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political correctness

If you're searching for a defense of the students' actions, look to Pence's speech.

On Sunday, a group of about 150 students walked out during Vice President Mike Pence's commencement address at the University of Notre Dame.

Conservative outlets blasted the silent protest as a form of intolerance to opposing views and an affront to free speech. But according to Mike Pence's own speech, that actually couldn't be further from the truth.

Photo by Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP.

In his address, Pence railed against political correctness, intolerance to others' opinions, and people trying to impose their views on others.

"Far too many campuses across America have become characterized by speech codes, safe zones, tone policing, administration-sanctioned political correctness — all of which amounts to nothing less than the suppression of freedom of speech."

It's undeniably weird advice to get from someone who has — in his 16 years in politics — worked hard to enshrine his own personal views into law and create barriers to others' ability to live their lives.

In early 2015, as governor of Indiana, Pence signed a bill into law allowing businesses to turn away customers for being LGBTQ. As a member of Congress, Pence co-sponsored a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage because he doesn't believe in it. In 2016, he tried to ban Syrian refugees from being resettled in Indiana. He also signed a bill requiring people who have abortions to bury or cremate aborted fetuses because of his personal stance on abortion. One woman was even sentenced to 20 years in prison under a Pence-signed law for "feticide" after self-inducing an abortion.

While it's his right to hold those personal beliefs about abortion, marriage, and Syrian refugees, using the law to impose those views on others (and take away their right to make decisions based on their beliefs) is exactly what he used his speech to say politicians shouldn't do.

Photo by Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP.

After all, what is "political correctness" if not the idea that we should enforce a right and a wrong way of thinking or acting? You'd think that someone opposed to that concept wouldn't use the law to impose their own personal views on others — but that's what Pence has spent a career doing.

The students aren't "snowflakes" for walking out, either — they're simply taking Pence's advice to heart.

A Notre Dame professor offered a perfect defense of the students' actions, telling BuzzFeed writer Anne Helen Petersen (anonymously) that the walkout was a "powerful choice of protest in literally standing up for [what] they believe is right for them, for social justice and civil rights, and for Notre Dame."

— (@)

The best defense came from Pence himself, speaking in support of "free expression," which includes things like, yes, peaceful protests.

Pence offered an impassioned defense of "the time-honored tradition of free expression" and urged students not to allow those who wish to suppress that speech to "be met with silence."

GIFs from University of Notre Dame/YouTube.

Ironically, it's the people who say the students should have stayed seated — some going so far as to say students who walked out should have their degrees withheld — are the ones promoting an "increasing intolerance" to opposing and suppressing free speech.

Luckily, the student protesters heeded the words of the man whose speech they missed by not allowing themselves to be silenced.

Photo by Santiago Flores/South Bend Tribune via AP.

Congrats, Notre Dame class of 2017 for your academic achievements and your commitment to free speech.

What Seth Rogen had to say about his old, 'blatantly homophobic' jokes.

We all live and learn, Seth.

What does comedy, the peppered moth, and President Obama's position on marriage equality all have in common?

They've evolved. But, as the saying goes, change doesn't always come easy.

Those moths had to put up with pollution. Obama had to deal with political pushback. And Seth Rogen was forced to come to the realization that some of his old jokes were actually pretty terrible, now that it's 2016 and all.

Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images.

Rogen recently admitted that a few of his old movies totally crossed the line when it comes to offensive jabs.

In an interview with The Guardian, Rogen reflected on how his own comedy has changed to be more cognizant of how a joke can go too far:

“It’s funny looking at some movies we’ve made in the last ten years under the lenses of new eras, new social consciousness. There’s for sure some stuff in our earlier movies — and even in our more recent movies — where even like a year later you’re like, ‘Eh, maybe that wasn’t the greatest idea.’”

Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for MTV.

One movie that's particularly cringeworthy?

“There are probably some jokes in ‘Superbad’ that are bordering on blatantly homophobic at times,” he said, noting that the film had been trying to reflect the immaturity of high schoolers. But still, he said, the jokes were "glamorizing that type of [offensive] language in a lot of ways.”

His comments get at an important topic: the evolution of comedy.

Sure, comedy shouldn't be forced to adhere to anyone's rules. But isn't comedy best when it's actually relevant to the times?

