Neil Postman Quotes

I like the free-speech stuff, the political-correctness stuff.

I believe that political correctness can be a form of linguistic fascism . . . The only way to react is to get up in the morning and start the day by saying four or five vastly politically incorrect things before breakfast!

Tom [Hentoff] - it started when he was the editor of the paper at Wesleyan and the - members of the staff. This was the first wave of political correctness. The editors of the staff members came and said he must - he must, from now on, stop using 'freshmen' and - in-as part of the policy of the paper. It had to be 'freshperson.' Therefore, you don't - you're not discriminating against males or females. They were very fervent about that, and he was equally fervent about not politicizing language. So until he left, 'freshmen' stayed.

Political correctness is bad.

Whether it's people walking off 'The View' when Bill O'Reilly makes a statement about radical Islam or Juan Williams being fired for expressing his opinion, over-reaching political correctness is chipping away at the fundamental American freedoms of speech and expression.

If it were not for the fact that editors have become so timorous in these politically correct times, I would probably have a greater readership than I have.

Free speech is carelessly tossed to one side in order to silence views and people that liberals label as intolerant.

Several times I drew a critical cartoon and then, at the last moment, stopped myself from putting it out in print. I thought it would be misunderstood, be a politically incorrect thing to do.

I just think political correctness is a limitation on our First Amendment freedoms.

I realized very quickly that the main thing that the left was not in favor of was free speech - that there was an intolerance about different ideas and opinions.

Phil Robertson and his family are great citizens of the State of Louisiana. The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with. I don’t agree with quite a bit of stuff I read in magazine interviews or see on TV. In fact, come to think of it, I find a good bit of it offensive. But I also acknowledge that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views. In fact, I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment. It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended.

It's kinda ridiculous what you can't say nowadays. You really can't say anything you believe! I think it's fricking ridiculous how sensitive everyone is to everything, how much things are frowned upon. How much stuff will cost you nowadays. I think it's fricking ridiculous that we can't - there's certain topics that you can't really say how you feel about.

Popular culture, in all its crudeness, is the output of liberals. It is liberalism that for decades has rejected any protest as 'censorship' or 'McCarthyism.'

In a land of freedom we are held hostage by the tyranny of political correctness.

I have always defined political correctness as an elevation of sensitivity over truth.

I think political correctness really does help us when it serves us but it doesn't help us when it silences us.

Open discussion of many major public questions has for some time now been taboo. We can't open our mouths without being denounced as racists, misogynists, supremacists, imperialists or fascists. As for the media, they stand ready to trash anyone so designated.

Other top-level politicians do not express their global warming doubts because a whip of political correctness strangles their voice.

Well, the problem is the freedom that the sport gives you without getting to politics. Unfortunately, you cannot now separate it because people cannot be truthful; they have to be politically correct. There's no more sincerity. What we had before was freedom of speech and freedom of expression without judgement. That's why I don't get into politics.

The Media: bold sex and violence, timid politics and morals.

Political correctness is neither political nor is it correct. It amounts to social censorship, and the sooner we spit it out, the better.

There is a point where political correctness becomes an acid that erodes freedom.

As you can imagine, there were people who were like, "Why are you being the PC cop?" or, "This is Orwellian to tell people to stop using the word 'illegal' to refer to people." Well, I just want people to think it through.

Another plague upon the land, as devastating as the locusts God loosed on the Egyptians, is 'Political Correctness.'

When Donald Trump does his talking, he - he doesn't tiptoe around the thousand new rules of political correctness.