Ft. Hood Shooting: Political Correctness Needs to Die

Now we are less than a week from the unholy bloodbath at Fort Hood in Texas. The "suspect," Major Hasan, is being assured of his full rights in the military court system. That's the right thing to do. This guy isn't worth compromising our principles for. Plus he's obviously guilty, so he'll get the chair.

But there is now some major bullshit floating around this event related to political correctness.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s saying that what we most have to fear now is a possible wave of anti-Muslim sentiment. Bullshit - what we have to fear most now is a copycat.

Journalist Michael Tomansky (an American working for The Guardian) says that Hasan's cry of "Allahu akbar" during the shootings should not be taken that Hasan is a religious extremist. His claim is that "it's something Arab people often shout before doing something or other." Bullshit again. First off, this killer isn't Arab, he's from Virginia. Second off, he had to know what he was saying and doing. He specifically chose to make this cry. I doubt he calls on the name of his god in such a way when pulling onto a busy freeway.

Let's look at Hasan as a person, not as a group member. He's a native-born U.S. citizen who chose to re-define himself as a Palestinian. A guy who prayed with a Jihadist cleric. A guy who complained and preached to co-workers, patients, and acquaintances. That sounds like a lot of warning signs to me. But nobody raised the red flag, none of his co-workers reported him.

Why? Because political correctness is more important to our press and our leadership than security. You can't report a Muslim for suspicious activity or you are "profiling" him. It wasn't Hasan's religion that made him suspect, it was his views and his change in self-identity. A person who thinks of himself as an American who worships Allah is no problem. An extremist Muslim who self-identifies as a Palestinian and prays with a Jihadist cleric is a problem, and needs to be reported. But thanks to policial correctness, Hasan avoided detection. Any soldier who reported him would probably have been disciplined for discrimination.

This shows why political correctness is a crock. Any society must discriminate -- to "recognize or identify a difference" -- between nut jobs and normal folks, even if it offends. Political correctness assumes a right to be free of offense, and there is no right to be free of offense. I see crap all the time that offends me. I can't stand people who cannot properly use an apostrophe. The commonplace use of "Oh my God" offends me, as it should every Christian, Muslim, and Jew. Male-bashing offends me. Immigrants who think I should learn their language offend me. Gay-bashing offends me. Parents who dress their nine-year-old girls like little sluts offend me. But we live in a free society. Running the risk of offense is part of the deal, and something we put up with for the sake of freedom.

Political correctness is based on the premise that your group membership is more defining than your individuality. This idea is fundamentally un-American, and is both dangerous and insulting. It's dangerous because of cases like Hasan's, where membership in a privileged group prevented proper diligence. It's insulting because you assume that my identity is determined by my measurable and visible qualities rather than my choices. You disregard my individuality and say I'm just a group member, not a person. I can hardly think of any idea more un-American than that.

Like I said, we live in a pluralistic society. Running the risk of being offended is a necessary compromise. If you don't want to be offended, move to a place with no freedom. You'll possibly be offended less in a police state, but you may be harassed, tortured, imprisoned, and killed, without the benefit of due process, trial by jury, or any of those other protections that secure liberty and offend dictators and jihadists.
Political correctness needs to die. I want my government to be more concerned with protecting my life and liberty than with protecting my personal sensibilities. I can live with an insult; I can't live without liberty.