Evolving comedic standards are why Eddie Murphy wouldn't strut on stage in 2016 and drop gay slurs at the expense of AIDS patients (like he got away with doing way back when). It's why Trevor Noah admitted to being an "idiot" for tweeting out sexist and anti-Semitic jokes in 2012 — "you should not like [the jokes you cracked] back then, because that shows that you’ve grown," he explained. And it's why Amy Schumer decided to confront her own racist routines from years ago.

Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for The Critics' Choice Awards.

In one of her old standup sets, Schumer told an insensitive joke suggesting Hispanic men are rapists. The joke resurfaced last summer, and many people weren't pleased. So the comedian dealt with it, head-on:

“I wrote this joke [two] years ago. I used to do a lot of short, dumb jokes like this. … Once I realized I had more eyes and ears on me and had an influence, I stopped telling jokes like that on stage. I am evolving as any artist. I am taking responsibility and hope I haven’t hurt anyone. And I apologize [if] I did."

Sarah Silverman (who, by no means, plays it safe) also thinks comedy shouldn't be an exception to the rest of society — it should "change with the times" and "change with new information," too:

“I caught myself a few years ago fighting ‘gay.’ I [said] ‘gay,' like, ‘that’s so gay.’ … And then I stopped myself and said, ‘What am I fighting? I have become the guy from 50 years ago who said, ‘I say colored. I have colored friends.’ … It’s not hard to change with the times, and I think it’s important."

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

Even Patton Oswalt — who detests political correctness — said he "gets to be wrong, and [he] gets to change" when it came to his own failures in grasping the nuances of why a particular rape joke (told by a different comedian) was a bit of a problem:

"There is a collective consciousness that can detect the presence (and approach) of something good or bad, in society or the world, before any hard 'evidence' exists. It’s happening now with the concept of 'rape culture.' Which, by the way, isn’t a concept. It’s a reality."

Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images.

Comedy — like basically every other thing in the universe — needs to evolve to stay relevant.

It should be edgy. It should makes us uncomfortable at times too (Schumer just proved that sometimes uncomfortable comedy is exactly what this world needs).

But as Rogen hinted at this week, if you're punching down with a lazy joke that doesn't belong in 2016, you should probably ask yourself if the punchline's really worth it.

From Your Site Articles

What is political correctness? Here's what it does — and doesn't — mean.

Showing others kindness and respect is a virtue, not a flaw.

Political correctness is running amok! Or something.

What is political correctness? You may have noticed that term floating around quite a bit these days. And if the way it's being used is any indication, it's a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad thing.

Death by P.C. culture! The most painful way to die! GIF from CNN.

From the sound of it, political correctness is responsible for the slow destruction of American culture, drug abuse, acts of terrorism, and even comedy!

Jerry Seinfeld is not having it, you guys. GIF from "Late Night with Seth Meyers."

But when you look at what the term "politically correct" actually means, it paints a much different picture.

This is a cliche way to start any argument, but bear with me. Merriam-Webster defines "politically correct"as "agreeing with the idea that people should be careful to not use language or behave in a way that could offend a particular group of people."

"I started imagining a world in which we replaced the phrase 'politically correct' wherever we could with 'treating other people with respect', and it made me smile." — Neil Gaiman

Other dictionaries give similar definitions, but what it basically comes down to is political correctness means not being a jerk to others. Political correctness is nothing more than treating others with respect. Being kind. Being a nice person.

And, yes, this means maybe not calling someone a racial slur and not making judgments or assumptions based on stereotypes.

It's nothing more than being a nice person. GIF from "Tangled."

To illustrate the true meaning of political correctness, just install this genius browser extension.

Byron Clark released PC2Respect, a Google Chrome extension that automatically replaces the term "political correctness" to "treating people with respect" on any web page.

Just a few samples of the greatness that is the PC2Respect extension.

Clark was inspired by a blog post that author Neil Gaiman wrote in 2013:

"I was reading a book (about interjections, oddly enough) yesterday which included the phrase 'In these days of political correctness…' talking about no longer making jokes that denigrated people for their culture or for the colour of their skin. And I thought, 'That’s not actually anything to do with "political correctness". That’s just treating other people with respect.'

Which made me oddly happy. I started imagining a world in which we replaced the phrase 'politically correct' wherever we could with 'treating other people with respect', and it made me smile."

Give it a try.

Take any quote using the term "political correctness" (or a variation on that), and replace it with "treating people with respect" or "being nice."

