Guy W. Farmer: Beware of the PC Police

Frankly, I’m having a hard time trying to keep track of all of the controversial topics I’m not supposed to talk or write about because if I do, the PC (Politically Correct) Police will come after me with a vengeance.

What’s he writing about? you might ask. Well, here’s an example: Google recently fired 28-year-old software engineer James Damore for questioning the tech giant’s diversity policy. After being subjected to mandatory diversity training, Damore wrote a 3,000-word memo criticizing Google’s “ideological echo chamber” and arguing women land fewer tech jobs because of biological differences. The PC Police immediately descended upon the unfortunate young man and he was summarily fired for expressing views contrary to company policy.

Damore broke two iron-clad PC rules by (1) questioning Google’s diversity policy and (2) writing about biological differences between men and women. I saw “Atomic Blonde” with my daughter in Seattle last week and learned there aren’t any biological differences between men and women. As all savvy millennials know, girls like Charlize Theron and Wonder Woman kick butt just as well as guys do, and it won’t be long before female Navy SEALs are kicking Taliban butt in Afghanistan. I can hardly wait.

“I went to a diversity program at Google (and) heard things I definitely disagreed with,” Damore wrote. “There was a lot of shaming. You can’t do this and you can’t say that.” Predictably, the diversity lobby was shocked, but as two Los Angeles Times journalists wrote, “People don’t like to be told what to do and what to think.” Duh!

University of California law professor Joan Williams told the Times diversity programs “should play to people’s strengths as problem solvers” rather than telling them what they can or can’t do. It doesn’t get much more obvious than that. Nevertheless, Damore is out of a job and Google will continue to tell its employees what they can or can’t say or write. Despite the First Amendment, censorship is alive and well at Google. Shame on them.

Another recent example of political correctness run amok was mainstream media coverage of the violent Charlottesville, Va., clash between Ku Klux Klan/neo-Nazi white supremacists and left-wing “protesters,” if that’s what they were. First, let me denounce the KKK as the vile, racist group of losers that it is — nothing “fine” about those white racists. At the same time, however, let’s stop ignoring violence on the left. Far right and left-wing agitators went to Charlottesville looking for a fight, and they found one.

Some of the left-wing thugs were associated with “Antifa” (short for anti-fascist), a shadowy organization that advocates “peace through violence.” Antifa protestors wearing masks and black outfits go around beating up people who disagree with them. According to CNN (not Fox News) journalists, “Antifa leaders admit they’re willing to physically attack anyone who employs violence against them ... as long as force is used in the name of eradicating hatred.” In other words, they hate the haters, so don’t say or write anything they disagree with, which would make you a hater.

Meanwhile, Carson PC Police will come after you if you express anything but fulsome praise for bicycles and the people who ride them. For example, if I was to write there are many more bike racks than bicycles in downtown Carson — which just happens to be true — the bike folks would denounce me as a dangerous radical extremist and demand the Appeal get rid of that Farmer Guy. I didn’t write that, however, so please hold your fire. Bikes are wonderful and so is the First Amendment. Amen.

Guy W. Farmer is the Appeal’s senior political columnist.