There are many issues in the world today that need to be discussed openly but are stifled by political correctness.
The ubiquitous, conversation ending accusation of racism, sexism, what-ever-ism, for instance, can stop many conversations around race, violence, immigration, education and policy issues if there is any hint of non-political-correct component. The same is for anything under the heading of 'intersectional' issues. We simply cannot even have the conversation if one side refuses to talk and respond in good faith to opposing ideas.
I see this as an over-reach on the political left and I think it turns many rationalists off. One blogger noted that this has serious implications beyond internet battles.
For instance, Europe is in a situation where the left will hurl accusations of racism at anyone who questions the wisdom of large scale Muslim immigration. This refusal to have a serious conversation by the left is causing the rise of many far right organizations that have no such fear and are wining the argument with ideas that should be met with a sensible alternative.
I experienced this first hand a couple of months ago when I was looking into debunking the 'big list of crime stats' often posted by stormfront types. Nobody on the rationalist/atheist forum I was posting would even engage on the issue. They consistently fell into fallacies such as 'those guys are bad therefor their stats are wrong' or 'examining racist claims gives them a platform' or 'you are racist for looking into their claims'. They would do anything but actually help debunk the statistics. The result was that people reading the exchange came away with the idea that these racists might have something to their argument.
This type of head-in-the-sand approach across the left in western countries is giving (sometimes far) right political voices the only voice on many issues. I see this as a terrible failure of the left.
Is this a problem, and if so, what should be done?
