Photo illustration by Lexi Marcellino

The millennials growing up in America may be the most sensitive and thin-skinned generation to date. Everyone feels he or she is discriminated against and everyone expects the world to be kind. That’s not how things work. The overwhelming growth of political correctness can be blamed for this type of mindset.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines political correctness as “the idea that people should be careful to not use language or behave in a way that could offend a particular group of people.” It’s a simple concept that makes perfect sense in theory.

However, the problem is that too much effort now has to be used to make sure nobody is ever offended. There’s a fine line between respecting someone and throwing around crude terms. Avoiding conflict is a difficult task when people are so easily insulted by certain words.

“PC culture,” as it’s commonly referred to, has followed me around my whole life. In middle school, my Halloween Festival, a tradition at the school for years, was changed to “Fall Festival” because it was apparently more conscientious towards the beliefs of some students. If a student is offended by the word “Halloween,” they might need to be homeschooled, because the outside world is too harsh of a place for them. In the real world, people will say hurtful things and being offended is unavoidable. You have to learn to toughen up and get over it.

Recently, I witnessed the most cringe inducing example of political correctness. A woman on Twitter posed the question, “Why do people think it’s okay to call babies he or she? They can’t speak so they can’t say their preferred gender.” Thousands retweeted this, showing their agreement. People are far too easily irritated. She later went on to say, “Please refer to [the babies] as baby self or toddler self until they can say their pronoun preference, otherwise you’re transphobic.”  No, that doesn’t make someone transphobic, it’s an opinion shared by most of the world. In actuality, it makes you condescending.

The irony of PC culture is the offensive nature of those doing the correcting. If the goal of political correctness is to be less offensive, then why are the terms “racist,” “sexist,” “homophobic,” and “ignorant” tossed around like it’s nothing? Anytime someone crosses into hurtful territory with their words, they’re automatically accused of being a bigot.

It has come to the point where people feel restricted in speech by the fear of being ridiculed. I certainly do. I know that certain subjects attract too much of an emotional backlash. They’re just not worth discussing. It’s a sad truth because past and current issues like women’s rights and racial inequality aren’t being solved by remaining silent. Rational thinking, debate, and eventual progress is the only way to solve such issues.

To censor people and call them out anytime they’re not being politically correct is only damaging us as a society. Our generation has become increasingly more reserved with our word choice because the discussion of important social topics like sexuality and race have become a minefield; if you say one wrong word, you’re blasted with hateful remarks. Some prefer to avoid these topics as a whole because of the problems they bring. But discussion of such topics is vital to progression. They are solved by discussion and reform. When speaking on touchy subjects becomes a delicate and censored process, there will never be reform. People need to discuss their viewpoints and hear from others to expand their knowledge. Political correctness is only a hindrance to that reform.