In his latest column, Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister says he was appalled by recent attacks on free speech at public universities and by a TV commentator—attacks that he says “seem to reflect political correctness gone wild and should raise concerns about your future freedoms.”
Among the attacks, McCollister points to a recent story from Washington, D.C.-based The Daily Caller, which noted the University of New Hampshire has issued a “Bias-Free Language Guide.”
“The story notes that the guide describes the word ‘American’ as ‘problematic,’ because it ‘assumes the U.S. is the only country inside’ land masses—North America, South America and Central America—with the word ‘America’ in their names,” McCollister writes, further noting the guide states: “The UNH language guide decrees that language users should say ‘U.S. citizen’ or ‘resident of the U.S.’ instead.”
In other words, says McCollister, “You can no longer call yourself ‘an American.’”
Another recent story from The Daily Caller that caught McCollister’s attention concerned University of California System President Janet Napolitano and her training sessions for some faculty on “microaggressions,” or phrases that offend.
The story states, “One of the largest categories of microaggressions are those that promote the ‘myth of meritocracy.’ According to the document, this ‘myth’ is spread by statements such as ‘America is the land of opportunity,’ ‘I believe the most qualified person should get the job,’ and ‘Affirmative action is racist.’”
“Does this crazy lady really think ‘Americans’ are going to stop saying America is the land of opportunity (because it is) or that the most qualified person should get the job (because they should)?” McCollister writes. “This is insanity.”
But Napolitano isn’t done yet, says McCollister, pointing to a story in The Washington Post that noted she has changed the application for all 10 campuses of the University of California System so students “have the option of signaling their sexual orientation and any of a number of gender identities before they even arrive on campus.” The Post reports this all comes “at a time of rapid change for gender identity politics.”
“That’s what is driving this—politics,” McCollister writes. “And why does Napolitano only care about learning of these preferences for inclusiveness? Why doesn’t the form ask their political party, or ask their religion, or if they ‘feel’ black or white? (You remember Caucasian Rachel Dolezal, former head of the local NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington, who told a KREM reporter, ‘So, if asked, I would say, yes, I consider myself to be black.’)”
The final icing on the political correctness cake, says McCollister, came when MSNBC contributor Danielle Moodie-Mills recently said: “We need to stop misgendering people in the media, and there needs to be some type of fine that’s put into place for outlets, for media outlets—that could be print, online, radio or what have you—that decide they’re just not going to call people by their name. And they’re going to misgender them just because they can. We’ve seen it all over the place, and it’s ridiculous. There are guidelines that have been put in place by GLAAD that have been put out to all press outlets, and if you don’t follow them, you should be fined by the FCC. It should be that serious.”
“Are you kidding me?,” McCollister writes. “Being in the media, Ms. Moodie-Mills should know the FCC only has regulation over licenses they grant for TV and radio, but not for any print media. Plus, this is not Iran or Russia. I would like her to find one media outlet that would agree with her position on fines. She won’t because they are so ridiculous.”
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