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I stumbled upon a question about the danger in lying and Andrei's answer caught my attention. He claims that '...key qualities of good character are: Honesty, Integrity, Responsibility'. Then it made me wonder - is being politically correct an obstacle on the way to enlightenment?

By the term political correctness I understand 'enforced language, ideas, or policies that address perceived discrimination against political, social or economical groups ("protected classes")'.

It seems that:

Lots of public figures no longer say what they really think but they mince their words so as not to offend any of the groups.

Media doesn't report certain facts/events/results of studies in fear of offending groups which won't feel comfortable with certain facts/events/results.

Most of the time it is not based on honesty.

Clearly this leads to violated integrity.

In everyday life we also seem to be forced into political correctness.

Challenging someone's views can be perceived as an attack and more and more jokes are perceived as offending (although it used to be a great virtue to be able to laugh at oneself).

I would be mostly interested in what contemporary Buddhist teachers and masters think about this topic.

Please refrain from sharing personal opinion if it's not based on specific teachings. I am looking for advice from Buddhist masters and texts mostly.

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    "Please refrain from sharing personal opinions, I am looking for advice from Buddhist masters and texts only." This does go against the Buddha's teachings. Buddha said "Be islands unto yourselves". He said to look with your own personal experience and not rely on masters or text only.
    – Thien
    Aug 29, 2014 at 13:28
  • Whenever the question is too 'opinion-based' it usually gets closed. If your opinion is based on the Buddhist teachings, please share those teaching.
    – Rabbit
    Aug 29, 2014 at 13:30
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    That I can agree with. "Take refuge in yourselves, not in anything else. In you are Buddha, Dharma,and Sangha. Don't look for things that are far away. Everything is in your own heart. Bean island unto yourself."
    – Thien
    Aug 29, 2014 at 13:32
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    "Political correctness" is what US conservatives use to disparaging discuss how people on the left try to speak carefully and not cause offense to women, disabled, blacks, and other minorities. The subtext is that conservatives find the idea that anyone deserves protection, in law or chit chat, to be repugnant. I find the whole ideology behind "political correctness" to be devoid of compassion-- indeed its an ideology of contempt for compassion (in the sense of trying to feel the pain of the less fortunate).
    – MatthewMartin
    Aug 30, 2014 at 14:39
  • @MatthewMartin very well-said and good point on compassion. The problem is that many people (including Buddhists) try to be 'nice to others' and they implement PC in their own behaviour. I'm just trying to find any teachings from Buddhist masters that would openly address the issue of PC as it is nowadays virtually all-pervading...
    – Rabbit
    Aug 30, 2014 at 14:50

3 Answers 3

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This sounds like an issue best analyzed according to the Buddha's teachings on right speech. The Buddha famously expounded how he personally determined how to decide on what to say in the Abhaya Sutta, saying:

[1] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be unfactual, untrue, unbeneficial (or: not connected with the goal), unendearing & disagreeable to others, he does not say them.

[2] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, unbeneficial, unendearing & disagreeable to others, he does not say them.

[3] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, beneficial, but unendearing & disagreeable to others, he has a sense of the proper time for saying them.

[4] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be unfactual, untrue, unbeneficial, but endearing & agreeable to others, he does not say them.

[5] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, unbeneficial, but endearing & agreeable to others, he does not say them.

[6] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, beneficial, and endearing & agreeable to others, he has a sense of the proper time for saying them. Why is that? Because the Tathagata has sympathy for living beings."

Source: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.058.than.html

In essence, one should consider four factors of truth, benefit, agreeability, and timeliness. The relevant point here is that even if one might say something that is true, if there is no real benefit to be gained from it, then you shouldn't say it. Certainly not all cases of political correctness fall into this, but it isn't dishonest to hold back from saying something if it will lead to no good.

