Where'd they take that turn?
Reader comment on item: Letter to the Editor of the Daily Illini

Submitted by Tim (United States), Dec 25, 2003 at 18:50

Two questions: It is quite clear that political correctness has taken over on University campuses in particular, and in the Western world in general. First of all, how did the politically correct crowd, which in general deplores American men for their shoddy treatment of American women (you should travel a little), come to condone the treatment of women in traditional Islamic states? Secondly, it is likely that at least some of the many campus left-wing militants believe they are working for the good of oppressed people: they are just deluded as to who is oppressed and who is doing the oppressing (try living in Jerusalem for instance, or try wearing makeup in Iran). How is it possible to begin focusing these young people's considerable energies towards all people suffering on earth, rather than just on the ones that hate the US (the point of common interest)? Maybe I've just answered my own question: work-study in Jerusalem or Tehran?

This is not just a harmless teenage path-finding experience. Some believe that a major factor in the upsurge in global terrorism (though I've not seen it discussed in print) is the astute perception by the globe-trotting terrorist leaders that the global community has signalled, almost unanimously, that they will condone terrorism, since by its very nature terrorism is performed by what this crowd sees as "oppressed" peoples using the only means at their disposal (and because the terrorists and they have common enemies). This support is, of course, far from in unison, but since the politically correct are the only ones in the West free to sport their opinion, nearly all discussion explicitly or implicitly condones these acts, or at least blames them on their victims (a blame-reversal that the politically correct, or anyone else with a brain, would certainly never accept for rape, why accept it for murder?)

Someone please correct me if I am wrong. Have political correctness and modern global terrorism not risen hand-in-hand?

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