NATHAN MCLENDON: Political correctness threatens free speech

It’s getting rather hard to keep up with what is considered offensive in modern society. Every day, someone, somewhere, finds yet another symbol or idea to be outraged at. The latest source of ire is the Confederate Battle Flag that, until July 10, flew over the Civil War monument in front of the South Carolina statehouse.

If removing it will help foster a spirit of cooperation and respect between different segments of the community, then, by all means, take it down. After all, the war ended 150 years ago. However, progressives aren’t content to simply remove one flag; they want to expunge all references to the Confederacy from modern memory. Snatching Confederate flags off store shelves, calling for the removal of other historical monuments to the Confederacy, and seeking to take “The Dukes of Hazzard” off the air are all part of the larger assault by the political correctness crowd on everything they do not agree with. Political correctness creates more problems than it solves because it is a threat to the First Amendment.

Before I continue, let me tell a story. One morning when I was at college, I was walking through the student center on my way back from class. As I was about to leave, I noticed that the Student Anarchist Association had set up a table by the door. Since I was curious, I approached the young man standing there to see what he had to say.

At the time, I was an ROTC cadet, and I was wearing my U.S. Army uniform. Despite the fact that I was the personification of the very thing he was against, he and I had an honest discussion about our differing viewpoints. Afterwards, we shook hands as gentlemen, and we both walked away enriched by having our personal views challenged. Debates such as these are the crux of a Liberal Arts education.

However, progressives do not want open and honest debate about issues, such as gay marriage or Civil War symbols. They want everyone to either agree with them or to remain silent. If someone is bold enough to express an opinion not in line with their worldview, then this person is publicly attacked, vilified by all major media outlets, and they have their livelihood and personal property taken from them.

Don’t believe me? An Oregon bakery owner was forced out of business and fined $135,000 for refusing to take part in a gay wedding. The excessive fine means that he and his family will lose their home. Even more recently, anything and everything Confederate is being banned because political correctness dictates that one must distort history in an attempt to paint everyone in the Confederate Army as racists who were the worst people imaginable and equate the antebellum South with Nazi Germany.

As a history major, I can assure you that historical events are almost never that simple. The facts are that slavery was one of several factors that caused the Southern states to secede; the average Confederate soldier was merely defending his homeland rather than fighting for slavery; every Civil War soldier, no matter which side he was on, was racist by 2015 standards, and the North invaded in order to keep the Union together. Freeing slaves was a secondary consideration. However, these details are lost on those who get their historical “facts” from Twitter instead of history books.

It is simply easier to call someone a racist than it is to think for yourself, objectively review the facts, and draw your own conclusions based on those facts. Then, we can have an honest debate about our opinions on historical events and today’s issues.

Unfortunately, the political correctness nuts will have none of this. It is no longer enough that they win in the political arena. They force those with differing viewpoints to hold their piece because those viewpoints might “offend” someone. I hate to break it to them, but one’s perceived right to not be offended does not trump the First Amendment, nor does it allow someone to change the parts of history they do not agree with.

Free speech and truth are under attack like they never have been before in this nation. Many Confederate soldiers raised their Battle Flag to resist tyranny. If that is the case, then anyone who values their rights today must raise the same flag high and proud because if a large-scale attempt to force the opposition to accept a certain viewpoint isn’t tyranny, then I don’t know what it is.

Nathan McLendon is a native of Albany and a 2014 graduate of Deerfield-Windsor School. He will be studying forestry at Auburn University after studying history this past year at the University of North Georgia.