Interesting article by the Cato Institute:
The Cato 2017 Free Speech and Tolerance Survey, a new national poll of 2,300 U.S. adults, finds that 71% Americans believe that political correctness has silenced important discussions our society needs to have. The consequences are personal—58% of Americans believe the political climate prevents them from sharing their own political beliefs.
Democrats are unique, however, in that a slim majority (53%) do not feel the need to self-censor. Conversely, strong majorities of Republicans (73%) and independents (58%) say they keep some political beliefs to themselves.
The craziest stat is the differential between Republicans and Independents. It’s no wonder the polls always skew vs. actual results. But if you look at the hate I and others take just for saying very reasonable things like “Stand For the National Anthem in baseball”, there’s a reason people are afraid. The more of us that do speak out, however, the less the social pressure is there to harass us.
World Baseball League Commissioner Hideki Ichiro wasn’t afraid to speak out about what he thought needed to change in baseball’s future. Check out Gravity Of The Game and read his heartwarming story!
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve written a long screed on Livejournal, looked it over, asked myself “Do I have the time and energy for the shitstorm this will engender?”, answered “Oh, hell, no,” and refrained from posting it.
That being said, I find myself doing that less and less these days. I think I’m getting old and cranky.
Hell, I even posted something angry and snarky on Inauguration Day 2009, disallowed comments, and had people scroll to another post to tell me just what they thought of me, and scold me for disallowing comments on the comments about our new President.
Because, apparently, I should not be able to do just as I please on my own friggin’ space.
That’s how they operate.
It gets funnier. Apparently I polluted their friends feed with an R-rated, f-bomb-filled rant that I should have put behind a “read more” cut. (Like, is your scroll button broken? You didn’t see this coming?)
Oddly enough, a few days earlier I’d posted a snippet from a novel WIP (without the benefit of a “read more” cut) wherein I dropped twice as many f-bombs than I had in my Obama rant. They were utterly silent about that one. I guess literary (HA! I crack myself up) f-bombs are okey-dokey.
It gets yet funnier. With the magic of statistics, I can see other users who visit my LJ. That person still stops by. I would love to know why.
Yup, at some point you’ve absorbed enough of it that it bounces off and you don’t care anymore. It’s actually their fault for pushing us.