Of Course

As you may have heard, Rutgers men's basketball coach Mike Rice was recently fired after ESPN aired a video showing him physically and verbally abusing his players during a practice, including throwing basketballs at them "at point blank range" and calling them by homophobic slurs.

The university administrators admit to having known about Rice's behavior for some time. They only fired him after the video went public and after outrage ensued.

So, of course, Rice being fired, to some defenders of aggressive, entitled masculinity, constitutes PC Gone Awry.  Or, as Fox News commentator Eric Bolling calls it, "the wussification" of America. Here's his comment in full:

"This story kind of infuriates me. We’re in the midst of political correctness crushing our ability to teach kinds, to discipline kids, to disagree with people or one another or kids. Our culture is in decline, but this is an example of our culture in free fall. And I’m saying this because he got fired, not because of what he did… Listen, it’s time to toughen up. Talk about the wussification of America, the wussification of American men."

"Political correctness," so we meet again.  Was there ever a more asinine phrase in the English language?  Other than "wussification of American men," that is?

In this instance, by "political correctness," Bolling seems to mean that "holding people to standards of basic civility and non-abusive behavior" are what's responsible for the decline of "our culture."  But, of course, he can't just say that without looking like a total ass and losing all credibility, so he hides behind the phrase "political correctness" while purporting to be some brave truth-teller and defender of "our culture" against the swarming masses of the PC Police who are getting all upset about nothing.

I guess what I wonder most about critics of "political correctness" is what world they are living in if they think the problem with culture these days is that people are too darn nice to one another, or that society doesn't have serious issues with respecting people's boundaries.

Over at another blog, I got into a conversation with a self-proclaimed Christian man who (a) freely admits to verbally abusing people he disagrees with in order to shut them up, and (b) who also claims to welcome the experience of being victimized himself so he can fulfill the Christian prophecy wherein Christians are, supposedly, to be persecuted for their faith.

This type of mind game seems somewhat common in US politics, even though many people aren't as open as this particular man is about his tactics.

A goal of some conservatives seems to be to provoke people into anger so that the provocateur can end up feeling like an oppressed victim, in the end.  Here, we are to believe that it's bullies who deserve our sympathy, not because they are damaged people, but because they are being victimized by "political correctness."

There's just something so insincere about it all.  I find that people who use the phrase "political correctness" rarely say what they mean, or truly mean what they say in political conversations, and using the phrase "political correctness" in this particular instance of abuse seems to be a prime example of this sort of insincerity.