May 1, 2018

Want to know the worst thing about 2018? Political correctness.

Just like video killed the radio star, political correctness is systematically killing so many forms of self expression and creativity, especially for writers and other creatives like yours truly.

Here is a short list of things I've started to blog about but have abandoned because I don't want to deal with the blowback, or potential perception of an assault on someone else's feelings through me sharing my thoughts on my world experience:

- Struggling with still wanting to enjoy Kevin Spacey's creative work despite all the allegations against him.

- Concerns about how the "body positivity" movement is causing our society to normalize unhealthy weight gain to the point that it will be detrimental not only to people's lives, but to our society as a whole because unhealthy people place a greater burden on our medical system.

- Issues with the lack of nuance and journalistic integrity surrounding how Babe.com reported on Aziz Ansari.

- Posts exploring how the rejection of Margaret Atwood - a woman who has literally spent her professional career and decades of her life as an author and advocate for equality and feminism - can be so easily dismissed as "out of touch" by a new generation of feminists who dismiss her criticism of the #metoo movement because they've had the luxury of not having to spend decades advocating for what they have.

- Thoughts on the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal and how if the general populace put half as much effort to monitoring how and where they shared their data as they do on being mad at Facebook for the repercussions of a security issue they resolved four or five years ago then we may not have been in this mess in the first place.

- Further posts on how, as a marketer and someone who relies on data from Facebook to do my job (which is creating content and ads that grow businesses, present problems to solutions our clients' customers have, and provide services that provide the revenue to keep people employed), tactics like logging the places you visit on non-Facebopk websites provides heaps of valuable data to help us better understand human behaviour in aggregate, and that it's not actually as sinister as people make it out to be.

- Further posts on how companies like Google, Reddit, YouTube, and others track every move you make online and how, in aggregate, basically nothing we say or do is really that "safe" or "private" and the best solution is either to a) nope out entirely or b) accept that the drawback of being able to use Google Maps on your phone and receive updates based on your location is that maybe you need to be a little more mindful with what you do online. Or get okay with being watched because that's the age we live in, because your government is just as invested in your data as Facebook is.

But I don't because I'm a wimp. Or because I worry that these views, just stated out loud, will affect my business. Or because I just don't want the damn fight.

I'm tired of being fired up all the time.

Is anyone else tired of the "call out" culture we live in?

Is anyone else just looking for like, a nice, chill opportunity to explore some issues you think are important and worth discussing without someone jumping down your throat about it

(and potentially sending you death threats and crazy stuff like that about it)

because I am. I'm so tired of worrying about hurting other people's feelings by simply expressing an opposing viewpoint. I'm a smart and well-read and thoughtful person, but I often feel smothered by the political correctness of the age we live in

and I'm not even a dang conservative. I almost feel bad for them!

Almost.