Political Correctness & the "Dumb" Gene

The concept of scientific evidence has morphed significantly over the years. For example, the report that "scientific evidence" shows that Jesus didn't really walk of water--it was probably, possibly, perhaps--ice, is an example of speculation labeled as "evidence." But, I don't want to talk about that report. I want to suggest that it is time for a scientific study to seek evidence of a link between those who are politically correct and the "dumb" gene.

My hypothesis is simple--only people who are really dumb will always stick to the politically correct path. They can't help it--they are just not capable of thinking. Put another way, I hypothesize that people who are dumb, when placed in positions of responsibility and authority, simply take the "pc" way on everything they must decide.

I offer this "evidence" to support my hypothesis. The technology folks have co-opted the term "evangelist" from Christianity. Any person who lives in the IT world will notice the fact that you can't read blogs or articles on the web without references to the term "evangelist" as a promoter of some process, product or technology. Adobe, for example, has a blatant site which is simply called "adobeEvangelists."

Soooo, when a major, major company established a position for a technology promoter, the decision makers entitled the position, "Innovation Evangelist." It makes sense. Everyone in IT knows what an evangelist is--a promoter. After all, the Greek word from which we get evangelist really means the one who brings good news.

But, someone in the company complained that they were offended by the use of the word evangelist which must be connected to Christianity. Here's where the dumb gene comes in. The person dealing with this complaint decided to drop the term, "evangelist." Yep, no reference to the fact that evangelist is a properly used term for promoter. No mention of the fact that use of the term is common place. Just a roll over to the complaint. No thinking involved. Hence, the evidence that the dumb gene is related to political correctness.

I certainly hope that no one in that company slips into other offensive language. No stating that someone was "converted" from their erroneous view on technology. No suggesting that the new IT platform is so good that folks in the field are "worshiping" the ground where their computers sit.

Now I realize that this "evidence", in the old days, would not be enough to convert my hypothesis into a theory. But these are not the old days. If Florida State University can publish the "walk on ice theory" as a theory, then right here before God and everybody (oops, I mean before nature and everybody) I wish to theorize that the tendency to adopt politically correct solutions is directly related to possession of the dumb gene.