The result is both funny and eye-opening.

For example, during one of this election cycle's primary debates, Donald Trump said, "I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct." When you swap in the actual definition, what he's really saying is, "I think the big problem this country has is treating people with respect."

Or, for another example, New York Times opinion writer Ross Douthat wrote, "'The demands of political correctness' can indeed 'act like an acid.'" Now imagine that same sentence with the correct definition: "'The demands of being nice' can indeed 'act like an acid.'"

Kind of funny, right? And even when you question the most basic statements being made, the results are pretty obvious.

For example, is "being nice" killing people? No.

And when you think of it that way, political correctness isn't such a bad thing after all.

Political correctness is about respect and kindness, not life and death. The examples listed above ("the decline of American culture," drug abuse, terrorism, and "the death of comedy") aren't the results of political correctness. Laying blame at a concept of respect rather than underlying issues (such as poverty, the War on Drugs, our country's foreign policy decisions, and people simply not finding certain comedians funny anymore) is a major cop out.

GIF from American Bridge 21st Century.

Political correctness is actually just being nice. It's not censorship. It's not an infringement on your First Amendment rights (you can go on Twitter and tweet whatever "politically incorrect" thing you'd like, and I can pretty much guarantee you probably won't be arrested for it). It just means showing some basic respect for other human beings. The same kind of respect and kindness we expect others to give to us.

A textbook once listed her as the definition of the word 'offensive.'

Free speech is under attack! Or at least that's what some comedians would have us believe.

It seems like every few weeks, a new comic pops up to go all "kids these days" and decry what they call a culture of political correctness. Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Patton Oswalt are all outspoken critics of this culture, especially when it comes to a comic's haven: the college campus.

That's why when I heard that comedian Sarah Silverman, who has never shied away from being politically incorrect herself, had weighed in on the debate over whether or not political correctness was destroying comedy, I figured it was more of the same.

I was dead wrong.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Silverman tackled the question with amazing nuance.

She began by stating a simple truth: You can't please everyone.

Comedy, like any sort of creative media, is a subjective field. It's inevitable that you'll encounter some people who find your work offensive in ways.

All GIFs from Vanity Fair.

This is a point often raised by comedians who push back against being politically correct. Which is why I was so surprised, and delighted, by where she took the answer next.

Silverman is calling on comedians to "change with the times, to change with new information."

Whaaaaat? She's siding with Team Be A Good Human? Yes! Join us, Sarah! We have cookies!

Silverman touched on one of her own comedy crutches and the evolution that led her away from it: her habit of calling things "gay."

Clinging to that single word to describe something she found boring, annoying, exhausting, or otherwise not her cup of tea is ridiculous, to say the least.

Why was she clinging to that word so tightly, she wondered. And how would it sound years from now?

So she scrubbed that use of "gay" from her vocabulary, and it turns out it wasn't really all that inconvenient.

If calling things "gay" was hurtful to people, why do it? As a comedian, isn't her job to bring joy to others? She knew for sure it wasn't her job to reinforce negative stereotypes about the existence of an entire group of people.

And she decided to make sure her comedy reflected that.

And as for that P.C. college crowd so many comedians seem to fear?

She made a great point there, too:

She's right. Comedians can yell at kids to get off their metaphorical lawns or they can try to understand why the kids are there in the first place. And it's a lesson for all of us: As we grow older, it's important we continue to become aware of the world around us and change with it accordingly.

A static life isn't really much of a life at all.

So what makes this all so surprising coming from Silverman?

Well...

Silverman's career has consisted of riding (and frequently overstepping) the line between edgy and offensive.

She's managed to upset just about every minority and oppressed group to walk the earth. Perhaps her most infamous joke involved the time she did blackface on her Comedy Central show, which was probably (definitely!) ill advised.

I mean, a textbook once listed her as the actual definition of "offensive" (seriously).

Does this mean the world will see a less edgy, gentler Sarah Silverman?

Believe it or not, I kind of hope not, and hear me out.

There are ways to be funny and edgy without being hurtful. I trust Silverman can find that balance if she wants to. One of the things I've always appreciated about her work is her fearlessness. When the risks she takes pay off, they pay off big. Now that she's giving more thought to the effect her words can make (both good and bad), I'm excited to see her prove that you can be an edgy, funny, and yes, politically correct all at once.