has to get a trophy. This has gotten rid of competition among young teens and they go through life being handed everything because “everyone’s a winner” even the losers.

4.  How would you describe political correctness?

I saw a quote online I believe it was by George Carlin that describes it perfectly, “Political Correctness is fascism pretending to be manners” meaning people are being forcefully suppressed to follow the “norm” that has been created by telling people with different beliefs or ideas that they are wrong, and that they are different, placing them in the opposition.

The student we interviewed had a very different view on political correctness than Mrs.Ryan. Interviewing this student gave us a different perspective on the topic and showed us that not everyone believes in being “PC”. After interviewing this student, Andrew and I still stand strong on our opinion that political correctness is an important aspect of today’s society, but it still definitely has its limits.