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  • But how to know whether it brings benefit? It seems that by hiding difficult truths we may have immediate results in ppl not being offended, but in the long term we spread views that lack integrity. Also, maybe sometimes it is good that people face the truth?
    – Rabbit
    Aug 29, 2014 at 17:57
  • @Rabbit: Not speaking is not the same as spreading false views. If revealing a certain truth causes harm, you can simply stay silent or talk about a different topic.
    – Sankha Kulathantille
    Aug 30, 2014 at 0:47
  • @SankhaKulathantille do you suggest that media should not report certain facts simply because some group finds it offending? I will refrain from giving concrete examples, Internet is full of those, please browse them yourself.
    – Rabbit
    Aug 30, 2014 at 1:24
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    Read #3 in this answer. The media should report if it is beneficial to people and timely, even if some group might find it offensive.
    – Sankha Kulathantille
    Aug 30, 2014 at 1:28
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    But not reporting anything isn't against the right speech. It is simply "no speech". Reporting something beneficial is a good thing to do. Not doing something good is not necessarily doing something bad.
    – Sankha Kulathantille
    Aug 30, 2014 at 1:49
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Political correctness is obviously false speech. False speech is defined as follows:

If he doesn't know, he says, 'I know.' If he does know, he says, 'I don't know.' If he hasn't seen, he says, 'I have seen.' If he has seen, he says, 'I haven't seen.' Thus he consciously tells lies for his own sake, for the sake of another, or for the sake of a certain reward.

AN 10.176

False speech leads to rebirth in hell or rebirth in the animal kingdom.

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  • I think the OP wasn't asking about lying -- IMO they were asking about "mincing" speech, or refraining from disagreeable speech.
    – ChrisW ♦
    Apr 5, 2018 at 21:28
  • @Lowbrow. Political analysis are better suited for the chatrooms; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – user2424
    Sep 8, 2018 at 11:23
  • @Lanka How long do chats stay up?
    – Lowbrow
    Oct 5, 2019 at 4:19
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    @Lowbrow Well for example the one Lanka created still exists if you follow the link he posted, but it's "deleted" after a few days of inactivity which means that only a mod or "room owner" can reopen it, and it's not visible by default on the list of current chat rooms though you can show frozen/deleted rooms.
    – ChrisW ♦
    Oct 5, 2019 at 6:34
  • The main chat room is always open and never deleted (and people are welcome to use it for chat about almost any topic, including the weather and how you've been doing today, especially if you don't post stuff that people flag for moderator attention), but hardly anybody ever uses the chat room on this site (unlike the rooms of other SE sites),
    – ChrisW ♦
    Oct 5, 2019 at 6:37
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Recent Authoritative Answer - this is from the book At The Feet of The Master which was written by Alcyone (Krishnamurti when he was a boy, thus about 100 years ago), available in its entirety online: "Everything that you say should be true, kind and helpful, and be needed now." I think this summarizes the points others have made, is a direct quote, and is very easy to recall. Putting it to use is another matter : )

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  • This is just a summary of the teaching on the right speech. What I'm looking for is an advice on how to put it in use in a very specific setting - political correctness.
    – Rabbit
    Aug 29, 2014 at 18:10
  • If what you wish to say is true and helpful, think of how others will take it.
    – user759
    Aug 29, 2014 at 18:16
  • The problem is that even scientific truths are offending to some. By claiming that evolution is a correct scientific theory you already offend some group of people. So shall we hide/bend such truths not to offend others?
    – Rabbit
    Aug 29, 2014 at 18:25
  • Consider whether helpfulness outweighs offensiveness in the particular case. Even difficult truths can be conveyed kindly, if necessary.
    – user759
    Aug 29, 2014 at 18:39
  • So shall media report scientific truths in a watered-down way to make sure no one is offended? Thank you for your personal advice, I really appreciate it, but I am mostly interested whether some Buddhist teachers approached the problem of PC directly.
    – Rabbit
    Aug 29, 2014 at 18:54

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