OLD: “#BanBossy” — NEW: “Ban EVERY Word We Don’t Like”

In comparison, “Ban Bossy” looks positively restrained.

It was only a couple days ago that I wrote the following about the #BanBossy crowd:

“…we have the smarty-pantsers on the Left trying to remove another word from the English language, as they are wont to do. But words aren’t inherently cruel and a free society has no business banning ANY words. If you ban one word, people will simply substitute some OTHER word to convey that same meaning. Guaranteed.

Worth noting is it seems to be the allegedly free-speech-loving Progressives who are always enamored with the removal or banning of words. Our institutes of higher learning seem especially smitten with this idea…”

And in light of this newest example, my observation can only be termed disturbingly prescient:

The Lunacy of Banning “Bossy”

They’re at it again.

When I saw this hit the web yesterday, I had the same reaction as this person:

At the risk of actually learning the answer, what the heck is #BanBossy?

— Leon Wolf (@LeonHWolf) March 10, 2014

Sadly, I was unprepared for the answer:

The Word Police, and the Rights of the “Offended”

If you know your neighbor doesn’t recycle every last shred of cardboard and metal, does that offend you?

How about if they have a bunch of Green Peace stickers on their VW?

Offended yet?

What if your boss is an outspoken evangelical Christian, or if your uncle believes the Earth is heating-up faster than a microwavable Pizza Pocket®? If your local high school’s nickname was the “Indians”, the “Braves”, the “Chiefs” or (gasp) the “Redskins”, …would that offend you?

If you find any of these examples to be offensive, have no fear: we each have the Constitutional RIGHT to be offended.

What we don’t have is a Constitutional right to force those people to shut-up or cease their behavior simply BECAUSE we’re offended.

But the rise of Political Correctness, coupled with various lawsuits and speech codes, has effectively created a veritable Word Police in our society. And everything said or done is apparently fair game for them to find a potential “offense”.