Political correctness...

...is bullshit.

Seriously, everyone needs to relax. Sugar coating the truth does not make it any less impactful. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it's probably a duck. So just call it that.

You are not height challenged, you're short. It's not "the Holidays," it's Christmas. And I don't have depression, I'm crazy.

People are so damned afraid of offending someone, that we've watered down everything that we do in some vain attempt to make everything in the world hunky dory. Lemme let you in on a little secret. It's not.

Honestly, what do the vast majority of these PC terms hope to accomplish? If I call a person "height challenged" instead of a "midget," chances are they still know that they're shorter than I am. The term midget in and of itself shouldn't be offensive. If I called that person a "stupid dirty midget," then I could understand them having an issue with me.

I'm curious as to what people think is going to happen if we simply call things as they are. I mentioned earlier that I have depression. If a person comes up to me and says "You're crazy." I suppose my response would be something along the lines of, "Yeah, I know. That's why I take medication." What reason do I have to be offended if a person is merely stating the truth?

Our attempt to state the truth in a different, "less offensive" way has reached ludicrous levels. I once read an article about how ridiculous the term "African American" is. (thebestpageintheuniverse.com) The term is both arrogant and ignorant at the same time. It has become an overarching expression to describe people with dark skin. But it assumes that person is American, and of African descent. Almost as if there are no black people living in any other countries around the world, or that all dark skinned people are from Africa. I think most people would agree that referring to all white people as "German American" would not only be silly, it would be blatantly incorrect.

I submit that these terms: black, stewardess, Christmas, are simply descriptive terms, and are not inherently offensive. Whilst I am not religious myself, I consider someone wishing me a Happy Hanukkah or a Merry Christmas to be a nice and pleasant gesture. Just because my reasons for celebrating Christmas have more to do with the spirit of good-natured giving than with celebrating the birth of a deity doesn't give me the right to feel offended.

Everyone is different. And it's my opinion that this is a good thing. It forces you to look a things in a different light and helps you grow as a person. This is something we should embrace. Rather than sugar-coating our differences, and trying to make everyone sound the same, maybe we should just call things as they are, and get over ourselves.