This is a blog post from
Welcome to the post–November 9 ‘anything-is-possible’ world. An earthquake just struck the Milky Way. Against all odds, the politically-correct, feminist, educated, multicultural, tolerant, NYT -reading Americans lost. Instead, the illiterate, racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic, Fox News– watching Americans won. Thankfully, Hillary Clinton was generous enough to coin a laconic term for the latter kind — “the basket of deplorables”.
As was the case with Brexit, the liberal arts graduates — flagbearers of the morally superior Politically Correct (PC) army — will lament the outcome as America’s — or even the world’s — descent into a dark abyss. They will readily blame the ‘countryside’ biases of the deplorables and in contrast, parade their own superior values that were acquired from living on the coasts. There is bad news for the PC army — its radar has gone wonky. As per exit polls, 42% women, 30% Asian and 29% Hispanic voters sided with Donald Trump. This includes 6 of my family members in United States, most of them postgraduates, and 3 of them women. Didn’t these voters — for whom the hearts of morally superior Americans bled — get the memo? Or are they, too, part of the basket of deplorables? Why aren’t those 37% postgraduates, who voted for Trump, on the PC team?
In the post-Brexit and post–November 9 world, it’s clear that unlike what the PC army would desperately have us believe, the so-called deplorables aren’t some fringe minority comprising only the far-right. They are a heterogeneous group of a large number — possibly the majority — of people representing all ethnic, demographic, and education and income levels of the respective nation. These people vote for their own good reasons, which have nothing to do with –isms. The far-right is nothing but a tiny part of this group, but given that they’re as vocal as the PC army, the latter convinces everyone that the entire group is far-right.
There is far worse news for the PC army though. They are as ‘intolerant’ as the far-right. Which is self-defeating, because, in large part, they have themselves to blame for Trump’s victory.
Why PC army is like the far-right
The PC army is predominantly comprised of — for lack of a better metaphor — a bunch of spoilt kids who, with all their basic needs taken care of, reach the hallowed gates of liberal arts universities and turn into a vocal, articulate minority for rare and often imaginary causes. The support for rare and imaginary causes, which the less-privileged vast majority doesn’t have the bandwidth to care about, lies at the heart of the illusory air of holier-than-thou moral superiority that the PC army carries about itself, and one which is heavily reinforced in the echo chambers of academia and large sections of the media that it has come to occupy. This self-congratulatory, self-serving illusion is largely restricted to crying out loud on social media and in comfortable university spaces. In that, it becomes hypocritical too.
Using its echo chambers, the PC army goes about foisting its definition of morality on the rest of their fellow countrymen. If the PC army cries foul when America tries to foist its multicultural values on Islamic nations, how do they not see the irony in doing the same to their own countrymen? While claiming to protect and promote diversity, this ‘fascism pretending to be manners’ secretly shares its ultimate goal with the far-right — achieving a complete homogenisation of language and ideas. In the process, just like the far-right, it eliminates diversity of thought and individual choice — a recipe for disaster for any society.
Those who oppose or don’t care for PC values are propagandised through patronising attempts to convince them of the moral upliftment to be had from falling in line and inculcating PC values.
To differentiate these attempts from those of the far-right, their more articulate cousins deploy thesaurus-y language — favourite words being “class privilege” and “patriarchy” — to inflict their narrative on the dissenters. The oft-used “you need to be broad-minded” is PC-speak for “you better agree with me”. In case you’re not convinced of PC values, you’re a piece of crap who deserves to die. Oops, that’s what someone on the far-right would say. A PC warrior would instead force you to introspect by saying, “ensconced in class privilege and steeped in patriarchy, you have surrendered your right to be called human.” Spot the difference?
If that’s not enough introspection, soon the victim will be shamed by a bombardment of such messages, each of those duly liked or retweeted by the soldiers of the PC army. None of those messages will have anything remotely to do with logic. They’ll be flowery statements making personal attacks such as the one mentioned above, picking on each and every politically incorrect word the victim uttered. Eventually, the victim will be cowed into submission. The PC army will win. In PC world, likes trump logic, words trump facts. The aim of thought control must be achieved by all means. Sounds a lot like far-right? You bet.
Why PC culture is self-defeating
This controlling, we-know-better attitude of the PC army, cloaked in semantic niceties to differentiate it from that of the far-right, has driven probably tens of millions of non-racist fence-sitters to Trump’s wildly popular anti-PC campaign, ironically fanning the very flames it was supposed to douse.
