Published: The Good Men Project (July 28, 2016)
I may as well be upfront about this… I am a HUGE fan of “South Park.” Although their political sensibilities don’t always align with my own (see: their global warming denialism), the nineteen existing seasons of “South Park” contain some of the sharpest and boldest social commentary ever aired on television. This was especially true last season, which contained a serialized story arc that skewered political correctness in all of its repressive glory.
That said, it is clear that “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone can distinguish between legitimate anti-PC criticism and the more exploitative kind. Stone’s observation to this effect in Vulture deserves to be quoted in full:
“Political correctness” — I feel like that’s becoming a catch-all term for just shit that you don’t like. I don’t think I probably agree with Donald Trump, but we did a whole bit about political correctness last year. We’ve been interested in that debate for a long time. But not everything is political correctness gone mad. Sometimes you just shouldn’t say something. And there’s a huge difference between what can be said in a cartoon or through the mouths of fiction, and what somebody who’s going for elected office should say. Those are two different standards of political correctness.
But I do think there’s a legitimate … comedians, especially, that’s probably where we identify and have the most sympathy with anti-p.c. forces, is within comedy. Not talking to people or trying to get elected. That’s a different standard. There’s shit that you shouldn’t say running for president that Cartman should totally be allowed to say within a satirical cartoon. When I see a politician or a Donald Trump say “political correctness,” I’m like, “That’s not the same shit that we’re talking about in the writers’ room. There’s satire over here in cartoons, and you’re standing onstage in a suit and you want me to vote for you.” Different standard, you know?
If I could, I would require every Trump voter to memorize those paragraphs. As I’ve discussed before, I abhor political correctness as a violation of free speech rights. Even though the First Amendment only protects people from government persecution for their speech, liberal societies depend on an open exchange of ideas in order to politically, intellectually, and culturally flourish. While it is entirely acceptable to express offense at language and arguments that you find objectionable, the far left’s habit of attempting to squelch such language is entirely reactionary. Indeed, one of the reasons I’m grateful for “South Park” is that it has the courage the buck politically correct taboos at a time when most of our culture seems to be going in the other direction.
At the same time, there is a crucial difference between comedians being able to express themselves without fear of censure and expecting a politician to be able to do the same thing. When a comedian tells a joke, their foremost goal is to make someone laugh; when a politician claims that Mexican immigrants are more likely to be rapists, or that all Muslims should be suspected of terrorism, he is implicitly supporting public policies that could ruin lives. Just as importantly, a president has the power to normalize certain attitudes or behaviors in a way that no single comedian ever can. As Mitt Romney astutely pointed out, “Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nation, and trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry, trickle-down misogyny, all these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America.”
In short, even though Trump and his supporters love to wrap themselves in the anti-PC mantle, the precedents they would establish have nothing to do with the legitimate cause of fighting political correctness. When men like Parker and Stone attack PC culture, they do so to expand liberty. When Trump does so, it’s because he wants to stifle it.