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Is political correctness detrimental to society?
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A population of snowflakes

Political correctness has made our young people incapable of dealing with controversial or offensive ideas.

Context

Political correctness has left our youth unable to cope with controversial ideas. Rather than confront offensive or outrageous ideas, they would rather avoid the discussion and bar people speaking or attempt to ostracize them by branding them un-PC without having a debate.

The Argument

This generation of snowflakes is most visible on university campuses. When faced with an idea that differs from mainstream thought, students protest and call for the speaker to be no-platformed on the grounds that the speaker violates their 'safe space'. The world isn't a 'safe space' and our young people are becoming woefully ill-equipped to deal with controversial ideas due to spending their lives living in a bubble of political correctness.

Counter arguments

Political correctness isn’t about getting hyper-offended over small micro-offences, it is about acknowledging marginalised groups demands for inclusion. For example, when Trans women protest the limited definition of “women” as “people with vaginas”, they are really marginalized people calling for their right to inclusion. [1] They are not hypersensitive “snowflakes” who are offended by an outdated definition of the word “woman”, but a marginalised group having their legitimate concerns stifled by a majority group using political correctness to trivialise their demands.

Proponents

Premises

[P1] An environment of political correctness makes young people too sensitive. [P2] This is detrimental to society. [P3] Therefore, political correctness is detrimental to society.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] This is not detrimental to society. Young people are right to be sensitive to the needs of marginalised groups.

References

  1. https://www.vox.com/2015/1/28/7930845/political-correctness-doesnt-exist
This page was last edited on Wednesday, 4 Mar 2020 at 16:19 UTC

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