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Comment by richrichardsson | Hacker News Reader

> political correctness has silenced important discussions our society needs to have

It would be interesting to know what are these "important discussions".

> 58% of Americans believe the political climate prevents them from sharing their own political beliefs

I don't think it literally prevents them, more like it makes them scared to share their political beliefs for fear of being called out when those are not "acceptable" beliefs. If anyone can give me an example of some political belief that is not justified in being "unacceptable", I'd be happy to re-evaluate this situation as being bad.

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Sure. During dinner with my in-laws (siblings and parents), my MIL brought up the now-removed phrase from the manifesto on BlackLivesMatter.com that says "We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another...". She and the rest of the table interpreted it as "BLM wants to abolish the family as a societal unit." I suggested the alternate, "unacceptable" interpretation that they are expanding the definition of family to include non-blood relatives and encourage caring communities. This was not received well, and I ended up getting texts about the incorrectness of my belief even after we had left that day. So now I am scared to share my political beliefs for fear of being called out, even when I share something that I view as reasonable and "possibly acceptable". But maybe you're looking for a bigger example.

Is this an example of political correctness silencing you? I'm honestly asking, because it's interesting. Traditionally, the phrase refers to being "sensitive", so e.g. your opinion would be the politically correct opinion, and theirs would be the "not afraid to hurt feelings" opinion. But if you take the phrase more literally, it would refer to the fallacy of judging what is "correct" according solely to the politics of the observer - regardless of what those politics are. In which case, yes, their political correctness is suppressing you (and if you had treated them the same way, your political correctness would have been suppressing them at the same time).

My comment was more a direct response to the parent comment's question 'If anyone can give me an example of some political belief that is not justified in being "unacceptable"…', but my scenario only fits a wider definition "being silenced by political correctness". Every American probably has a different definition of what "political correctness is a problem in our country" means. The classic definition from right-leaning Americans is "the fight on how to say and do things in the most inclusive way possible is getting in the way of actually doing the things." But me being silenced by my in-laws fits under the umbrella of political correctness if you define it as "the ardor of your support for the 'correct' political thinking burns others". That concept currently goes by other names currently. I call it culture wars and general tribalism. I think the political correctness fight of a decade ago has shifted and evolved into the broader tribalism of today. So "political correctness" as you described it doesn't fit, but I think it fits with how I think the survey respondents interpreted it.

It's pretty much the same thing for people that say things like all guns should be banned. (This is not a stance I support BTW).

But who knows in ten years the opposite reaction might be true.

This is something I hadn't considered at all. As a non-US citizen the idea that all guns should be banned isn't that unacceptable to me in the slightest.

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