Usually, when I hear “political correctness gone mad,” I assume the speaker is a wingnut.
But I used the phrase without irony after hearing about a hairdresser who was banned, briefly, from advertising for a “happy” stylist.
I think I’m not a wingnut, although somebody called me a “clown” on The Courier’s Facebook last week, so opinions do vary.
Anyway, this bizarre incident happened in Gloucestershire.
AJ’s, a hair salon, posted a job centre ad that said “only happy, friendly stylist need apply”, and someone at the job centre said it “discriminated against unhappy people” and took it down.
They’ve since backtracked and apologised because it was a silly thing to do, but the damage was done.
Across the nation, readers of tabloid newspapers were already telling their spouse to come through here and look at this love you’ll never believe what they’ve done now it’s a disgrace bring back the birch it never did me any harm etc etc.
There’s the problem: the gap between reality and perception.
In reality, some plonker at a job centre made a mistake and should retake their diversity and inclusion training while we all move on.
The perception, however, is unspecified lefties have a deleterious effect on society and must be stopped. Blah, blah, something about Boris.
And that’s useful to the wealthy predators at the apex of our society, who wish to erode human rights and simplify their profit-making practices – and will seize on any story that furthers that agenda.
Any attempt at reasonable, nuanced debate is torpedoed by those citing extreme examples such as the happy hairdresser, straight bananas and the like.
We’re unable to discuss the use of racial epithets in TV shows without a howl about “political correctness”.
We’re mere seconds from overreactions in conversations about anything from workers’ rights to tax-dodgers to wearing masks during a pandemic.
Imagine if we could listen to each other better, and perhaps stop assuming somebody is a wingnut before we do.
If we can hear others’ points of view, we might close that reality/perception gap.
Well, except for those Nazis creeping around, of course. They need a punch in the pus.
