“We on the right can be adults and vote with our dollars and viewership or we can melt like snowflakes in the hot sun just like the social justice warrior puppets on the left.”
It’s been an interesting week for free speech, huh? I won’t go into the specifics of the Stephen Colbert incident as we all know them by now but let’s sum it up. A “liberal” said something obscene and vulgar about the President on national television and he seems to be getting a pass by the main stream media, Hollywood, and corporate sponsors who don’t quite know what to do in the face of outrage coming from an empowered right.
All you hear about anymore is white privilege, male privilege, straight privilege – and while it gets shouted the loudest by groups like Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and the short pink/blue hair feminist brigade – it’s being financed by elitist whites who can essentially insulate themselves from the mass social chaos they have created. You can hardly escape it anymore, it’s pervaded all aspects of society, and now even the right is clinging to it. It’s called political correctness and it has been the most effective tool for disrupting western society in our modern age.
It pains me to see Libertarians and Conservatives championing free speech in one breath and calling for Colbert’s head in the next. Don’t watch the show if you don’t like the message but stop with the fake outrage over a curse word on late night TV. I’ve heard worse jokes at a bar or in a circle of cops in a parking lot. Hell, I’ve said worse and am not afraid to admit it. We on the right can be adults and vote with our dollars and viewership or we can melt like snowflakes in the hot sun just like the social justice warrior puppets on the left. The first amendment is supposed to protect all speech, not just the kind we like. If there’s anyone who knows something about their freedom of speech being handcuffed, it’s those that carry the silver bracelets.
As a cop, I’m under surveillance constantly. When I’m patrolling in my vehicle and hit a speed bump or notorious Atlanta pothole, my camera turns on with an in-vehicle mic that records my out of key singing voice or the opinions of the radio show personality I am listening to at the time. When I exit my vehicle and walk away from it, my on-person mic kicks on and records whatever conversation I’m having with a co-worker, store clerk, citizen, or – from time to time – myself. Now that we have body cameras, I’m required to activate it on every 911 call or suffer the consequences when a complaint is made against me and I do not have footage to vindicate myself of whatever allegations are made. My honest word is worth less than Colbert’s without it. The extremely sensitive body camera also turns on if I move in a way that tricks the device into thinking I am running, lying down, or in any type of situation that involves physical exertion. It’s not unusual for it to kick on while I’m descending a flight of stairs. It’s for these reasons, “Are you recording?” is the most commonly asked question amongst police working the beat today. Cops aren’t afraid of being caught stealing or murdering someone in cold blood. They’re afraid of being recorded when they’re not in robot mode. For better or for worse, being a cop in 2017 means you are a real-life walking reality TV show everywhere you go. Every off-color joke I make or opinion I express – both of which I am known to do by friends and family – is subject to recording. Sadly, in this reality show, having a personality can cost you.
How do we combat being undressed by the PC police in law enforcement today? Well, we do what everyone else does. We put on an act. We’re always coming up with all kinds of good natured social media outreach attempts to “humanize the badge”. Usually the efforts are staged social media posts created by a police department’s public relations unit – and they aim to paint the officers that represent the organization in the best possible light. I consider them our version of virtue signaling. ALS Challenge videos, dances, public services announcements, and other dog and pony shows are a nice thing to do if you want to make people feel warm and cozy inside but it’s the “gallows humor”, the imperfections, and the non-politically correct speech that truly humanizes street cops. We live what most people willfully ignore and we revel in it. Nevertheless, this dichotomy in the PR realm places us between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, we’re constantly reminding everyone out there that we are “people” just like them. On the other, we are held to the expectation of behaving as robotic and consummately professional uniformed officers of the law in a PC world.
The constant documentation of all we say and do in modern society is kicked into a higher gear in my profession, but the vast graveyard where countless dead careers have gone to be eaten by the worms of political correctness is proof that the practice is everywhere. I initially wasn’t going to weigh in on Colbert, but then I heard one victim of the PC cult say something that inspired this piece. Anthony Cumia was speaking with Gavin McInness on the internet show Free Speech Radio, when he began to recite the Miranda Warning. Every American knows at least the first part of it. If you’re reading this, you’re probably already saying it in your head.
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law…”
Once you’re placed under arrest, you’re required to have this warning read to you before any responses to questioning on the nature of the crime you are being charged with can be used against you as evidence to determine your guilt. Cumia compares the Miranda Warning with daily living in a PC world by saying, “We are all constantly under arrest…anything you say can and will be used against you in life”. I thought this brilliant. Think about it. Anything you tweet out or put up on your Facebook page can be used against you by those that would like to assassinate your character. It doesn’t even have to be used in the proper context. Did you say something that could be misconstrued as racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, or bigoted in anyway at all? Any subjective inkling of impropriety could cost you your ability to provide for yourself and your loved ones whether you deserve it or not. Tyrannical domination of our populous is made possible through unrealistic and impossible to abide by politically correct rules that are as inconsistent as they are arbitrary. True bigotry is obviously wrong, but we are producing a society of fakes, phonies, and frauds – you know, the Stephen Colbert types. Maybe we are all under arrest.
The death of the first amendment comes to fruition when people railing against the PC police become resigned to the rules and elect to play the game. I know it is satisfying for those on the right to hold down a blowhard like Colbert and carve that scarlet letter onto his forehead after seeing it done to so many of theirs – I get it – but do we want to fight fire with fire or do we want to put the fire out and rebuild? To those enemies of the PC inquisition movement who are now crawling out of hiding to demand Colbert be fired, I ask this. Is your goal to lead the witch hunt or to end it?
