“The Folly Of Political Correctness”

THE FOLLY OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS became a little too personal for me when I started to tweet at the majors for Golf Digest. I quickly learned to tweet gingerly. This is because I discovered there were long lines of people in our midst who live in Victimhood and hope to be insulted, affronted, disparaged, or even physically injured by a mere joke.

So writes national treasure and honest-to-goodness Texan Dan Jenkins in his “semi-memoir” His Ownself. I read it over vacation. I read somewhere in the neighborhood of 458,212 words on vacation. These were among my favorites.

As another honest-to-goodness Texan, Roy H. Williams, said of copywriting:

“Most ads aren’t written to persuade, they’re written not to offend.”

Yesterday, I thought of both Jenkins and Williams while reading honorary Texan Ryan Patrick’s post “Different.” Ryan wrote:

“If you have a strong, personal, unique message built on your goals & values, strategic planning, and customer experience, it’s okay to say it in a different, more believable, unpolished, persuasive way.

“Sure, it’s easy and safe to blend in with the crowd. But when you look and sound like everyone else, don’t be shocked when nobody finds you.”

Jenkins, Williams, and Patrick are all singing different verses of the same song. The chorus goes something like this:

Know what you stand against…

Know who you stand beside…

Know why your story’s right for you…

Offensive? You decide.

Actually, no, I’m sure the chorus most certainly does not go like that. Let’s come full circle and close with a proper writer. Jenkins continues:

To most people, a tweet goes along the lines of, “I’m leaving the canned goods aisle now and heading for the bakery.”But I have to endure the attacks of commenters and bloggers if I happen to tweet something in 140 characters that makes people laugh or maybe even think.What can happen is that an attempt at humor can turn a male blogger or commenter into Vladimir Lenin on four cups of Colombian dark roast, and turn female bloggers and commenters into Magda Goebbels on amphetamines.Jenkins, Dan (2014-03-04). His Ownself: A Semi-Memoir (Kindle Locations 2318-2322). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.