Carson+G’s+Final+AmEx+2013+Speech




 * Text of Speech**

We are a generation of sissies. Now before you get all butthurt, let me explain. What began as the simple maternal instinct to protect one’s young, has evolved into something much more complicated and excessive than it really needs to be. Parents have taken it upon themselves to shield every little thing that comes at their child, whether that is losing a soccer game, science fair, contest, to sheltering them from “offensive” or “mean” words. Our society has grown so preoccupied with pleasing everyone; making every single person feel like a winner, and not offending anyone, even the slightest, that we have bred a generation of oversensitive weaklings.

One thing that bothers me a lot is that we as a society must make everyone feel like a winner and that everyone is equal in every little single aspect of life when, truthfully we are not. In elementary schools this concept is so widely implemented it is nauseating. All applicants in the Science Fair must receive a shiny Participant ribbon; 1’s, 2’s, and 3’s will be given on report cards to ensure that no one feels like a failure. In AYSO every single child must get a shiny gold trophy regardless of the fact that their team came in dead-last. While the intent of these actions may be good at heart, such things really are detrimental to children. Instead of making every child feel like a winner when they are not, we should try and educate them, or help them improve so that during the next soccer season //they// can be on the championship team. Our society is so obsessed with sculpting this elaborate façade to conceal the ugliness of reality that we are weakening our children as a result. Instead of giving our youth false hope shouldn’t we give them the tools and skills and education they need so that they can look reality in the face and truthfully state that they won?

On a slightly different note, our nation has become obsessed with being “PC” or “politically correct”. Again, what began as an admirable movement to end racial slurs and degrading remarks, has morphed into this overcomplicated web of do’s and do nots. Similar to what I just talked about, our generation and society has grown to be so sensitive that seemingly every word said is offensive in one way or another. Now I am not advocating for the free and liberal implementation of such truly hurtful words like faggot, nigger, beaner, retard, chink, or anything of the sort. I myself refrain from using any of these words because I do understand the hurtful nature of them, I mean I even took the pledge to eradicate the usage of the word retard as a derogatory statement. So I just want to clear that up. Yet, it is the overextension of such considerations that annoys me so greatly. I googled the phrase political correct while writing this just out of curiosity and for some inspiration, and the first link was a guide on how to be politically correct. One of the tips was to “avoid titles that are exclusionary such as, chairman, fireman, stewardess.” Honestly are any of these titles so offensive to any of you that a conscious effort should be made to say chairperson, firefighter, or flight attendant? Other tips went on to recommend that you not say “bless you” after someone sneezes because they may not share the same faith, or to avoid asking a girl if she has a boyfriend, rather say “are you taken?”, because she could turn out to be lesbian and such a question could offend her. Honestly, it is impossible to craft what you say in such an artful manner as to not offend anyone. There will always be that person that will argue and claim they were offended. The Associated Press and New York Times recently eliminated the words “illegal” and “alien” when writing articles about illegal immigrants. They replaced such words with the phrase “undocumented immigrant” to ensure that no one’s feelings were hurt. But this ideology flies right over my head. It is a federal crime to come into this nation without first becoming a citizen. So it is illegal to do so, and therefore they are illegal immigrants, right? Is this really that offensive to say? Calling an illegal alien an undocumented immigrant is equivalent to calling a drug dealer an undocumented pharmacist! We have become so worried and paranoid about hurting one person’s feelings that we have over-exaggerated and blown even perfectly normal phrases and words completely out of proportion, all in the name of being “politically correct”.

Honestly sugarcoating everything you say is just the same as being overly politically correct and telling losers that they won. If my hair looks bad, if I have boogie in my nose, or my zipper is done then just tell me! No need for code words like “you have a bat in the left cave” or “XYZ” or various white lies. I would rather know up front, but thanks for trying to be sly. Sigh. In the America that my kids and grandkids will grow up in, I want them to be raised strong and truthfully. I do not want society to overprotect them and to lie to their face saying they won when they didn’t, or sugarcoat the smallest statement and put a cherry on top. I hope that people in general will be more real and less sensitive when it comes to things that really are not offensive whatsoever. But above all, I hope that future generations of Americans will not be pansies.


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