The Death of Political Correctness

Is It The End of the World As We Know It?

In 2009, when the blogosphere was still in full regalia, I wrote an article called The End of Political Correctness. Something was gnawing at me: the way language itself was being policed. My aim wasn’t to offend, but to provoke a conversation about the new war of words. It was the last gasp of an era when satire still had teeth and free speech wasn’t yet terrifying to the newly burgeoning society of the woke—what’s now called the “woke mind virus.” Not by me—by others.

Back then, it felt like we were walking on eggshells. Say the wrong word and you risked professional exile, social shame, or worse. But fifteen years later, it’s clear: I wasn’t just right, I was prophetic. The eggshells have become landmines. And today, in 2025, we’re not just dealing with language wars—we’re watching democracy itself hollowed out by silence, censorship, lies, and violence.

When the War of Words Started

In the piece, I wrote about how the language police (PC Police) were changing the rules mid-sentence. “Tranny hookers” became “transgender sex workers.” “Secretaries” were rebranded as “administrative assistants,” bored “Housewives” demanded to be called “Domestic Engineers,” while “Midgets” morphed into “little people.”

Even childhood insults weren’t safe. “Fat kid” became “childhood obesity.” “Crippled” became “handicapped,” which evolved into “disabled,” which then morphed into “physically challenged.” Meanwhile, people who grew up in truly dysfunctional families were told to stop saying “f*cked up upbringing” and use the sanitized version.

Even the fashion industry couldn’t escape the wrath of the PC Police. Designers stopped calling clothes “plus-size” because the term was deemed offensive. Instead, “curvy,” “full-figured,” or “extended size” was deemed anti-rotund. Meanwhile, the industry had no problem starving models to the brink of collapse. Political correctness became parody.

Those were the “cuter” days of political correctness—before the retribution, before the mobs. The rules were laughable, but they were still just rules. Now, the punishments are real.

From Cancel Culture to Cancelling People

What began as speech-policing metastasized into reputational death sentences. Careers were ended with a single tweet. Comedy became a minefield where jokes required legal disclaimers.

And now? Even satire has been canceled. Late-night shows—the last safe space for mocking the powerful—are gone. Not just criticized. Erased. When comedy dies, democracy is on life support. Then again, we’ve not been a democracy for many years… really… and that too is up for debate. Rather, are we a constitutional republic? The question is—if we can keep it.

Worse still, cancellation is no longer metaphorical. The attempted assassination of Charlie Kirk should terrify everyone, regardless of politics. Whether you agree with him or not doesn’t matter. When debate collapses into bullets, words have failed—and society has failed with them. And those celebrating his death expose a much darker side of the American electorate. Remember the Islamists celebrating in the streets after the World Trade Center attack? These people are one and the same.

The First Amendment Crisis

For years, I’ve said the First Amendment needs an amendment. What I meant in 2009 was that “don’t yell fire in a crowded theater” was no longer enough. What I mean in 2025 is urgent: the First Amendment is being weaponized to protect lies, hate speech, and disinformation campaigns designed to destabilize democracy.

Freedom of speech was meant to protect dissent—not mobs chanting for blood, not trolls generating AI deepfakes, not armies of bots flooding the zone with manufactured rage. The Founding Fathers couldn’t have imagined Twitter, TikTok, or anonymous accounts with more influence than newspapers. They couldn’t have predicted a world where “free speech” is twisted into a shield for openly genocidal hate.

We’ve let freedom be bastardized into chaos. And unless we’re willing to say that deliberate lies and incitements to violence are not protected, we will lose both freedom and truth.

Then vs. Now

In 2009, we worried about the word salad of how to be appropriate when addressing just about anyone. Labels were changing as often as our underwear, and it all felt like absurd cultural theater.

In 2025, the stakes are lethal. It’s not about labels anymore—it’s about lies that collapse democracies, mobs that terrorize campuses, bullets that silence dissent. The eggshells turned into landmines, and now the minefield has become a battlefield.

Social media was supposed to democratize voices. Instead, it’s become the world’s cheapest hitman. It amplifies rage, incentivizes mobs to boycott products and people, and provides a marketplace where reputations—and sometimes lives—are destroyed at scale. As I see it, influencers are the new hired hitmen/women/they/them/whatever.

What’s Next

Looking back at my 2009 essay feels eerie now. What I flagged as the end of political correctness was just the prologue. The real story is the end of free speech as we’ve known it—because we never learned how to balance freedom with truth.

And looking ahead? In this unregulated AI future, all bets are off.

As for me? Not then. Not now. Not ever.

If you like my writing style, check out my bool, “Won’t Be Silent.”