One of the reasons for Donald Trump’s popularity in the 2016 presidential race: he’s taken a sledge hammer to political correctness, or PC.
If only other CEOs would be as outspoken. Most live in abject fear of disapproving, angry mobs.
Political correctness is a restrictive paradigm under which a group of zealots dictates societal attitudes, behaviors, and speech to the rest of us.
PC is a scourge on our society. It controls what citizens can or cannot think, believe, feel, say, do, earn, and own — despite the rights guaranteed by the US Constitution — under the rubric of social justice.
The New American Pastime
Feeling slighted and offended is the new American pastime. Alas, it has spread to Oxford University, where squeamish law students can avoid classes about violence and sex. How, as lawyers, will these babies be able to handle cases about violence and sex?
Typically originating in left-leaning universities and then spreading to the sympathetic media outlets and bodies of government, political correctness has become markedly pronounced — and enforced — since Barack Obama took the reins from George W. Bush in 2009.
Seven Relevant Examples:
- The Obama administration plans to reallocate funding to force low-income people into upscale neighborhoods — because they’re too wealthy and too white
- 16 Democrat attorneys general banded together to threaten legal action and huge fines against anyone who rejects man-made climate change, an unproven theory
- A new law in New York City will fine businesses and landlords $250K that refuse to address transgenders by the pronouns “ze” and “hir”
- Black conservative Jason Riley was disinvited from lecturing at Virginia Tech because the “offended” students don’t like his views on identity politics
- The president of Emory University comforted “traumatized” students who saw Trump 2016 written in chalk on campus sidewalks
- Martin O’Malley, former Maryland governor and opponent of Hillary Clinton, apologized to the offended mob for exclaiming that “all lives matter”
- University of California speech police banned “offensive” phrases such as America is the land of opportunity.
The fear of “disobeying” the PC purveyors is widespread, palpable, and consequential.
On campuses and in the streets, the rabble riots, injures innocents, and destroys property. Elected politicians and appointed apparatchiks suppress voter opposition, thereby wielding massive power to regulate, confiscate, and subjugate — while sycophantic media applaud and assist them.
To wit: Addressing attendees at his final White House Correspondents Dinner, on April 30, 2016, President Obama concluded with these telling words: “It has been an honor and a privilege to work side-by-side with you to strengthen our democracy.”
Newsflash: The media are chartered to challenge the president, hold him to account — not work side-by-side with him. And, because of this unethical collusion, citizens feel duped.
Donald Trump’s unchecked bold authenticity and disdain for “incompetent politicians and the dishonest media,” in contrast, have given a voice to the silent majority: those who’ve been afraid to live and speak as they wish, in light of the aforementioned.
Put Your Foot Down
A politically correct CEO will endanger his company’s brand, as branding is premised on bold messages that pique audiences. Blandness and weakness don’t sell.
Being PC means shielding our brainwashed, fragile, spineless babies against the “trauma” of microaggressions and trigger words, and provide them safe spaces to heal from verbal and visual infractions.
This inauthentic charade is nonsensical, pathetic, and harmful to all.
Put your foot down. Don’t dedicate your company to infantilized customers, who aren’t real. Learn from Trump, whose income has increased 50% in the past year — by being politically incorrect. Political correctness hurts profits and competitiveness. Fight back: It works.
When petulant students at Ohio State staged a sit-in, the university’s president, unlike his feeble colleagues around America, threatened jail and expulsion. The babies, unaccustomed to challenge, obeyed. Problem solved.
Don’t SPIT on Me
Political correctness, you must admit, doesn’t accurately connote its ramifications. The phrase is too generic and innocent-sounding. Whose politics? What correctness?
Accordingly, after a long debate, one of my clients challenged me to rebrand PC. I accepted.
Let’s break it down. Whose politics? Secular-progressive (leftist) politics. Conservatives do not riot, nor do they occupy buildings to make demands, nor do they regulate, confiscate, and subjugate.
What correctness? The tactics of intimidation and tyranny. The mob, which has no authority, intimidates. Governments and universities, which do have authority, tyrannize. For example, Seattle’s politburo banned the word citizen — deeming it “offensive” to foreigners.
So, I combined secular-progressive with intimidation and tyranny, and got SPIT — exactly what government and mob bullies hurl at their liberty-loving targets.
Then, I borrowed from the Gadsden flag (Don’t Tread on Me), used since 1775, to symbolize individual liberty. Watch constitutional scholar Dr. Edwin Vieira explain its meaning.
My updated admonition is Don’t SPIT on Me, but the goal is identical: preserving individual liberty. The objective of Big Government and those who SPIT is to quash individual liberty.
Replacing PC with SPIT puts specificity into its usage — giving it unambiguous meaning and a strong visual, and evoking raw emotion (who wants to be spit upon?). That’s the goal of branding. And, the bonus: some will find it offensive.
Parting Advice to CEOs
This rebranding of PC to SPIT will help you take action to defeat it.
Be proactive, not phlegmatic. Lost liberty is difficult to reclaim.
Don’t let oppressive governments or angry mobs SPIT on your company. SPIT will undermine your authority, decimate your brand, and dilute your bottom line.
Remember: blandness and weakness don’t sell.
Finally, choose adults — not brainwashed, fragile, spineless babies — as customers AND employees.
POSTSCRIPT #1: Leftist San Jose Mayor Allowed Rioters to SPIT on Trump Supporters
POSTSCRIPT #2: CNBC: Anonymous VC Fears SPIT in Silicon Valley
POSTSCRIPT #3: Hillary: Every Constitutional Right Is Subject to Reasonable Regulation
POSTSCRIPT #4: Adam Carolla & Gilbert Gottfried Produce Movie to Expose SPIT Mob
POSTSCRIPT #5: New York Times Advocates Secret Suspension of Constitutional Rights
POSTSCRIPT #6: Vin Scully, Voice of LA Dodgers, SPITS Back Against Socialism
POSTSCRIPT #7: US News & World Report: Google Is World’s Biggest Censor
© 2016 Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.
About the Author
Marc Rudov is a branding advisor to CEOs,
producer of MarcRudovTV, and author of four books