Anyone who couldn’t be convinced of the ultra-PC stance taken by Clinton was named and shamed:— ‘Maybe the Orlando shooter was an Islamic terrorist, not a “lone wolf”? Shut up, you Islamophobe.’ ‘Maybe I don’t wholeheartedly support abortions? Get lost, you woman hater.’ ‘Maybe I feel safer living in White communities? That’s pathetic, you son of a slave-keeper.’ ‘Maybe globalisation will take away my job? You’ll never get it, you filthy illiterate.’ ‘Maybe looking at homosexuals making out isn’t the most pleasant sight ever? How dare you, you homophobe.’ ‘Maybe Hillary Clinton isn’t a strong woman because she put up with her husband’s cheating? Go jump, you misogynist, racist, xenophobic, illiterate, Russia-loving Trump fanboy.’ Eventually, one is forced to feel, ‘Ok then, I’ll vote for Trump, if not to express my choice, then to counter yours.’
While moderate PC culture is vital to keep in check some of the social evils mentioned above, by going extreme, PC culture has turned into one itself.
Brexit and Trump’s victory aren’t merely voting exercises. The verdicts aren’t a failure of democracy, they’re the first democratic coup against the disguised dictatorship of the PC elite.
For further evidence of PC culture’s unintended boost to Trump campaign, one must look online. For non-racist Trump supporters who’re scared of being shamed, the anonymity of reddit makes it the virtual equivalent of secret ballot to express themselves online. A subreddit is instructive in understanding how the condescending ‘we will leave America if Trump wins’ campaign run by PC celebrities has backfired. In an outpouring of emotions, it eschews all hate to simply label them “elitist” and blames them for “forgetting it was us who made you”.
One can only imagine the bottled-up resentment against being called ‘deplorable’ that was unleashed at the secret ballot. The PC army clearly didn’t care about the deplorables’ cause because it would involve going beyond social media and coffee-table discussions.
The privileged liberal elite also ignore the inextricable link between racism/xenophobia and economic suffering. In reality, racism/xenophobia is heavily reinforced by economic suffering, and the latter has been on sharp ascendancy amongst the non-elite since 2008. Does racism explain that vast numbers of whites who voted Obama twice voted Trump in 2016? In truth, they are only desperate for change. The change could never have come from a dynastical, Wall Street beneficiary, status quoist of Washington. In voting Trump — himself part of the global elite — most of them would have no illusion that he’s going to magically turn their lives around, but they’ve collectively delivered a comeuppance to the Washington consensus of the PC army. This is quite similar to Narendra Modi’s victory as a Delhi-outsider in 2014.
Course correction needed
Brexit and Trump’s victory aren’t merely voting exercises. They are a revelation of humanity and tearing up of cocoons of those who have for far too long benefited from heritage and cronyism. Through their damning indictment, the vast majority have told them that they might still control the messengers, but they don’t control the message. The verdicts aren’t a failure of democracy, they’re the first democratic coup against the disguised dictatorship of the PC elite.
Unfortunately, instead of turning inward to decipher this message, the PC army is turning out to be a sore loser. Those who earn six-figure salaries to study inequality are penning op-eds lamenting America as a “failed state”. There are tweets and status updates by people wondering how they will explain this defeat to their children. Egregiously, maps depicting that the 18-25 age-bracket voted Hillary are being hailed as signs of consolation and future hope. What warped sense of social justice is this where people worry for their children but wait for those above 50 to die?
>@Rob_Flaherty>#TrumpVisualAids>pic.twitter.com/BZqLTFcqc5
— Nasty Hombre (@franklinftw) >August 11, 2016
The #notmypresident has surfaced. There are protests all over rejecting Trump’s legitimacy. This is no different from Trump’s claim of rejecting the legitimacy of Hillary’s win. But it isn’t at all surprising. To address the rot within, the PC army can start by taking small steps. Giving up the absurd — using “nitty gritty” in speech calls for charges, and bandaids are racist — would help. The PC warriors must also realise that religious profiling of Syrian immigrants might not be a condemnable idea, preference for fair skin could be a genuine individual choice that one needs to work out for oneself, saying “crippled” isn’t blasphemy, not all women fail at jobs solely because of the glass ceiling, and that sexism (oops, cissexism) isn’t directed only at women. Most urgently, they need to grow a funny bone and understand that not all dark humour is bigotry, lest they stratify society and end up being self-defeating again — if I can’t make a dirty Sikh joke on Facebook, I’ll turn to reddit to make an even dirtier one. Eventually, I’ll revel in hating Sikhs, if for nothing else then for the sake of avenging my silence.
By going evangelist and emasculating those from the far-right, the PC army cannot hope to influence dissenters for too long. Middle ground must be found urgently. Hopefully it’s the beginning of the search for middle ground, and not sycophancy or fear, that has made Huffington Post remove the signpost on all its Trump articles.
