The Insanity of Political Correctness

When one reads a newspaper these days, one increasingly gets the feeling one has fallen down a rabbit hole and is being asked to tea by the Queen of Hearts. In almost every news story there is a hint of unreality, as if the editors were trying to have a good laugh at their readers' expense. One finds oneself continually, frowning and re-reading the articles to make sure they aren't satire, or that one hasn't inadvertently jumped to The Onion's website. Sometimes the news is so bizarre, so ludicrous, so beyond-the-pale in stupidity, that one is certain that even a legitimate news organization must be pulling a prank. Things can't possibly have gotten this screwed-up, one wants to shout. But it is not a prank. The world really has lost its mind.

A council has banned the term "brainstorming" and replaced it with "thought showers".

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council in Kent was accused of taking political correctness to extremes after instructing staff to make the change.

The move came as council chiefs feared the word brainstorming might offend mentally ill people and those with epilepsy.

The buzz term is often used by executives to generate ideas among their staff.

But memos have been sent to staff asking them not to use it and some have been given training which encouraged them to use the alternative of thought showers.

Again, this is not from The Onion; it from the Telegraph. Other British newspapers are reporting the same. It is not a hoax - it is a real sign of the mental disease that is political correctness and the extent to which it has infected and is destroying the culture and sanity of Britain.

A quick Google of "thought showers" (was there ever a more ridiculous and unwieldy term?) shows that, since at least 2005, the PC-Gestapo has been urging business and government leaders throughout the British Isle to drop "brainstorming" in favor of their obscene idiomatic creation. "Though showers" is such a pallid and banal expression it could only have been still-birthed by a committee of PC-minded bureaucrats.

But who, exactly, was offended by "brainstorming?"

Even charities representing epileptics said the ban was taking political correctness too far.

Margaret Thomas, of the National Society for Epilepsy, said: "Brainstorming is a clear and descriptive phrase.

"Alternatives such as thought shower or blue-sky thinking are ambiguous to say the least.

"Any implication that the word brainstorming is offensive to epileptics takes political correctness too far."

Richard Colwill, of mental health charity SANE, said: "This ban goes too far. Few would be genuinely offended by the word brainstorming in the context of council meetings."

So let's see, the people who represent the mentally ill and epileptic say that the mentally ill and epileptic aren't actually offended by the term, and there doesn't appear to have ever been any groundswell amongst those groups to replace the term. Still, the PC-Gestapo is on the march, with their one-word mantra "diversity!" quickly deployed to stifle any dissent.

A spokesman at Tunbridge Wells Borough Council said: 'We take diversity awareness very seriously. The majority of council staff have taken part in diversity awareness training and have been asked to use the term "thought showers".

'One of our key targets this year is to move from Level 1 to Level 2 of the Equality Standard for Local Government.

'We have exceeded this and have achieved Level 3. We are only the third district council in the country to have made this leap in a single year.'

Ponder that last bit carefully. The Tunbridge Wells Council is not simply acting as if they'd all got into the brandy, they are doing this to comply with UK legislation - and are marveling at their own progress from "Level 1" to "Level 3." If this is how one ascends the "Levels" of the sinisterly named "Equality Standard for Local Government" what does that say about the Standard itself? What does it say about Britain and its future that such mindless drivel has been written into law?

If one needed any further evidence of the mental deterioration that results from political correctness and multiculturalism (which are busy doing to Western Civilization exactly what their creators intended), the Tunbridge Wells Council has served it up with a cherry on top. Go and brainstorm that.