Hi, everybody. My name is Zachary Lee. I’ll be one of your columnists this Summer. You can find my column here in the Alligator every Tuesday. This being my first official column (you may recognize me from some politically-charged guest columns in past semesters or some crappy satirical pieces two years ago), I feel like I should introduce myself to you. I am majoring in philosophy and minoring in sustainability studies. I like peanut butter, my roommate’s dog and the satisfying crunch of walking on dead leaves. I don’t like the beach, adult men who wear Ed Hardy clothing products or Smirnoff Ice.
Another thing that irritates me is the plague of political correctness I see sweeping college campuses. Luckily, we here at UF have yet to be diagnosed with the illness. I’m actually proud of how well we’re doing compared to other campuses. Instead of “safe spaces,” we have “free speech zones.” My peers don’t get “triggered.” They get “frustrated.” In fact, one of my biggest issues is we are a Pepsi school instead of a Coca-Cola one. UF President Kent Fuchs, whom do I have to Snapchat to make this change happen?
As an aspiring satirist, I’m mildly involved in the comedy scene here in Gainesville. When talking to fellow comedians, they all tell me how hypersensitive audiences have manipulated their acts and the content of their material. This limitation of free speech, I believe, is a socially ingrained sense of dangerous totalitarianism.
In doing so, we distance ourselves from the controversial issues of our world. By walking on eggshells and, ultimately, not utilizing our right to free speech, we impose on ourselves conformity and fear. Political correctness creates this cold and disingenuous respect we must have toward other people. Such an atmosphere is not conducive to productive, issue-based discussion. Instead, it sweeps these topics under the rug.
I’m not proposing we all go around humiliating one another, but one cannot change another’s opinion, or fully confront an issue, by simply limiting rhetoric. In fact, to best solve these issues, an environment where all parties can express their opinions freely seems like the best way of actually addressing the issues. The reality is, we are all humans. We all put our pants on one leg at a time, have insecurities, fight our own battles and shit violently for a week straight after eating Chipotle. The great poet and writer Charles Bukowski once wrote, “We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t.”
Rather than be politically correct and disenfranchise people who disagree with us, let’s find solidarity in the little things, like the inability to fully digest fast-casual Mexican food, and the big things, like our inevitable mortality. Here, we relate to one another the way we ought to: lighthearted, yet serious. Here, totalitarian, 1984-esque political correctness falls to the wayside, as healthy discussion and mutual understanding flows like the rivers of ancient Babylon.
With that being said, established readers, if you’re expecting a politically correct column this Summer from me, you will be disappointed and possibly upset. Now, I won’t write in a way that blatantly embarrasses people, but I will assess a variety of delicate political and social problems in a way that is honest, respectful, sensitive and sincere.
I’m looking forward to our Tuesday talks. It was a pleasure meeting you all.
Zachary Lee is a UF philosophy senior. His column appears on Tuesdays.
